Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
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jimwu
Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭
Hi All ! I would like to get your help here with my new house wiring for the solar and wind turbine system , I am noob here in this type of power system though I got my electrical back ground , cos this is complete new for me , so hope to get help from you .
I want to know is what is the size of wire use for the whole house , the battery is located around 50 feet away from the store to house , the solar is on top of the store take about 15 feet , wind turbine is about 30 to 45 feet away from battery , I plan to put four to six panel , power is not confirm yet , cos still not have it yet , the wind turbine is 12/24 2000w this one also not have it yet , the charge controller is HVA 440 amp 10,000 watt charge controller 12/24/48 volt 4 wind turbine generator this is what I got now , and I got 6 pcs of 2v 400a battery , the battery is from electric folklift car and is used .
And I need to know what kind or which type of others equipment that I need to buy , please give me more info on it , tks .
I want to use the led bulb 230v ac start from 5 to 10 watts , and ceiling fan is also 230v ac , and destop pc 550w .
I am going for on grid system , cos we have aircond , ice board , micro wave oven and washing machine , I don think the whole system can supply enough power for all of them .
Sorry forget to tel you I am from Malaysia , so our weather here is hot and rarely rain from jan to sept , so sunlight is not a problem for us , only wind maybe got some problem here , cos I still don have clue yet .
Hope you know what I mean and sorry for my bad English .
cheers .
I want to know is what is the size of wire use for the whole house , the battery is located around 50 feet away from the store to house , the solar is on top of the store take about 15 feet , wind turbine is about 30 to 45 feet away from battery , I plan to put four to six panel , power is not confirm yet , cos still not have it yet , the wind turbine is 12/24 2000w this one also not have it yet , the charge controller is HVA 440 amp 10,000 watt charge controller 12/24/48 volt 4 wind turbine generator this is what I got now , and I got 6 pcs of 2v 400a battery , the battery is from electric folklift car and is used .
And I need to know what kind or which type of others equipment that I need to buy , please give me more info on it , tks .
I want to use the led bulb 230v ac start from 5 to 10 watts , and ceiling fan is also 230v ac , and destop pc 550w .
I am going for on grid system , cos we have aircond , ice board , micro wave oven and washing machine , I don think the whole system can supply enough power for all of them .
Sorry forget to tel you I am from Malaysia , so our weather here is hot and rarely rain from jan to sept , so sunlight is not a problem for us , only wind maybe got some problem here , cos I still don have clue yet .
Hope you know what I mean and sorry for my bad English .
cheers .
Comments
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Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Welcome to the forum Jim.
In Malaysia you may well be able to use wind turbines. Most places can't because there simply isn't enough wind to make them viable. You will need to get them "in clear air"; they don't like turbulence caused by nearby objects redirecting the airflow. This usually means tall, expensive towers with guy wires.
A battery is used chiefly in off-grid systems or grid-tie with back-up power ability. I'll hazard a guess the utility power is not very reliable there and you want to keep the power up when the grid goes down.
Now, will your utility allow grid-tie? That is a question you must have an answer too as it affects system design. If they don't, then your options change. Let's look at what you could have:
Grid-tie only system; PV and/or turbines drive inverter directly, which feeds power @ 230 VAC 50 Hz to your standard household wiring. Any that does not get used by your loads is sold back to the utility. This must have all proper permits and agreement with the power company.
Grid-tie with battery back-up; PV and/or turbines charge battery bank to full capacity. Extra power output is converted to 230 VAC 50 Hz by hybrid type inverter and supplies loads and optionally sells unused power to the utility. Again connection legalities must be met. Grid can also charge batteries if needed.
Grid interactive back-up power; PV and/or turbines keep battery bank charged. Utility may also be used for this. No extra power is fed to grid, all loads powered by grid until there is an outage then the inverter takes over to supply critical loads from battery power.
You say you have six 2 Volt forklift cells. That makes 12 Volts and 12 Volts is not desirable for any household system; the current demands will be too high. The power needs of the items you mention are very large and would normally be met by a 48 Volt system. You might be able to keep your lights on in an outage, but don't expect to be running air conditioning. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
That HVA 440 wind (and solar) charge controller is usually not a great deal. It appears (when we discussed it a few years ago on the forum) to be capable of 440 Amps of dump load (wiring inside the unit is way to small of copper diameter).
