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Forum Index : Windmills : Newbie Creating a System
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Jaffasoft Senior Member  Joined: 03/11/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 102 |
I've absorbed so much information over the last few weeks watching YouTube videos on anything from hydrogen gas for cars to making solar panels and everything in between. I can't get these projects started quick enough all this green stuff is awesome. Though i find peacing the big picture together a bit daunting I'd like some input into what to buy to build a system. I'm in buying mode now! I started a thread about a EV Van conversion so all this is going to tie into that but going to do a hybrid wind solar on the ground the EV will come last and i also bought a second hand Ute for $600 bucks so that might be what converts yet. Anyway since this will be the wind turbine or windmill and i do have an old windmill stand to put the first turbine on. I've got a few things going on here, first I'm building a cabin that will be 100% green and transportable. It will be 12V and enough to run a basic power needs of, T.V, Laptop, three LED lights, kettle, fridge and self priming 12V water pump. This is where i will fiddle with a system and get it working on the ground and hope that will be the basis to also make use of it in the EV later one. Actually both will work in with each other. So far i have bought two F&P SmartDrive 42 pole unwired motors for $140 bucks delivered. A MPPT Tracker of 500 Watt 45 amp 60 Mtrs of nearly a centimeter thick copper cable (19 wires encapsulated) and some 6 meter of other cable that's about half that. Think i will buy one of these for the windmills. 10,000 watts controller. Won't get an inverter just yet will try for everything 12V first. Since the batteries will go to EV as well thinking of 200 amp hour Lithium Ion but they about 260 or something each. Will it effect it greatly to go for 160 amp hour? But maybe could get 4 to make the 12Volts to get started and add more on. What else is needed? I bought a 80 Watt soldering iron and 108 4"x4" solar cells, UV paint, tab wire, bus wire, diodes. Mainly concerned about getting the heart of the electrical board set up right first. |
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Tinker Guru  Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
A couple of suggestions: 1. you will be better off with a 24V or higher system. 2. Forget running an electric kettle, you need heaps of extra battery capacity for that. For a cabin it makes much more sense to do any cooking with gas. Klaus |
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wind-pirate Senior Member Joined: 01/02/2007 Location: CanadaPosts: 101 |
Hi Jaffasoft. Some of the Folks here have been playing with Windmills for a lot of years. You have to take it one step at a time. You will not know all the good and the bads for some time. start with a small mill. Do that buld first, You will learn a lot more from practial than just from Books. It will take a long time to learn all there is to know. We are all still Learning. But Don't give up... It will come... It just takes time. Ron  THE Pirate. stealing wind & solar energy is fun |
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| Jaffasoft Senior Member Joined: 03/11/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 102 |
That's precisely why I'm here to put what I'm doing out there to have my mistakes picked up on . Thanks for the encouragement. Didn't know a kettle was so electricity intensive even though i don't use one but thought someone might. Taken into consideration the 24V and or 48Volts thing and adjusted the buying to cater for any system Tinker (ing). Glad i asked first now cause i was so close to the purchase of 12V controller. The gas could be an addition later on to i guess and or not sure of any use making hydrogen gas on demand or even if it's legal. |
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| Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Anything that generates heat is power hungry when run from a battery bank via an inverter. That would include your 80W soldering iron BTW .
By gas I meant propane gas, making hydrogen gas in quantity is also *very* power hungry. If I were you I'd put a halt on buying gadgets and concentrate on building (buying?) the power generation parts. Get your windmill alternator to produce power & sort out the inevitable problems that are different at every site with these machines first. Once it performs up to your expectations - which might be some time down the road - then investigate how you might collect & utilise that power. You will have a much better idea of just how much 'free' electricity you are making. By then you'll also find the price of controllers, inverters, etc. has changed considerably. 
Have fun and good luck with your experiments. Klaus |
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energy man Newbie  Joined: 29/11/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 9 |
Hi Jaffasoft , Its good to see that im not the only one that gets excited on new projects and trying to slow down and that is what people are saying . Its all good fun and a big learning curve . Hang in there but , with enough of us throughing stuff at each other we might just learn more , Everyday is getting easyier and easyier . Have fun while doing fun projects. Catch ya latter . Cheers Duff . May the wind keep blown folks . |
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| Jaffasoft Senior Member Joined: 03/11/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 102 |
Exactly Duff and a reality check for me in how long it's going to take. I seemed to imagine doing all this stuff quite quick but I'm still waiting on all the parts to arrive. And it gunna take a day or two to get out to dads to just get a welder project going just to build the wind turbines. All this research ended up leading me to an e-bike so guess what's getting bought! That will be fun feel like a little kid again. The ebike can replace petrol until a EV car gets done. And i got onto a an excellent deal for a good quality kit and my nephews are board of there old bike so a trip to them collected four free bikes for the kit to go on. I should be on the road before Christmas for about $500 i could go for the Ferrari of E-bikes. Goes on and on. Go the green stuff!! Bring it on!!! I got solar hot water home made convection systems with old copper pipes and corrugated tin in progress and 44 gallon tanks for water, shower projects on the go. Taking on more then i can chew and chewing like crazy  . All the best! |
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| windlight Guru Joined: 03/03/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 331 |
Have a read here..http://www.rpc.com.au/off_the_grid_solar_system.html allan "I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - (Act II, Scene IV). |
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