We Need House Wind Turbines

[Juan Benavidez]

We need house wind turbines to produce electricity to light up our houses, produce electricity to charge up our electric cars, and sell the excess to the electric company. That way we beat the oil and electric companies from gouging the customers.

 

[Blueprint]

I don't want those ugly things on my property. The long term data does not reflect their effectiveness. Many solid reports support their ineffectiveness. You will have to force it on me, just like Obamacare.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I think they are beautiful...you can pretty them up like pinwheels.

Well, Juan (whomever you are faking)...go fer it. Spend about $40K for one that is reliable for 5 years, and will produce a true surplus...hopefully you are in a windy part of the state....Now...lemme see. I spent $40,000, borrowed the money at 6% interest and therefore the interest is costing me $200 a month. Maintenance? Probably $1200 a year, so that costs me another $100 a month... $300 a month and my highest bill ever was $190 ..this month it's $56. All electric home. Makes a lot of sense, Juan ole' boy...NOT. It can cost $4,000 just to install the necessary electrical management equipment to feed electricity back into the grid and most insurance companies will up your rates to boot.

You wanna save money and not kill all your song birds? Then install a geothermal heat pump. Do an air infiltration test and caulk every tiny little crevasse that leaks. But those little thingies that seal up the electrical outlets..take the plate off, slap it on, put the plate back on. Sell your gas hot water heater and install a MARATHON brand. Rheem makes them but won't advertise them because it would wreck sales for all the inefficient models they make - buy them thru the local electric coop...Cost $200 more than conventional.. And GE makes a superduper heatpump hot water maker...install cellulose insulation. Install triple glaze U-30 or lower windows. Get the tax break...and you can get the tax break for geothermal installation as well....cannot miss. That will save you half your energy bill on the house. That's the way you'll "beat the oil companies"... which is like saying I'm going to beat Apple by learning to write "C"+++ code.

 

[JTip]

Here is a pic of one the Friday before last, on my way up to an inspection (note the foot of snow, crazy).

There are about a dozen on this ridge. There was a bit of resistance when first proposed but now it's like they are not even there.

We have a couple of insurance customers that have personal turbines, saves them about half on their current electric bill. I pondered putting one up on my property but the $20k investment is a bit steep for the total package right now.

 

[Metamorphic]

People dont understand how the electrical supply system works so the are easily fooled by solutions like solar and wind.

Here's how it goes.

Fundamental to the equation is that we dont have any effective way of storing a significant amount of electricity. Its not like water where you can pump a bunch into a reservoir or tower and have a supply on hand that can be ready for immediate delivery without the need to pump it or treat it.

When you flip a light switch you make an immediate demand on the grid that must be answered by some small amount of additional production from a generator at the other end of the wire. Effectively what this means is that you must have a layered system of energy producers.

Nuclear power plants and hydro dams produce huge amounts of power, but they cannot be throttled up or down every time you flip on a switch. So we depend on these kinds of resources for the baseline power demand that's always there, day or night.

Things like coal fired plants still cant throttle up and down that quickly, but can easily deal with changes like the day-night variation in power demand. So we depend on them for that middle strata of variable, but somewhat predictable, demand.

The small-sale demand, like you flipping a switch is handled mostly by gas turbine plants; these are effectively a jet engine in a box that is throttled up and down to generate exactly the right amount of power that the grid is demanding at that moment.

Now think about where solar and wind fit into this equation. Here you have a generator that comes on and off line unpredictably. One second the turbine is supplying the house's load that its attached to, plus it sending some supply up the line, the next second the wind dies, that supply it was generating gets subtracted from the grid, and the load that the house was pulling is suddenly expected to be delivered from the grid. Effectively what you're doing is forcing the grid to rely even more on the least efficient, least clean, most expensive sources of power because the contribution of the wind turbines is so fickle. Solar is a little bit better because the weather is somewhat predictable, but it has some of the same flaws.

If you want to charge your car you should be pro nuke or hydro. Since most of that charging would happen at night, that load could easily be added to the baseline amount so the power generated would actually be clean. And you would really be beating the oil companies because you would not be doing it with hydrocarbons.

 

[tmon43]

On the other hand, lighting accounts for about 15% of the typical dwellings electrical usage. Installing fairly inexpensive solar panels ($500) to charge a bank of standard car batteries ($50 to $500), a home owner would be able to run low voltage lights or LEDs for lighting. The lights would require a separate system of low voltage wiring, switches and fixtures (less than $1000). This simple system could be installed on every house (most) with a southern exposure by the typical do-it-yourselfer. The number of batteries would depend upon usage needed. The technology exists on the shelf here in the US. If the government were serious about reducing doemstic usage, they would subsidize the installation of such systems throughout the country, instead of the mega wind and solar farms as they are doing now. The on-site solar system would reduce residential electrical use by about 15% without the huge investment in supply lines and infrastructure that the wind and solar farms require. The numbers of people who would be employed in this market would number in the hundreds of thousands. Obviously, major electrical appliance like TVs, dishwashers, washing machines, stoves, refrigerators and furnaces would still require power from the grid.

 

[TEL2002]

On the other hand, lighting accounts for about 15% of the typical dwellings electrical usage. Installing fairly inexpensive solar panels ($500) to charge a bank of standard car batteries ($50 to $500), a home owner would be able to run low voltage lights or LEDs for lighting. The lights would require a separate system of low voltage wiring, switches and fixtures (less than $1000). This simple system could be installed on every house (most) with a southern exposure by the typical do-it-yourselfer. The number of batteries would depend upon usage needed. The technology exists on the shelf here in the US. If the government were serious about reducing doemstic usage, they would subsidize the installation of such systems throughout the country, instead of the mega wind and solar farms as they are doing now. The on-site solar system would reduce residential electrical use by about 15% without the huge investment in supply lines and infrastructure that the wind and solar farms require. The numbers of people who would be employed in this market would number in the hundreds of thousands. Obviously, major electrical appliance like TVs, dishwashers, washing machines, stoves, refrigerators and furnaces would still require power from the grid.

tmon43, you got any links detailing these cheaper systems????

 

[tmon43]

tmon43, you got any links detailing these cheaper systems????

No I don't. It is an idea that I have been considering doing for some time. I have been investigating the costs and hope to find time to try it out myself this summer. The Amish in the area use a similar system, They run four LED light fixtures off of a single car battery which is charged by a solar panel.

 

[Michigan CG]

........If the government were serious about reducing doemstic usage, they would subsidize the installation of such systems throughout the country, instead of the mega wind and solar farms as they are doing now....

I would prefer the government stay out of everything.

 

[VegasWayne]

Don't use a car battery, get a deep cycle battery instead.