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Why aren't you using some kind of alternative power source on your farm? Build you a few of these, invest (don't freak out) in some decent batteries and inverters then sell your power back to the man! Also get you some energy tax credits and stick it even further to the man!

But seriously it'd be cool to make your own power, I've been reading a lot about in the last few months for some reason and if I was a home owner I'd be all over it. Wind, Solar, and water if I had the means.

This seems like it'd be easy enough to make and in the 2nd video he describes how he gets power from it.

We were seriously considering a windmill about 4 years ago (the generating kind, not the pumping kind). After talking to several folks around here who have one, it looks like a realistic expectation of the output is around 10%-15% of what the literature/reps say, and they have never had a surplus to sell back. At that rate, it'd take 30 years to pay for itself, if it never broke in all that time.

Granted, a homemade one would have very little initial investment, but it seems like the power output would be even lower. Which is too bad, because I wanted to go this route.

Figure out a way for me to make a combo outside wood burning furnace/steam turbine, and we're in business

assateague wrote:
Figure out a way for me to make a combo outside wood burning furnace/steam turbine, and we're in business

I already showed you how to make that, Assa!

I sell industrial Ethernet switches to GE for some of their wind turbine applications, and one of the engineers told me that they barely pay for themselves before starting to need repairs, and these are placed in some of the windiest places in the world. In the long run they are profitable, but the technology still has some growing to do before I think we will see any major benefit in personal use. Then you have to be able to store the energy, and that is part of the spensive headache as well. Love the fact that we are utilizing Ma nature's free energy though, and if possible, would love to have a windmill, solar panels and even use the tide to offset some of the money I've invested with the power company over the years.

Deltaman wrote:I sell industrial Ethernet switches to GE for some of their wind turbine applications, and one of the engineers told me that they barely pay for themselves before starting to need repairs, and these are placed in some of the windiest places in the world.

Well he lied to you... the red part should be changed to don't for it to be a true statement.

Woody wrote:

Deltaman wrote:I sell industrial Ethernet switches to GE for some of their wind turbine applications, and one of the engineers told me that they barely pay for themselves before starting to need repairs, and these are placed in some of the windiest places in the world.

Well he lied to you... the red part should be changed to don't for it to be a true statement.

They are sure pouring a lot of money into it Woody, and would think they would have to have some type of ROI to stay the course. I've sold them a ton of switches over the past few years, and that's a drop in the bucket on overall costs. You may very well be right, time will tell.

Their ROI is in the form of government subsidies.

assateague wrote:
Granted, a homemade one would have very little initial investment, but it seems like the power output would be even lower. .

The generator isn't where you get your power from. Your battery bank would me. Smaller input would just mean slower re-charge time. You'd just need a few of the cheap homemade turbines.

Don't you need a high dollar inverter?

assateague wrote:Don't you need a high dollar inverter?

Oh yes you do but I thought you meant that the home made turbine wouldn't be sufficient to charge a large battery bank.

I'm pretty cheap. And electricity scares the bejeezus out of me, so the combination of the two pretty much prohibits this, welder aside.

What if you made an electric generator, electrically powered, using the power companies power to create more power to sell back to them. Sort of like a perpetual power machine. As long as it creates 1% more than it uses you'd come out in the black.

WTF? Did aunt betty just hack my account?

Bwahahaha!

Flightstopper wrote:Bwahahaha!

Dont laugh. How to make it work is the engineer's problem, I'm just a creative thinker.

assateague wrote:I'm pretty cheap. And electricity scares the bejeezus out of me, so the combination of the two pretty much prohibits this, welder aside.

It would be a sizable first investment but depending on your power pill it would pay for itself within 5-8 years I bet. Batteries if maintained can last over 10 years from all my research. How much power are you using/much and how much are you paying? I'm surprised you haven't done just for the fact that when "it all kicks off" as you say you'll be set.

That's why I want my water tower Truthfully, the only thing I really want electricity for would be running water.

assateague wrote:That's why I want my water tower Truthfully, the only thing I really want electricity for would be running water.

and refrigerator/freezers are also nice

To be off the grid, you would need for your primary lighting to be 12 volt and your 110 volt appliances and tools to be pretty efficient. A bank of 8D batteries, a 2.5 KW inverter, solar panels and some sort of wind generation should pretty well set you up to live without an electric company but you would have to be pretty frugal with your power usage. More batteries, solar panels and inverters in series would give you more options to where you could charge separate banks without taking power and then charge another bank by means of a simple switch. If you want more sophistication, you could add an automatic switch panel to the equation and a third bank of batteries and inverters.

Usually something like this will not really pay for itself to the point that it is profitable to get rid of a public utility but in cases where there is no electric utility available, it would more than pay for itself.

And lights, fans, power tools, water heaters, etc. When I own a house one day I will have a grid independent house. Not saying I will be off the grid but if I had to be I would want to be able to.

We stayed with a rancher in New Mexico a couple times while out chasing elk. He was 100% off grid (through necessity, not choice), and you really wouldn't have known it. Big Ted Turner type main house, with a 12 bed bunkhouse. Pretty nice, but I can't imagine the cost. His solar panel wasn't as big as I would've expected it needed to be, about 10x20, and followed the sun, but his battery bank took up 3 entire walls in a 16x16 outbuilding.

assateague wrote:Their ROI is in the form of government subsidies.

I know many folks who live in counties with wind farms. They seem to do a good job of absorbing the costs. From all i can tell wind energy is only good for those who sell and install the turbines.

3legged_lab wrote:What if you made an electric generator, electrically powered, using the power companies power to create more power to sell back to them. Sort of like a perpetual power machine. As long as it creates 1% more than it uses you'd come out in the black.

You're forgetting about them damned laws. The thermodynamic ones that nobody can break even if they try.