If anyone is interested in wind energy......

[LeeB]

I've got on old waterwell windmill and have always wondered about putting an alternator on it. Whatchall think?

[stonebroke]

richmondville power and light charges 5.7 cents a kilowatt hour ,to bad I am on national grid.

Stonebroke

[Fla._Deadheader]

 They are pretty much made for low wind. Usually they fold the tail around 15 MPH. That's where wind just starts getting powerful.

[tsodak]

Plus most of the alternators are made for high speed rotations, so you have to gear them up. That costs efficiency.  The tower may be useable for an axial flux machine though. I need to get my hands on some used forklift batteries now for power storage. Then the axial flux makes sense for me. Until then it doesnt. I have to go direct grid connect.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 "Axial Flux"   'Esplain, por favor

[tsodak]

If you dig into it, one of the most popular routes to build one at home is to build a design that basically rotates two rings of high powered magnets radially around a stationary stator holding the copper coils. The original way was to use an old brake drum assembly from a truck. The  guys who are experimenting with these homebuilts have moved on to this design. These are generally 12-24-or48 volt machines. But,  you can build them, and repair them with the tools you have in your garage.

Then you just have to figure out how to make the power useable, storable, and of good quality that you can keep the wife happy when she flips the switch.

[SwampDonkey]

richmondville power and light charges 5.7 cents a kilowatt hour ,to bad I am on national grid.

Stonebroke

Yeah, some towns here have even lower rates than me because they generate their own power. One such town is Perth-Andover, they have a generator on the Aroostook river shared with Maine Public Service, but the dam is in NB.

[routestep]

I bought a 50 acre parcel in Prentiss ME, just under Stentson Mountain 18 years ago. Pretty much out of the way. Quiet. Three months ago I heard that a company call Evergreen has taken a twenty year lease on most of the mountain and is putting up 38 - 400 foot tall windmills. Horizontal axis types like up in Mars Hill.  Not really sure just how I feel about it.  They wanted to go online by summer of '08.  Hope they aren't too noisy. I already know I won't see any of the power.

[SwampDonkey]

View from the back yard.


I can here a wisp up on the woodlot, but it's tolerable. Doesn't seem to bother the moose.

[stonebroke]

SD

How do you like the view? Do you think they are objectionable?

Stonebroke

[SwampDonkey]

No they don't bother me. What is more unsightly are neighboring woodlots with hardwood stands on side hills like that being clearcut one after the other, even though I make a living spacing the regrowth afterward.  I don't like seeing stands of long lived tree species being scalped.