wind power???

[Robert_in_NY]

We were contacted by United wind about putting in a residential wind turbine. A lot of people have started installing turbines around here but I have not talked with anyone who has one yet. We went over the electric bills and if we pay the $18k up front instead of financing it is a 6 to 7 year payback. United Wind guarantees production and does all maintenance and warranty work for 20 years. Tower is suppose to be at 140 feet and will be behind the house.

So I have tried to research as much as I can but would love to hear from anyone with real world experience with residential wind turbines.

The specs are as follows
Turbine type, Bergey Excel single phase
Tower type, 140ft self supporting lattice
Annual production, 18,542kwh/year

If I am not making any sense I apologize as I do not understand it all myself but am trying to educate myself as much as possible.

 

[roadhunter]

Never heard of a wind power setup that paid back in 6 years and had a 20 year warranty. What's even more impressive is that you are not located in an area that is good for generating power with wind. Sounds almost too good to be true.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Never heard of a wind power setup that paid back in 6 years and had a 20 year warranty. What's even more impressive is that you are not located in an area that is good for generating power with wind. Sounds almost too good to be true.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=387368"/>

Actually it is a decent area, I am right next to lake Erie and we get a lot of wind here. The payback rate is based off our current and expected average utility price. Current price we pay is 12.65 cents/kWh with 20 year projected average of 20.24 cents/kWh. But this is the type discussion I am looking for.

 

[roadhunter]

Actually it is a decent area, I am right next to lake Erie and we get a lot of wind here. The payback rate is based off our current and expected average utility price. Current price we pay is 12.65 cents/kWh with 20 year projected average of 20.24 cents/kWh. But this is the type discussion I am looking for.

It all sounds really good and much different than what I have researched. Most of the stuff I've looked at had about a 20 year payback and at that point he equipment was out of warranty so you would probably be fixing and replacing it before it paid back. I'm really interested as I live in one of the best places in the country for generating wind power.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey Robert, we just drove by your place a couple weeks ago returning to Indiana from Niagara falls. I have ZERO personal experience with wind power. I do try to follow news articles and such on the subject... Many areas of the country now look like science fiction sets, especially here in Indiana. There are quite a few HUGE wind farms here. Just massive. Like 5 miles by 10 miles, 500, 1000 units, etc... the one thing I read time and again is a subject called "shadow flicker". Its just what it sounds like. If you locate a windmill where it will be between your house and the sun at certain times of the day and year, you will get this..... so be sure to put it in a location where this will not happen to you or your neighbors.

 

[sseelhoff]

Hey Robert, we just drove by your place a couple weeks ago returning to Indiana from Niagara falls. I have ZERO personal experience with wind power. I do try to follow news articles and such on the subject... Many areas of the country now look like science fiction sets, especially here in Indiana. There are quite a few HUGE wind farms here. Just massive. Like 5 miles by 10 miles, 500, 1000 units, etc... the one thing I read time and again is a subject called "shadow flicker". Its just what it sounds like. If you locate a windmill where it will be between your house and the sun at certain times of the day and year, you will get this..... so be sure to put it in a location where this will not happen to you or your neighbors.

Are you suggesting he take his wind generator and stick it where the sun don't shine?

 

[MossRoad]

Are you suggesting he take his wind generator and stick it where the sun don't shine?

Well, I guess I am, so-to-speak. :laughing:

 

[texasjohn]

Makes sense that this is an effect, but had no prior awareness of it. I've driven by lots of wind farms and always see quite a number of generators sitting idle in high wind conditions while others are turning...have no explanation why. I would think that one would want to keep them busy anytime there was sufficient wind.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Hey Robert, we just drove by your place a couple weeks ago returning to Indiana from Niagara falls. I have ZERO personal experience with wind power. I do try to follow news articles and such on the subject... Many areas of the country now look like science fiction sets, especially here in Indiana. There are quite a few HUGE wind farms here. Just massive. Like 5 miles by 10 miles, 500, 1000 units, etc... the one thing I read time and again is a subject called "shadow flicker". Its just what it sounds like. If you locate a windmill where it will be between your house and the sun at certain times of the day and year, you will get this..... so be sure to put it in a location where this will not happen to you or your neighbors.
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIe0iUtelQ

It is only going to have 11' blades and will not be in an area where it would be between the sun and the house. But the small blades should not be as big a problem as the larger turbines.

