Posts Tagged ‘wind power’

Homemade Powerplant

Home Made Power

By using home made power you will stop the ever increasing monthly payment to the power company.  How many times have you looked at your energy bill and shaken your head in amazement?  Will it ever stop?  Can’t I catch a break?

Every household is spending a considerable amount of money to pay electricity bills each and every month. Though you take an effort to bring the bills down as much as possible by switching off non essential electrical appliances that consume power, you will never be able to save by a useful margin.

The best way to reduce your electricity bills is to produce your own home made power.  Though you may have never given serious thought before there are quite a few ways for you to generate your own power with the use of methods such as solar power, wind power and common sense.

With your own home made power system in place you will have comfort in knowing that you can beat the monthly drain on your finances.  With a few easy to understand simple tactics you are going to build your own energy capturing and saving devices to supplement your energy needs or to eliminate the need to be connected to the grid at all.

Home Made Power – Solar power

In order to produce solar power, you never need any pre-requisites. Sunlight is found everywhere in varying degrees. Therefore, it is a case of building your own solar panels and connecting them to your home power supply. You do not need to build the biggest and most expensive solar panels.  Just by starting small and adding more as you go you will see increasing savings.   A small solar panel made by using cheaper used panels will also save you a lot of money. Remember, when you make your own solar panel not only do you save money but you also are  preventing environmental pollution.

Home Made Power – Solar Water Heater Do it Yourself

One of the largest recurring and spiraling energy costs is in the process of heating your household domestic water needs.  Most homes have a 30 to 50 gallon hot water tank that is either  heated with oil, gas or electricity and whether you are drawing hot water or not, the thermostat kicks in and you are paying for fuel or energy just to keep the water hot in the tank for future use.

Through a few do it yourself methods you can stop that part of your monthly energy costs.  Solar water heaters are also good ways of making home made power though they don’t generate electricity. They save electricity, or the fuel, by heating water with the use of energy from the sun.  Made of metal sheets that collect the sun’s rays to heat water, they provide hot water for the home. You never need the hot sun throughout the day. Even subdued sunlight will usually  provide enough energy to heat the water considerably making it a good method of lowering your power bill.

Home Made Power – Wind power

Wind power is increasing in popularity as a way to generate home made power.  Wind turbines are not expensive and are efficient but you need to be living in an area where there is enough wind power to turn your turbine blades.  There are easy methods for you to build your own wind turbine. It is a simple device that consists of a dynamo and just three blades to grasp the wind power. You need to have a few auxiliary devices that enable you to transfer the power generated into the house.

By using a combination of simple methods of do it yourself home made power you will catch that break that you so desperately deserve.  Start small and keep growing your own power plant by following the exact methods in our newest advertiser’s guide: HOMEMADE POWERPLANT.

Related Articles:

• Wind Power News
• Off the Grid: Never Paid an Electric Company Bill
• Three Types of Solar Cells

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By purchasing this guide from this website you will be helping yourself immensely and in a small way be helping us at WayToGoGreen.org to bring free information for everyone to live a simpler, better life.  Once you get your own home made power system going you will see even more ways to benefit.

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A wind power and a solar power love story.

These are my friends, Mart and Cappy.  They built this lovely log cabin home by hand on top of a mountain in Upstate New York about ten years ago.  They have never been hooked up to the power grid, not ever, and have never paid an electric company power bill.

Mart and Cappy

Was it easy to do?  Well relatively so.  Has it saved them a ton of money?  Well not sure exactly, but might be near the break even point.  Those are some of the types of questions that I asked late this past summer the day I visited and took these photos.

In Cappy & Mart’s case this came about through necessity due to the site location where they decided to build their log home.  They purchased this gorgeous piece of land with a nice hardwood firewood hillside attached and where it is located on a remote hilltop, I call it a mountain; there were no neighbors and only a dirt road access off the nearest secondary road about a mile away.

Log Home

The price quote that they received from the power company was staggering to bring power poles the mile to their home site, so Cappy being a clever guy, and a local contractor, decided to do it himself.  How hard could it be?  You put up a wind turbine, no lack of wind where they are, hook up, turn on, and forget the bills, right?

Well not exactly.  They had no plan; they had no power survey, no charts and graphs or schematics.  No problem, buy a small turbine and let’s get goin’.  We do not have progress photos as the project developed, but what you see here is the latest iteration of their power plant that does the job.  This homemade system did expand over time but they do have a plan now to streamline it and put up one nice wind turbine that would look much better.

Wind turbines

They are indeed off the grid, and the contraption in their yard looks strange to visitors but they have come to love it.  They started with one small 450 watt turbine and later added two more of the same size.  They also added one small bank of photovoltaic solar panels to help keep the batteries charged up on the windless days.  They do have plans on increasing both the solar and wind energy system and perhaps in a year or two we will be able to give you an update.

