I
don’t use much electricity, hence I don’t generate much electricity, or is
it the other way around? In either case, does it make more sense to generate it
or just buy it from the locals?
Aside from personal philosophy and the thrill of doing it myself, in my
case it certainly made sense to generate it myself. With a minimum
$30/month electric bill, ordinarily it could take a while to justify the
cost of the off-grid system. But it would have cost close to $14,000 to
bring power in to my facility since I do live a fair stretch from
civilization. Hence, the payback justification was quite immediate.
The
real payback for me however, came from the psychological and philosophical
change to my very core that’s worth way more than the dollars I have or
ever will have saved. It is actually no longer a matter of dollars
saved. I have comfortably found that I just don’t need much of the stuff,
the very same stuff that I didn’t even need before but didn’t realize it.
Ahh, the Zen of it all! My eyes have been opened. And I get lullabied to
sleep almost every night in the process of generating the electricity for
tomorrow’s use or for the next few days.
But
there’s only so much Zen, only so much financial philosophy, I still have
some power needs and some of which are still unmet. So let’s get back to
business.
The Choices and the
Plan
I
have been so impressed with these units and blessed with a good winter
wind that I went out and bought another unit to reduce my dependency on
the gas generator especially during the winter and to provide a longer
storage time for the produced power. In the next few installments of this
article I will detail the installation and testing of a new wind generator
as it springs to life here on my rooftop. We’ll talk about the parts, the
mounting, the wiring, and the monitoring of the power. We’ll talk about
controlling the power as to avoid burning up your batteries prematurely... a lesson hard-learned here. In any case, I can hardly wait for
the new song, the new lullaby in quadraphonic stereo format. Furthermore,
I can hardly wait to tell you about it.
The
choice was not straightforward, but not overwhelming like walking into
Wal-Mart with no plan. Do I enhance my system with additional solar
power or another wind generator. With 410 watts of solar panels
facing the sun, solar power is clearly the major producer for me in the
summer months. The sun is high, it hangs around a good long time and
shines more often than it rains. It carries the load through the
summer months. In the winter, things are markedly different.
Low solar irradiance and short days combine to lower my reliance on solar
power. Meanwhile, more wind, much more wind, wind almost every day
and night, take over the major power producer role here and I end up with
almost the same energy production that I claim in the summer... Almost.
Like nearly everyone else, I use more energy in the winter.
With this in mind, I opted to enhance my winter output and get another
wind generator. OK, that decided, which kind of wind generator?
Since my experience with the two models I have discussed is so positive,
only a fool, or a wealthy nut-case would chuck the experience and go with
an unknown. I have talked with some nice folks locally that have gone a
different route. These folks have installed those grand pooh-bahs, the
behemoths, the mother of all maidens, the 2 to 10 kW (kilowatt) units that
are bigger than most of my house's roof. They mount them on radio type
towers and require automatic stair-steps-to-heaven to erect and maintain.
Sad to say, all of the folks I talked with (there were three) have had disasters. One of
the units crashed to the ground shedding parts for a good long distance,
the second one I saw lying on the ground one day in the man’s front yard
last spring. It stayed reclined on the ground for a week or more either
waiting for parts or for one of the stair-steps-to-heaven contraptions to
reinstall it. The third, I could only see if from the highway and one day... it was gone! Except for the now-bare tower.
Nah, I like the known, I like clamoring up on a roof, not shimmying up a 60-foot tower with wrenches between my teeth. Either an Air-X or another
Mallard, that was the decision to make. In either case, there was a spot
for it on the roof already waiting for it.
In
the end, I opted for, and purchased, another Mallard 800E wind generator
because it is so robust, quiet, no internal printed circuit boards, and it
will visually balance the house in a harmonious way. I like visual
harmony. It is good on the eye. I also like the way the Mallard has
performed over the years. While it is true that the Mallard that is
currently flying on my roof, on a typical day, routinely puts out
measurably less power than the Air-X’s, it is not a fair comparison; a
fact pointed out to me by the manufacturer in a nice email stemming from
the original article.
