When I moved here I planned on simply having a rack of solar panels on the roof, batteries in the basement and everything would be fine.. well, it didn't work out too well! In mid-winter there were 10-14 day periods of somber grey skys. The solar panels barely put out a trickle of power. The batteries were nearly dead. I used to go to bed early and lay there with a small light, trying to preserve enough energy for a shower in the morning- and hoping the batteries would someday recover... not too good.
I did notice one thing while spending my evenings reading.. the wind blew- alot. Some evenings it blew so hard it felt like the house would blow away. In the spring, i bought a tower and a wind turbine. After adding the wind genny, i use pretty much the same amount of power in June as I do in December, it just comes from a different source. Cloudy days tend to be windy, this is true almost everywhere. Having a system with more than one source of power is called a HYBRID system and it is the only way to go here in the mountains of new mexico.
My wind generator is the Air-X. It is quite small, 47 inches diameter. it has 3 blades. It is the evolution of the Air 303 and Air 403 and is a big improvment over both of the older versions. The older machines use centrifical force to distort the shape of the blades at high speed. This slowed the blades and prevented damage from wind speeds of 50 miles an hour and up. This also sounded terrible. If you have ever heard a jake brake on a semi truck, you have an idea what it sounds like.
The Air-X uses dynamic braking, using its own output to generate magnetic force which in turn, slows the blades. I believe the blades on the Air-X flex but only when a very rapid wind gust hits and only for a fraction of a second before the electronics react. I hear it only occasionally. If the wind velocity reaches 55 miles an hour or so, the machine will stay in brake mode for 5 minutes, then release and try again. If the batteries reach their full voltage, the machine will shut down, slowly turning no matter how fast the wind blows. It's pretty much automated and hands off. I did install the optional switch to turn it off from the ground.
After the first year I decided that the machine was usually not needed often after march 1st and before october 31st so it is off unless i am running the cement mixer alot or some other major electrical load runs the batteries down more than a few days of sun will replace. Solar panels do not have moving parts so, letting the wind machine run just to bump the batteries up 12 hours before the sun would do it anyhow is not wise. Save the wear and tear on the machine unless it is truly needed.
My windmill buzzing along in about a 30 mph wind. at this speed it is making an honest 300 watts or so. Most cloudy days are windy so having solar and wind together works great.
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Me and one of the hundreds of 1.5 megawatt wind machines in north east NM. How many lightbulbs left on the daytime will these beautiful machines run? Renewable power is awesome but its a shame that these expensive machines are powering phantom loads and lights left on in the daytime, etc.
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Before We can truly do anything to reduce our polution levels, we must be more careful with waste. Assuming the guy here is not unplugging his DSS dish, and why would he, The 75 watt light and the 25 watt dish are using nearly as much as my entire home. Conservation is the key and it saves money too..
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