So how is the life style with your own power plant?  It is as cozy as can be and they want for nothing.  They have plenty of electrical lighting, a refrigerator, television, and all the usual household appliances that anyone would have.  They cook with propane and heat with wood.  They have learned to conserve on days that the wind is low and they catch up with projects on the days that are quite breezy.

Inverter and Batteries

They do have a small gasoline powered generator for backup when Mother Nature does not provide enough free energy, but they never have gone without for any length of time.  Though they still have no neighbors yet, another hearty soul has purchased a building lot about a quarter mile away and will be building a home there also.

Generator

The photo of the wood fired boiler is how they heat both their home in winter and their domestic hot water year around.  The boiler is located outside and away from the house and the hot water runs through underground pipes to heating coils in the concrete floor of the full sized basement, and another set of coils are inside the domestic hot water heating tank.

Wood Boiler

Cappy and Mart are both full fledged volunteer firefighters and do a lot for the nearby community that they live in. Their property, though remote, is within the bounds of a town that has a college community and many very wealthy homeowners that surround a nearby lake.  The village people influence the town board and they have passed some ridiculous zoning laws restricting wind power systems, so Cappy’s wind plant expansion plans have been put on hold.

Turns out that he has decided on one turbine that would cost a few thousand dollars to replace the three small ones that do the job now, but the zoning code would require them to get a licensed state engineer to approve it and that cost would be more than the cost of the new turbine.  They are still looking at ways to make everyone happy and to get the new system installed.

All in all they are very happy living up in their little remote paradise, a small vegetable garden shown in the photo supplies nice fresh veggies in season and the largess is canned.  Note the cornfield behind is farm corn for cattle feed.

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Green Energy

So how about you, would you like to live off the grid?  We present below an advertisement for a product called Earth4Energy.  This is a system that could help you get started with your own self-sustaining power plant, and if you do make a purchase from this website we will receive a commission for the sale, and that will help us to bring you more free information on this website.

earth4energy advertisement

If you do decide to never pay an electric company bill again and build your own wind or solar energy system with Earth4Energy, please do let us know how it works out for you.  Our readers would love to hear your story.

One other thing that I should mention is that even though you might live where there is commercial power available, your own home could be off the grid and still feed extra or surplus power back to the power company grid and you would get paid by them instead of you having to fork over your hard earned cash for the utility bill.

Click on any of the Earth4Energy banners or links for more information.

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Do you consider Wind Power Stocks?  This industry has proven itself and the bugs have mostly been worked out.  Is it time now to see profits soar?

The future of a renewable power resource, wind power, is on the rise. This green, natural source of energy has always been around. In the last seven years the wind industry has grown over 482%. With no end to this rise insight experts expect this renewable power industry to grow another 215% in just the next five years.

The world is becoming more aware of the environment and this is a powerful renewable source of clean energy the world will be able to depend on for years to come.

For business, this is also a source of ever increasing profits. In the year 2008 alone over $30 billion of wind generated revenues were recorded.  Every year this will go up and is expected to reach $90 billion by the year 2018.

The profit potential is as explosive as the great effect on the environment. With Europe planning on one third of all new power plants being from wind power and the United States Department of Energy’s aim of have 20% of this countries power being generated from wind, your investment in wind power stocks could possibly soar.

For those interested look at the stocks of Vestas, Gamesa, Suzlon and Nordex in Europe. In America the major wind turbine manufacturers are General Electric and Siemens. But there are smaller companies that will take off like NACEL.

As with all investments do your homework and make the final decision yourself. But wind power stocks represent a green renewable energy source that will always be around.  The decision is yours to invest in green stocks.

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Keep food fresh and take a small step forward for the environment.

As the makers of Ziploc® Brand products, SC Johnson is committed to keeping your food fresh. But they have also committed to helping protect the environment by introducing Ziploc® evolve™ Sandwich and Storage Bags—they’re made with 25% less plastic and they are manufactured using wind power.

At home and on the go, Ziploc® evolve™ Bags keep all your meals and snacks fresh and tasty, so you can eat healthy while living a little greener.

You know that we here at Way to Go Green are strong proponents of wind power and reducing your carbon footprint, and we congratulate this forward thinking in big business as well as small.  Less plastic means that these bags will degrade a little quicker and still do their part to assist us with necessary food storage requirements.  Let’s all start looking for this product on your favorite grocery store shelves.

www.ziploc.com/

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Cascade Engineering has entered the renewable energy market with Wind Power for the Office and Home, and help from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The state funded group has assisted this Grand Rapids plastic company to develop and test out its roof top wind energy system called the Swift Wind Turbines. The fans that turn the turbines were developed with not only the purpose of providing power but doing it as quietly as possible.

