Looking For Suggestions On A Wind Turbine

JimNAZ

Hello,

We are entertaining the idea of adding a wind turbine to our solar setup and are looking for suggestions. We currently have (20) 6v batteries wired for a 24v system. We have a Midnite Classic 250 controller, Conext inverter/charger and over 2000 watts of panels. We would rather just add mor panels but the controller is maxed out so adding the cost of another one plus panels takes us out of our budget. Which is why we are looking at turbines. We live in Northern Arizona and get well over 250 days a year that are windy.
We spoke to a sales rep for Northern AZ Wind and Solar. He told us anything over 1000 watts gets expensive due to all the equipment needed. They only sell the Primus brand and I think that's only about 400 watts. 
Any suggestions or comments on the Primus brand or Northern AZ Wind and Solar? We recently purchased some solar panels from them this summer but unfortunately their prices have gone up since then.

Thanks in advance
Jim

Photowhit

With plentiful and regular sun I would suspect wind is not a normal thought in Arizona. Are there wind farms there? I usually takes a large tower/expense to get 20-50 feet above the tree line, but perhaps you are in a barren area of the state? Also generally you will want to take them down once a year or so for maintenance.

Admittedly we don't have a lot of wind genny people here. I know it can be very effective where there is abundant wind,  

JimNAZ

Thank you for your feedback. As I stated in my post, getting more panels is not in our budget at this time and we have Wind over 250 days a year here up in northern AZ.

BB.

Are there any wind installations near your place? Have you talked with them about how much energy they get per day/per month? What are their maintenance?

In general, the tower is not cheap (tower, base/concrete, cables, wind controller, load bank, etc. usually cost 2-3x the cost of the turbine itself), and the ability to service the turbine once a year (lubrication, check bolts, repaint, etc.) can be an issue in itself. There are folks that use tilting tower/pipe to fly the turbine--Easier/cheaper than a bucket truck or crane.

Here are some links for reading about wind--See if they give you any ideas:

• Wind Power Links
• www.otherpower.com (good forum for DIY Wind Power)
• Hugh Piggott - Scoraig Wind Electric site for tons of info (from mike90045)
• Scoraig Wind "Recipe Book" for DYI Turbines (from Chris Olson... From his 4/11/2013 post)
• www.greenpowertalk.org (added from "russ"--Like here but more wind/less solar)
• Small windpower a scam ? Survey says SO
• Truth About Skystream & SWWP
• Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I am not a fan of small wind (or large wind, but that is another matter). Putting mechanical/electrical device 60 feet in the air, expose to sun/wind/rain/snow/ice/storms/etc.

For most people, they do not really live in a windy enough location to make a turbine cost effective (it has to be miserably windy location to run a turbine anywhere near its rated output). And if you have lightning in the area, you are sticking a huge lightning rod up next to your home. And turbines can be quite noisy (if mounted near your home). The turbine needs to be far enough from the home so that if the turbine falls or if the tower/blades fail, they do not hurt anyone in the home/yard.

If you can decide on a tower/mounting system that is cost effective (concrete foundation, guy wires, tilting tower) and can do the maintenance. Plus you like to work on your equipment--It may be for you.

In fact, Wind Turbines seem to be the one DIY project where people who build their own turbine can make better products than you can buy.

JIm, I am interested in your cost issues... Unless you are going to build your own turbine and have access to a cheap/used tower, solar panels have been at their cheapest point ever--Do you see x,xxx watts of wind cheaper than x,xxx watts of solar (panels+charge controller)?

-Bill

mike95490

And failure modes and precautions.  When it's really windy, and the batteries fill up - what-ya gonna do with all that power?  Can't let the turbine freewheel in a storm.  Ya need brakes, and dump loads, or you have boiling batteries and free-flying blades

JimNAZ

We live off grid and many other residents here have small (400+watts) wind turbines with no problems. We also live on a bluff so it would not be much high than 30'. I can get a 400 watt wind turbine for $800ish and do a diy mounting setup and a diy dump load pretty cheap. 1000 watts of panels and another controller will be over $1500. I appreciate your comments but they are coming across as negative for Wind. I have already stated twice that we get a lot of wind here. A lot of times it is during the night. The residents here feel they get 15%-20% of their power from the turbine. Over the course of a year that is pretty good especially if you just need a little extra to keep the batteries full. My original post/questions were thoughts on the Primus turbine and NAZWS. Again, thank you for your feedback.

BB.

I am sorry--Yes, I am not a fan of wind power. I see solar (in many areas) as being much more predictable and less maintenance.

However, given that you have installations that are successful in your area--I am not one to knock a good thing. And, I also provided links to places where you can get more information on wind power, and even look into building your own.

Have your friends logged their nightly/monthly energy supplied by the turbine? It would be very nice to post some actual field results here.

I am not an employee of NAWS, just a volunteer here moderating and, hopefully, giving useful answers (when I have them). And, except for Rick Forbes and David Lauzon from NAWS, all the rest of the posters here are volunteering their time and knowledge here too.

NAWS (Northern Arizona Wind & Sun) is our forum host here (they started the forum, do software support, and keep the lights on here). Otherwise, they pretty much leave the forum open to all posters for the exchange of information (posters do not have to be a "NAWS Customer" to use the forum).

I checked the forum, and did not find any information regarding Primus installations/reviews here (other than one which had difficulties getting going, but apparently was fine after some ice melted).

http://forum.solar-electric.com/discussion/351628/new-primus-air-30-spinning-slowly

-Bill

Example of the old Skystream turbine (when it was running well, it was quite a good performer):

Skystream 3.7 Wind Turbine near Lake Erie

https://web.archive.org/web/20100408025537/http://blog.keepturning.com/

	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC	Total
2007	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	175	225	0*	400
2008	98*	292	308	246	228	153	92	84	97	164	246	472	2,480
2009	265	348	244	371	182	86	90	84	250	100	194	131*	2,345
2010	101	130

* December, 2007 - Skystream shut down from software problem with cold and would not restart.

* January, 2008 - Skystream down until the 27th. Produce 98kWh in the 5 days remaining in the month.

* December, 2009 - Skystream shut down several times and would not restart on it's own, production very low for wind speeds.

* January, 2010 - Production very low for wind speeds.

* February, 2010 - Production very low for wind speeds.

Photowhit

JimNAZ said:

1000 watts of panels and another controller will be over $1500.

I know you are set on wind and wind sounds like a good option! I did want to make a quick comment though on pricing. Many of the inexpensive panels today are 72 cell panels, if your array is close to your battery bank, you can use a less expensive PWM charge controller with 72 cell panels. I could have items shipped into Missouri 1000+ watts of panels and a PWM charge controller for less than $1000. I took a quick look at Northern Arizona Wind and Sun and they don't appear to have any currently in their inventory that are relatively inexpensive, but 3 of these would cost $951 and represent 1020 watts;

https://www.solar-electric.com/solarworld-sunmodule-xl-340w-mono-panel.html

And would work with this charge controller at $110

https://www.solar-electric.com/c40.html

For a $1061 package.

I have several Midnite classic's and love them, but there is no sin in using PWM charge controller, and it should work fine in addition to your Classic. There may be about a 10% advantage for MPPT charge controllers, so this is not a bad cost evaluated choice.

Estragon

FWIW, Midnite solar supposedly has a 200w turbine & controller package coming out this fall.