Just make sure that you do not put too large of dump loads on the controller before you let it run unattended. Look at the switches/wire used inside the unit and make sure that they will support the current you need.
In any case--Make sure you get the batteries charging at least (and get a good glass hydrometer so you can measure/log specific gravity of each cell)... Letting those batteries sit uncharged for weeks to months can ruin them pretty quickly.
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi All ! Tks for the reply and info , and I need to correct my battery info , my battery is 2v400a per pc , so 6 pc's is 2400a in series for 12v .
And what I need to use the solar and wind turbine system is just for my led bulb's x 9 pc's , 32" lcd tv x 1 , dvd player x 1 , destop computer x 1 , stand fan x 1 , ceiling fan x 1 .
Led bulb is just for nite use only for about 6 hours , tv and dvd player use for about 12 hours my mom need it no choice , destop computer use for about 6-8 hours , stand fan use for about 6-8 hours , ceiling fan use for about 12 hours .
All of them are using ac 230v ac power , so I like to spread them for two circuit , all the item I mention above is use the solar n turbine power , other than that I use the power company supply .
So I like to know which type of solar panel and wind turbine can meet my use ??? also the inverter too .
Regarding the mppt and etc I am also not understand them too , cos there is too many brand and model in the market , like MPPT etc ....
For the grid tie system I am not sure want to use or not , I heaven decide yet , and one more thing is how big is the wire use for my mentioned item ??? mean the size of the wire , do I need to use the awg wire or just the normal 1.5/2.5 mm cable ??? tks -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi bill can you give me the link for this threat ???
I also want to see it , what you all discuss on this product , tksThat HVA 440 wind (and solar) charge controller is usually not a great deal. It appears (when we discussed it a few years ago on the forum) to be capable of 440 Amps of dump load (wiring inside the unit is way to small of copper diameter).
Just make sure that you do not put too large of dump loads on the controller before you let it run unattended. Look at the switches/wire used inside the unit and make sure that they will support the current you need.
In any case--Make sure you get the batteries charging at least (and get a good glass hydrometer so you can measure/log specific gravity of each cell)... Letting those batteries sit uncharged for weeks to months can ruin them pretty quickly.
-Bill -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi Sir ! Can I use the 24v system ???Cariboocoot wrote: »Welcome to the forum Jim.
In Malaysia you may well be able to use wind turbines. Most places can't because there simply isn't enough wind to make them viable. You will need to get them "in clear air"; they don't like turbulence caused by nearby objects redirecting the airflow. This usually means tall, expensive towers with guy wires.
A battery is used chiefly in off-grid systems or grid-tie with back-up power ability. I'll hazard a guess the utility power is not very reliable there and you want to keep the power up when the grid goes down.
Now, will your utility allow grid-tie? That is a question you must have an answer too as it affects system design. If they don't, then your options change. Let's look at what you could have:
Grid-tie only system; PV and/or turbines drive inverter directly, which feeds power @ 230 VAC 50 Hz to your standard household wiring. Any that does not get used by your loads is sold back to the utility. This must have all proper permits and agreement with the power company.
Grid-tie with battery back-up; PV and/or turbines charge battery bank to full capacity. Extra power output is converted to 230 VAC 50 Hz by hybrid type inverter and supplies loads and optionally sells unused power to the utility. Again connection legalities must be met. Grid can also charge batteries if needed.
Grid interactive back-up power; PV and/or turbines keep battery bank charged. Utility may also be used for this. No extra power is fed to grid, all loads powered by grid until there is an outage then the inverter takes over to supply critical loads from battery power.
You say you have six 2 Volt forklift cells. That makes 12 Volts and 12 Volts is not desirable for any household system; the current demands will be too high. The power needs of the items you mention are very large and would normally be met by a 48 Volt system. You might be able to keep your lights on in an outage, but don't expect to be running air conditioning. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Sorry I need to know how big is the charge controller to charge my battery ???
And which type is better to have and brand and etc ....
Sorry for stupid question
-
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine systemHi All ! Tks for the reply and info , and I need to correct my battery info , my battery is 2v400a per pc , so 6 pc's is 2400a in series for 12v .