On February 20, 2009 Meijer announce it was planning to install 6 of Cascade Swift Wind Turbines on top of it corporate office.  With additional plans to add smaller turbines at two other locations as soon as zoning approval is obtained.

The demand is increasing for the Swift Wind Turbines with local area clients like the Franciscan sisters of the Eucharist in Vergennes Township, schools and residents. One already is installed and working on the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts in Muskegon. Cascade is expecting to install over 60 units of the Swift Wind Turbine in the next few months according to a company spokesman.

The cost to install each turbine is between $10,000 and $12,000. Each turbine can produce up to 2,000 kilowatts an hour.  This 8-foot fan blade has a life expectancy of 20 years and utilizes wind efficiently between 8 to 40 mph.

Another advantage is the tax breaks that were included in the $787 billion federal stimulus package pass earlier this year and signed by President Obama. There was a 30% investment credit for renewable energy spending. To be sure you qualify contact you local governmental official of a tax expert before investing.

Reference:
Michiganadvantage.org

There are many ways to save the environment. Every body should care but even if one person reduces their waste or conserves energy, it is a positive step forward. Of course the more people that contribute to saving our environment, the better it will be.

To conserve energy at home is the easiest. Turn off lights in rooms that are unoccupied. Keep the filters on your HVAC units clean. Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120F and wrap the unit with a blanket. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. The planting of trees on the west side of your home will shade it during the hottest part of the day. There is more just use common sense.

Removing and reducing the dangerous toxins from your home is one of the easiest ways to save the environment. Each cleaning product must be inspected for toxic substances. The toxic chemicals must then be properly disposed of. The use of mousetraps instead of poisons will also help. Know the age of your house and determine if it might have been painted at one time with lead paint.

At work reuse common items. Just because you don’t pay for items like paperclips, envelopes, copy paper, is not a reason to be wasteful. Remember saving the environment is all of our responsibility.

Conserving water is relatively easy. Stop all leaks as soon as they appear. Wash the dishes then rinse. Do not let the water run continuously. Install a low flow showerhead.

Purchase items in bulk and avoid those products that have multiple layers of packaging. Reuse plastic bags and storage containers.

If possible use energy supplied from renewable sources like hydro, solar and wind power.

There are many ways to save the environment.  We all must do our part.

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To be considered a green energy provider, the source of the energy must be non-polluting and environmentally friendly. Several examples of green energy are solar and wind power, hydroelectric and geothermal.

In America the United States Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center of Resource Solutions acknowledges that the voluntary purchase of electricity from renewable energy sources are considered Green Energy. In 2007 six companies were singles out for the 2007 Green Power Suppliers Awards. The companies that received the awards were Constellation NewEnergy, 3Degrees, Sterling Planet, SunEdison, Pacific Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Silicon Valley Power. These 6 award winners provide over 5 billion kilowatts of electricity a year.

Constellation NewEnergy’s main headquarters is located in Baltimore Maryland. They use a combination of wind and hydropower to give their consumers a viable alternative for their energy needs. There is also the option for consumers and companies to purchase renewable energy certificates. They provide 16 different states with power along with the District of Columbia and 2 Canadian provinces.

3Degrees and Sterling Planet are providers of renewable energy certificates for any and every consumer in America.

SunEdison is North America’s leading solar energy provider. This company manages over 31 megawatts of energy. With power stations in 9 states, this is company is proving Green Energy is a viable option for the future.

Pacific Power is an energy provider for 6 western states. They have a blue-sky program that supplies consumers with energy produced by wind and solar power.

Rocky Mountain Power was a part of Pacific Power until 2006. They offer the same types of green energy as their previous parent company by utilizing wind and solar power to product electricity for its customers.

Silicon Valley Power is a non-profit municipal electric company that is owned and operated by Santa Clara, CA. With this company, the consumer can chose to have 100% of their energy to be supplied from either wind or solar power.

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In this technologically advanced society, it’s amazing that we can’t do more to live a greener, more energy efficient lifestyle. Under President-elect Barak Obama, this may change, and for the better. The newly elected President wants to create a nation where we can enjoy a cleaner, greener way of life. With the Obama-A Clean Energy Economy, this might become a reality.

Obama - flickr

Alternate Energy:
Mr. Obama has created a plan where the American people can save thousands of dollars on their energy costs, through the use of reusable energies. He would like to see better ways of using Wind energy, Solar energy, and even Geothermal heating, in order to reduce the amounts of hazardous emissions that hang in our atmosphere.

Hybrid Cars:
He would also like to see more people using the new hybrid plug-in cars, due to the fact that they can run up to 150 miles on a single gallon of gas. This would help our nation get out from underneath our dependency on foreign oils. He would also like to see more bio-fuels created, as well as newer synthetic petroleum products, which create less carbon dioxide than typical fuels.

