xmas

Love it, that's great. Even though the turbines are a little unsightly, I love the concept of using wind and sun to generate power.

we eventually want add 10 more solar panels and extra battery capacity so can go totally off grid and just export any eccess power back into grid if cant use it ourselves,i have a smartdrive washing machine motor am converting to a generator and will eventually hook that into the system as well,to give us ablity to generate constant half kilo watt even when no sun and at night etc,this will help keep batterys charged evan when not generating from solar for some reason,if had known bout salt water batterys when put in this system would have used them rather than the lithium batterys we have now,lithium may be the darling of the modern greenys but has its issuses for sure in an off grid power system,its not the best battery system for long term off grid use as lithium batterys are not as good as made out to be and have much shorter life span than salt water batterys ,which last for 20/30 years compared to approx 10 years for lithium batterys,we get free replacement lithium at 10 years max or replacements free if they fail as one ours has just done after only 18 months in use,after 10 years providing they are still working lithium we are told should still be working at approx 80%,but not sure believe that going on current experiences,our system garrenteed for 20 years with full service and replacement componants as or if needed,so no costs to us for that time period i guess we will just have wait n see how it works out eh!!

not sure what model it is nunga,the machine took it from we bourght bout 15 years ago,the guy who makes the turbines from smart drive has factory bout 15 mins from here and hes allways willy to help anyone putting together a turbine,how did yours work out??what sort of blade system did you use?? am thinking will use two half plastic barrels to make my turbine,as easy to fit an inertia type break to this system to prevent it over reving in hi winds and the barrel turbines have seen work well and are simple to make,tho still undecided if i should look at other ways to do it,any input you have would be much appreciated,like most things i get into just want to have a go at it to see if can make it work mate,i did make a turbine some years ago using a truck alternator for one our hunting huts,its still going fine but was pretty primative,the idea behind adding wind turbine is so can still charge batterys at night or when have no sun,the long term goal for us is to be totally off grid for power,its never been bout saving money to us ,its bout being independate and not having to rely on anyone else for any services etc we can provide for ourselves,i hate needing to rely on anyone to provide water sewage or power,and like most rural people we allready provide our own water and sewage systems,electricty the only one we not yet fully independant with,and thats changing fast.

thanx nunga,you proberly right bout barrels and smart drive motor,hadnt looked at it in that way,still just messing with ideas on ways to best use the motor,blade type turbine sounds like the way to go for it,how well did the plastic blades stand up to high winds??and what length did you make them and how many blades did you use??there so much info out there now on how to make wind turbines it hard to know which way to go ,seems like pretty much anything goes for turbine blade design,obviously the longer the blades the better they will work at low wind speeds,so i guess its a bit a comprimise to get blade design to work well in all wind speeds,my other thoughts were to use multiple blades of smaller length to catch more air at lower speeds,its all guess work i guess,just keep trying different desisgns to see what works best all round and in the wind speeds common here,just a fun project at present but do want get it right too.