Nope. When you put batteries in series only the Voltage adds up. Six 2 Volt 400 Amp hour cells in series makes 12 Volts 400 Amp hours, not 12 Volts 2400 Amp hours.And what I need to use the solar and wind turbine system is just for my led bulb's x 9 pc's , 32" lcd tv x 1 , dvd player x 1 , destop computer x 1 , stand fan x 1 , ceiling fan x 1 .
Led bulb is just for nite use only for about 6 hours , tv and dvd player use for about 12 hours my mom need it no choice , destop computer use for about 6-8 hours , stand fan use for about 6-8 hours , ceiling fan use for about 12 hours .
All of them are using ac 230v ac power , so I like to spread them for two circuit , all the item I mention above is use the solar n turbine power , other than that I use the power company supply .
So I like to know which type of solar panel and wind turbine can meet my use ??? also the inverter too .
Regarding the mppt and etc I am also not understand them too , cos there is too many brand and model in the market , like MPPT etc ....
For the grid tie system I am not sure want to use or not , I heaven decide yet , and one more thing is how big is the wire use for my mentioned item ??? mean the size of the wire , do I need to use the awg wire or just the normal 1.5/2.5 mm cable ??? tks
What you are looking to power sounds like a little but adds up to a lot.
Battery-based systems are dependent on the batteries. In this case 12 Volts & 400 Amp hours. At 50% Depth Of Discharge (the most you usually want to go) that's approximately 2kW hours AC.
Now see how much loads can add up to:
8 hours of computer @ 150 Watts = 1200 Watt hours (note desktops consume much more than laptops and their consumption is not consistent; it varies with what operation they are performing at the moment).
32" LCD TV can use over 100 Watts (changes depending on video settings) so in 12 hours it will consume another 1200 Watt hours.
You've just exceeded your battery capacity running two things for the allotted time span.
A fan of that type may draw 40 Watts (based on my own measuring of similar unit). A ceiling fan would be similar. These will vary with the model and what speed they are run at. There again when you factor in the time you run out of power quickly: 80 Watts * 12 hours = 960 Watt hours or nearly half the battery capacity just from running fans half a day.
The solar panels and/or wind turbine may supply some power 'directly' but you shouldn't count on it as it requires aligning their time of output with your time of use. That is what batteries are for: store up energy when it is produced to make it available when it is needed. Unfortunately it's not very efficient; you can lose up to 50% of the generating capacity end-to-end.
Wind turbines are also notoriously over-rated and unreliable. If you get a good one and mount it properly (not in turbulent air) it will cost a small fortune; the necessary tower alone often exceed the cost of the turbine. Usually you are better off with more PV which is easily installed and dependably consistent in output. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine systemSorry I need to know how big is the charge controller to charge my battery ???
And which type is better to have and brand and etc ....
Sorry for stupid question
Based on your 400 Amp hours @ 12 Volts you need a charge controller that can handle at least 40 Amps. That would be the 'target' for peak charge current under most conditions (this can vary with the site). To provide that power you'd need approximately 623 Watts of PV on an MPPT controller or 700 Watts with a PWM type controller.
As I mentioned before the battery capacity would be good for up to 2kW hours. It's something, but not as much as you'd hoped for.
Sorry for the disappointing information. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Click on this Google Search for discussions on our forum:
https://www.google.com/search?q=coleman+440+site%3Aforum.solar-electric.com
Or search "coleman 440 site:forum.solar-electric.com" in Google.
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi All ! Thanks again for the detail info .
So first I give the wrong mention for my battery , say in series actually is parallel , to get more amp
And I need to know regarding the wind turbine system , vertical and horizontal which one is good and efficient ???
Cos I found that my site of wind is not in one direction all the time , and also I got not enough space for the horizontal and I don want to go high up like putting a tower , is not allowed here in my new house site , cos got plane pass by most of the time .
And any discussion on how to made vertical wind turbine ???
Last thing is what is your all prefer , go for 24v or 48v system ???
Tks . -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
The vertical turbine will not work any better with a low tower than a horizontal turbine.Hi All ! Thanks again for the detail info .
So first I give the wrong mention for my battery , say in series actually is parallel , to get more amp
And I need to know regarding the wind turbine system , vertical and horizontal which one is good and efficient ???
Cos I found that my site of wind is not in one direction all the time , and also I got not enough space for the horizontal and I don want to go high up like putting a tower , is not allowed here in my new house site , cos got plane pass by most of the time .