There are no neighbors near this area.

 

[lockhaven]

remember salesmen are professional at telling only the positive and forgetting the negative. Now about the map, the colors is purple the best or the worst?

 

[square1]

you will get this.....

THAT would blow big time!

I drive by a house with a windmill every day. Each month the owner puts out a new sign on the windmill. In green painted numbers he states his energy savings, in black is the local taxes he pays to have the windmill (they vary each month so it must be based on production), at the bottom in large numbers is his monthly net loss in red, or profit in green. I hope he's getting a good price on all that RED paint he uses.

 

[Stimw]

I would talk to "A lot of people" you say are installing them.
I see you are in NY and it's a crime to talk to strangers up there but that would get your best answers.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I would talk to "A lot of people" you say are installing them.
I see you are in NY and it's a crime to talk to strangers up there but that would get your best answers.

I hope to, the majority of them are on farms (orchards, vineyards and beef operations). United Wind was given my name by one of the local tractor dealers I buy from. They are pushing more for the farms around here as they do not have to worry about the fall zone as much on a farm as you would on a small residential property. We just started meeting with the guy last week and just got the actual proposal yesterday so I am just now doing more in depth research. The local guys though have not had the turbines very long. There are a couple in the immediate area that have been up 4 or 5 years but the majority are less then 2 years old.

On a side note, the Thruway authority has installed rather large wind turbines at their exits on the 90. They are huge 2 blade turbines and I have seen one of them at each of the 3 exits I normally travel.

 

[adventure bob]

State of CO, the energy coops and companies are killing alt power by home owners by paying a ridiculously low rate for net metering compared to commercial that you pay for the power. It makes it **** near impossible to ever get a payback.

 

[MossRoad]

On a side note, the Thruway authority has installed rather large wind turbines at their exits on the 90. They are huge 2 blade turbines and I have seen one of them at each of the 3 exits I normally travel.

Yeah, we saw those... they were facing directly at us with the blades not turning and perfectly parallel to the ground.... they looked like airplanes about to strafe the tollway!:laughing:

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Yeah, we saw those... they were facing directly at us with the blades not turning and perfectly parallel to the ground.... they looked like airplanes about to strafe the tollway!:laughing:

I have yet to see them spin, they have been up for a month or so.

 

[MossRoad]

Maybe they're waiting for clearance, Clarence.

 

[Loren49]

I've been off grid for over 30 years. I started with a wind unit but gradually changed to solar and now have no wind. My main reason is nearly no maintenance with solar. My situation is considerably different than yours as you will sell all of your excess power at any given time while mine was wasted after my batteries were at full charge. I feel that solar is much less likely to annoy others but wind certainly could work better for you. I'd look at projected yearly output and actual output of a currently installed unit and payback carefully.

My concern with your offer is the reliability of the supplier and also what happens if they go out of business? I'd want to see/hear a unit in operation and also see its output history over a year.

Flicker should not be an issue with that unit considering the speed of the airfoils. I live near (under 1200ft) to a 400 ft tall, 1.6 megawatt wind unit. The blades rotate at 14 rpm and we get a bit of flicker part of the year in the late afternoon. Not as bothersome to me as the cloud plume over the cooling tower of a nearby nuclear plant. :laughing: (can't see from my house)

Good luck.

Loren

 

[moeh1]

The price of power increases over time is the key to their financial analysis for you. The wholesale power price is actually lower now in NY (like 1/2) than previously primarily due to subsidized wind and natural gas fired sources. What lower power price works out to a break even for you over 20 years is a good question to ask them. What % of run time is used to get to the 18 MW annual production and how does that compare to some of the wind charts or data that convert to expected run time? Have they done a good job of converting that for you to the power you'd actually see at your site? I see many of the large turbines that are supposed to be able to run 100s of homes sitting idle quite often....

 

[dmccarty]

Does the generator you are thinking of installing make noise? Some of the videos I have seen had a generator noise that would drive me nuts.

Later,
Dan