Wind/Solar Electrics ???

Ross Richardson wrote:
Hey Jim,

Try looking through this.

http://www.homepower.com/

My son has provide me some literature on renewable energy and I am
convinced with some up front spending you can survive anywere without
the power grid. You may need a 5KW generator at time when the wind,
solar, etc give out.


-------------
Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

RST Engineering wrote:

After much thought and ponderance, I've come to the conclusion that to
electrify the hangar using Pacific Gas & Electricity (PG&E -- Pigs,
Goats, and Elephants) isn't clever. By the time you get them to hang
a meter ($5k), trench from the power pole to the end of the row of
hangars, conduit romex to 35 hangars at a cost somewhere around $50k
($1500 per hangar), and then pay the monthly electric bill, you could
buy a hell of a wind/solar system and perch it on the (flat) hangar roof.

Before I flail about gathering data, has anybody on these ngs actually
installed a design whereby a hefty solar panel charges a hefty battery
to run a hefty inverter? It doesn't have to be absolutely "clean"
sinewave power as all we are running are fluorescent shop lights
(about 400 watts worth), every now and again a small compressor, a
small drill press, a small grinder, but none of these last few at the
same time.

My hit on it is that a 2 kW inverter would be more than enough to
handle the AC side of it, and a bank of 12 volt truck batteries would
work for the DC side of it, but there are the problems of parallelling
large batteries, how to combine the outputs of solar cells and wind
generators, and a reasonable source for all this stuff.

There are issues around protecting the solar cells from hail, which we
do get from time to time, battery acidic gases inside a hangar where a
very expensive lump of aluminum is sitting for months on end, sizing
the solar cell and wind generators, and other considerations along
these lines.

Comments appreciated.


Jim


http://www.tinaja.com/glib/energfun.pdf


--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
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