And any discussion on how to made vertical wind turbine ???
Last thing is what is your all prefer , go for 24v or 48v system ???
Tks .
The enemy of power production is not changing wind direction, it is turbulence. Vertical does no better (and maybe worse) with turbulent air than horizontal does.
Vertical is visually impressive and gets attention, making it effective civic or corporate art, but it does not work very well. It requires some very heavy duty bearings to keep it upright in strong winds. You cannot furl a vertical turbine by changing its direction relative to the wind, so other ways of controlling overspeed need to be incorporated.
If you cannot build a high tower, you probably will not benefit from small wind. The air near the ground, and especially on top of a house, is very turbulent. Do not mount any turbine to the structural framework of your house. The vibration will drive you crazy.
Read up more on small wind and learn, then ask more questions if you still think it might be practical for you.SMA SB 3000, old BP panels. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi ! Tks for the usefull and detail info for my question , thank you very much .
And I am very clear with your answer and I also have think it before with the vertical wind system , so what is your suggest mean how far is the best for the horizontal wind system from my house and trees ???
Cos the good news is we don have much house near by , the bad news is I don have wide area land , I got only 15 feet from my house to my fence or brick wall , mean on every side of my house .
Is it bad idea for wind turbine system ??? -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Conventional wisdom from those who have actually tried it or have analyzed installed systems is:Hi ! Tks for the usefull and detail info for my question , thank you very much .
And I am very clear with your answer and I also have think it before with the vertical wind system , so what is your suggest mean how far is the best for the horizontal wind system from my house and trees ???
Cos the good news is we don have much house near by , the bad news is I don have wide area land , I got only 15 feet from my house to my fence or brick wall , mean on every side of my house .
Is it bad idea for wind turbine system ???
Minimum of 60 feet above the ground and/or any buildings within about 1000 feet.
Minimum of 500 feet upwind from and 1000 feet downwind of buildings, trees, or other turbulence generators.
So, in simple terms, yes wind is a very bad idea for you unless you and your neighbors are willing to have a very tall tower.SMA SB 3000, old BP panels. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi ! Thanks again for your info , yes I can have the 60 feet tower with navigation on top , but for your info is min 500 feet clearance is a bit hard for one side , others are all ok .
Let's say my east side got house and the other three side without house just some small three's , is it ok for the wind turbine system ???Conventional wisdom from those who have actually tried it or have analyzed installed systems is:
Minimum of 60 feet above the ground and/or any buildings within about 1000 feet.
Minimum of 500 feet upwind from and 1000 feet downwind of buildings, trees, or other turbulence generators.
So, in simple terms, yes wind is a very bad idea for you unless you and your neighbors are willing to have a very tall tower. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
It all depends on the actual wind strength profile at that point. Do you have average and peak wind velocity information for a year or more? It might be OK.Hi ! Thanks again for your info , yes I can have the 60 feet tower with navigation on top , but for your info is min 500 feet clearance is a bit hard for one side , others are all ok .
Let's say my east side got house and the other three side without house just some small three's , is it ok for the wind turbine system ???SMA SB 3000, old BP panels. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Either put a real anemometer on a tower where the blades will sweep for a year...
Or, go fly a kite in your typical windy weather and see where it flies without turbulence. That is the minimum altitude where you want the wind turbine to fly.
No matter what anyone says on their literature--No turbine will generate a lot of power in turbulent airflow.
I hate to keep bringing this up--But small wind turbines rarely (if ever) come even close to their "promised" performance numbers in real life...
Small windpower a scam ? Survey says SO
You need a relatively large turbine on a tall tower in a very windy location to make it worth while... And few (if any) commercial small wind turbines are worth the cost/effort.
And here is a set of pictures about why I would not want a large(r) turbine mounted near my home:Bob McGovern wrote: »When we first bought this land, my friend came out & looked around, said "Notice there isn't anything taller than six inches as far as the eye can see? There's a reason for that."
The chief reason is wind. We live in one of best inland wind corridors on earth -- 350 commercial turbines within an hour's drive, & Phil Anschutz is about to drop another 1000 near Rawlins. We average 14.5 mph year round; about 11 mph in summer and 16 mph in winter.