Economy and Ecology:
Though he knows it will take a few years, but the Obama-A Clean Energy Economy idea is setting new heights in creating a better economy for the American people. He has figured out how to take our two biggest problems, economy and ecology, and combine them in an effort to alleviate them both. Through his plan, everyone in the country will have access to better jobs, more efficient energy sources, and a much greener society.

A few years ago I had the great pleasure of working at the Maple Ridge Wind Turbine Project for some Wind Power Companies that have a Joint Venture operation.

I was employed by an area Crane company to work as a Safety Inspector monitoring the setup and operation of the crane as well as OSHA safety monitoring of the contractor’s employees while working on a site-wide blade modification and repair project.

Dawn at Maple Ridge Wind Farm

The Maple Ridge Wind Power Companies Project consists of 195 wind turbines on the Tug Hill Plateau of Lewis County, just west of Lowville, New York. Each of these wind turbines generate 1.65 MW of electrical power and consist of a 262 foot tall tubular steel tower; with a 269 foot diameter rotor; and a nacelle (turbine housing) which contains the generator, the transformer, and power train. The towers have a base diameter of approximately 15 feet and a top diameter of 8 feet.

The tower is topped by the nacelle, which is approximately 9 feet high and 25 feet long, and connects with the rotor hub. The rotor consists of three 134-foot long composite blades. With a rotor blade oriented in the 12 o’clock position, each turbine has a maximum height of approximately 400 feet.

Crane Setup

This blade modification project was engineered to create tiny little differences in the way the air turbulence around the blades was changed just enough to smooth out some vibration, thereby increasing efficiency.

Crane Extended Horizontal at Ground Level

Two workers would go into the basket at ground level with all of their tools and an electrical power supply. The blade would be rotated into position from ground controls and then locked in place by a worker inside the nacelle.

Going Up !

Crane Extended to Blade Tip

Crane Extended Side View

A combination of radio communications and hand signals kept the workers in constant contact with the crane operator and ground safety personnel.

About the Tug Hill Plateau:
Tug Hill is in many respects the ideal location for New York’s largest wind energy project. This site consists of approximately 12,000 acres of hilltop pasture and feed-crop land at an average elevation of 1600-1800 feet. Tug Hill is an ancient geologic formation that lies just downwind of the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, separated from the Adirondacks to the east by the Black River Valley. At a maximum elevation of 2000 feet above sea level, the Tug Hill plateau experiences strong lake-effect weather patterns and has long been known for its exceptional wind resource

From the Top

Maple Ridge

Workers Up

Turbine Information:
Modern wind turbine generators are robust, sophisticated high-tech machines designed to convert the power of the wind into electricity.
Main Components: The tower, the nacelle (machine house atop the tower), and the rotor
Height of Flat Rock Wind Turbine Towers: 260 feet
Rotor Blade Length: 130 feet
Rotor Blade Speed: 14 RPM (revolutions per minute)

One of the tasks for this project was to raise two workers up in a man basket to reach to tip of the blade, and then an area was sanded and special anti-vibration strips of airfoil plastic were attached with special adhesives. Each of the 565 blades were modified as well as other field service repairs during this project.

Detail of Strip

Note the man in the distance up on top of the neighboring nacelle.

Looking Down

Note that one of those heavy duty service trucks would easily fit inside one of the nacelles on top of the tower. All of the photographs from the ground were taken by me as well as several of the ones from up on top were taken by me. It was not my job to go up, but who could resist such a fabulous opportunity in life? Better than any amusement park ride and I am glad I did it.

How Electricity Leaves the Turbine, Bringing Us Wind Power for Homes:
Electricity from each 1.65 MW wind turbine generator is fed through numerous 34.5-kilovolt power underground cables that come together at the wind farm substation near Rector Road. These cables channel the electricity via a step-up transformer and dedicated ten-mile power line into the New York electricity grid at the 230-kilovolt Niagara Mohawk Adirondack line, feeding power to towns and cities across New York’s North Country and beyond. Sophisticated computer control systems run constantly to ensure that the machines are operating efficiently and safely.

Pollution Offset:
The American Wind Energy Association estimates that 1 MW of wind generation capacity is the equivalent of 1 square mile of new forest, in terms of offsetting or displacing carbon dioxide from conventional generating sources. This makes the Maple Ridge Wind Farm Project equal to approximately 321 square miles of forest CO2 displacement. The many Wind Power Companies in the North East are truly helping to bring us Wind Power for Homes.

When you consider that an average household power use in 24 hours is about 2 kilowatts, this wind farm is equivalent to powering 160,000 homes. I like to think of it in this way, every time those blades are turning around, we are that much less dependent upon foreign oil price gouging.

Power Distribution to the People:
To the large amount of people that protest the power distribution of these type projects, I say, suck it up. It is for the greater good. Power lines running through or near your property are just a fact of life. Get over it. We need every type of alternate energy that we are able to harness. Do your part.

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