The Bergey XL1 normally lives on a 65' tilt-up tower, tho I took out one and a half sections this winter as an experiment. Sustained Chinook winds of 60 mph are common; I've clocked winds of 119 and 106 mph on this property. Now, those numbers really ought to be de-rated by 20% since we are 7500' above sea level.
Bergey. Whew -- where to start. First, it's a very good company with good people trying their best in the face of difficult engineering compromises and pricing pressures. When I bought it nearly five years ago, the XL1 was the best of a rotten bunch. I knew this going in. But I bought into the company more than the product as such -- and they have never disappointed, even though warranty repairs long ago exceeded the original purchase price.
In five years, the turbine has suffered (IIRC) thirteen major failures. These include five melted stators, three dead rectifiers, zorched slip rings, two cases of blade loss (thought we might have another this morning!), one guy wire failure/tower collapse, and one complete dismount when the (poor Chinese steel) yaw shaft fatigued through. A few pics for your amusement:
A dry sense of humor is useful among Bergey owners.;)
As for output: That's not easy to measure exactly, since we are off grid and our batts seldom dip below 20% DOD. Both PV and wind spend much of their time kicking their heels. Unfair test of output potential. Based on observations when batts are thirsty, I figure 7 kWh/day in winter and 4 in summer. That's well below Bergey's projections, but I sorta counted on that in the planning. Our PV on trackers really picks up the slack in the summer.
BTW, the Bergey did not come with a dump load, and the controller's provisions for same are garbage. So most of the melted stators came from the turbine trying to alternator-brake in high winds. Since I changed the PV controller to an MX-60 with relay-triggered dump load, the wind turbine's coils are much happier. Now if only we could keep the blades attached....
There is some more discussion in the above thread about what works and what does not...
Pictures forum? (above pictures/discussion in this thread)
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Ah .... I don have it where can I find it ???
It all depends on the actual wind strength profile at that point. Do you have average and peak wind velocity information for a year or more? It might be OK. -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Wow that scare me to hell mate
what happen to that wind turbine pole ????
what is the size of that pipe ???
I am thinking of using 2" class b pipe and make it in triangle style , hope is good and stable enough , and I think our wind here is not more than 50kmph , maybe not enough wind to push the wind turbine , that's what I concern .
maybe I need to get my speedo meter test the wind speed first , hope got enough wind to drive my turbine , and what is the exactly wind speed for most of the wind turbine system , and is it more blade is better ???Either put a real anemometer on a tower where the blades will sweep for a year...
Or, go fly a kite in your typical windy weather and see where it flies without turbulence. That is the minimum altitude where you want the wind turbine to fly.
No matter what anyone says on their literature--No turbine will generate a lot of power in turbulent airflow.
I hate to keep bringing this up--But small wind turbines rarely (if ever) come even close to their "promised" performance numbers in real life...
Small windpower a scam ? Survey says SO
You need a relatively large turbine on a tall tower in a very windy location to make it worth while... And few (if any) commercial small wind turbines are worth the cost/effort.
And here is a set of pictures about why I would not want a large(r) turbine mounted near my home:
There is some more discussion in the above thread about what works and what does not...
Pictures forum? (above pictures/discussion in this thread)
-Bill -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
I hope to scare the hell out of you. Engineers usually design the towers (and the base/concrete foundation) to meet the design loads.Wow that scare me to hell mate
what happen to that wind turbine pole ????
what is the size of that pipe ???
I am thinking of using 2" class b pipe and make it in triangle style , hope is good and stable enough , and I think our wind here is not more than 50kmph , maybe not enough wind to push the wind turbine , that's what I concern .
maybe I need to get my speedo meter test the wind speed first , hope got enough wind to drive my turbine , and what is the exactly wind speed for most of the wind turbine system , and is it more blade is better ???
Even the engineers screw up once in a while (probably more than once in a while--But people tend to bury their mistakes);
Large Windmill collapse in NH
Failing towers, yaw bearings dropping turbines, flying blades, etc. are scary. I would never install a turbine 30-60 feet above my home unless it was so small, it would not go through my roof if it fell.
Just because you can install a turbine in a San Francisco neighborhood:
New wind 1200watts project (scroll down for video)
Does not mean it will work (or you will like the noise).
Or that such a "green home" and turbine installation is really green at all. Here is the information on the San Francisco green home + wind turbine plus a little "help" from the neighbor. Not enough wind energy to make a dent in your power bill? Just connect your home to the guy's electric panel next door and let him pay for your power.
Mechanical stuff can and will fail. With wind, you need to assume it will fail (blades break off in high winds, nacells fall from towers, towers collapse in high winds/poor design/poor construction/etc.).
If you are putting a 30 lb turbine on a 20 foot pole--That is a failure that you may be able to live with. Put a 200-300 lb turbine on a 60-90 foot tall tower with 500-700 lb side loads--I would not want my home/kids directly under that installation.
One last thing to think about--If you live in an area with lots of lightning--Would you want to put up a lighting rod with electrical lines that lead directly into your home?
Sorry for ranting--I am just not a fan of small wind. If you have the time, money, and location to play and learn--Great--Go for it. However, if you are doing this on a small piece of land (many cities in the US will require that the land be large enough to "contain" a tower collapse (no 90' tower 10' from the properly line installs)--This is not going to save you money and any tower large enough to efficiently (and safely) capture the wind is going to be too big for your lot/home (it sounds like).
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
Hi BB ! Thanks for the info again , I think I am not going for it due to my house space really small , I cant afford to have any incident or accident for those kind of failure to happen for my lovely family , so I call off .
what I am going to do is just put the solar panel as much as I can , at least its save then the wind turbine system , I don have to worry about when its fail and when its breaking the blade fly over my head .
Thanks again mate .I hope to scare the hell out of you. Engineers usually design the towers (and the base/concrete foundation) to meet the design loads.
Even the engineers screw up once in a while (probably more than once in a while--But people tend to bury their mistakes);
Large Windmill collapse in NH
Failing towers, yaw bearings dropping turbines, flying blades, etc. are scary. I would never install a turbine 30-60 feet above my home unless it was so small, it would not go through my roof if it fell.
Just because you can install a turbine in a San Francisco neighborhood:
New wind 1200watts project (scroll down for video)
Does not mean it will work (or you will like the noise).
Or that such a "green home" and turbine installation is really green at all. Here is the information on the San Francisco green home + wind turbine plus a little "help" from the neighbor. Not enough wind energy to make a dent in your power bill? Just connect your home to the guy's electric panel next door and let him pay for your power.
Mechanical stuff can and will fail. With wind, you need to assume it will fail (blades break off in high winds, nacells fall from towers, towers collapse in high winds/poor design/poor construction/etc.).
If you are putting a 30 lb turbine on a 20 foot pole--That is a failure that you may be able to live with. Put a 200-300 lb turbine on a 60-90 foot tall tower with 500-700 lb side loads--I would not want my home/kids directly under that installation.
One last thing to think about--If you live in an area with lots of lightning--Would you want to put up a lighting rod with electrical lines that lead directly into your home?
Sorry for ranting--I am just not a fan of small wind. If you have the time, money, and location to play and learn--Great--Go for it. However, if you are doing this on a small piece of land (many cities in the US will require that the land be large enough to "contain" a tower collapse (no 90' tower 10' from the properly line installs)--This is not going to save you money and any tower large enough to efficiently (and safely) capture the wind is going to be too big for your lot/home (it sounds like).
-Bill -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
And conservation Jim... Picking efficient appliances, turning stuff off when not needed, using laptop computer vs a desktop, etc. can all save you significant amounts of money (if you have A/C and/or electric heating--The new Mini-Split AC & Heat Pump systems are really interesting--especially if you have an old/limping along A/C system).
Grid Tied solar (solar panels + GT Inverter) can sometimes save you money--but that depends on your utility billing plans and even if your utility allows GT connected solar power.
Any other type of solar system (typically with large battery banks, panels, charge controllers, AC inverters, etc.) will never save you money. Where the Off Grid and Hybrid systems can help is if you have unreliable electric power (storms, poor infrastructure, etc.) and give you electric power when there is no utility power (sometimes remote locations can go weeks before lines are completely repaired).
Before you buy any equipment--Do your research and planning first. You will save a lot of money and frustration.
A good place to start is with a Kill-a-Watt type meter. Great for the smaller plug-in appliances and learning the basics about voltage, current, watts, Watt*Hours, etc.
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: Home wiring for solar and wind turbine system
I should also add that when working with electricity and significant amounts of power, anything can be dangerous if done wrong:
http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?4524-Panel-Fire-Question
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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