Cheap sources of solar and wind equipment
Zimmy
and his wife rounded out their energy efficient home by producing some
of their own power. They live in northern Ohio where it makes
sense to supplement solar power by capturing the wind blowing down off
the Great Lakes.
The couple has been
building their homestead infrastructure
for about as long as I've been alive, so it's no surprise they've been
able to snap up good deals. "Almost everything we buy, build,
install, is seconds. We live in the world of surplus," Zimmy emailed
when I asked him the cost of his alternative energy system. He
went on to say that he has two different sets of solar panels as well
as the wind turbine.
The solar panels on the ground put out about
3kw. They came from a demonstration solar power plant in the
south California desert. After being cooked in the sun with
concentrating mirrors they were dumped onto the surplus market. I
installed them in 1994. I don't remember the cost, but it was cheap at
the time. The panels on the roof were installed last year by Mary and I. They are a 1.6kw array, and they came from http://www.sunelec.com/ as seconds.
The [17.5 kw] wind turbine....well that's another story. It was installed in 1984. The turbine was bought as a damaged unit that was damaged in a wind storm. The tower was bought from a scrap yard and they bought it from the local airport. I also found other sections of the same type tower from another person. The tower is 150' tall and I have 20' left over to be used for my water tower when I get time. The turbine has been hit by lighting several times, mechanical failures, electrical failures, modified and upgraded several times. I have lost track of the cost, but I have a spare alternator, gearhead, governor, blades, and spare inverter boards. The turbine had some damage over the winter that cost $3,500 for repairs but insurance paid for it.
Whenever
I consider alternative power --- beyond our simple
solar
backup --- I get caught up in the disposable nature of batteries
and
whether the unit will really pay for itself. Unfortunately, Zimmy
wasn't really able to answer my questions about the economics of his
grid-tied system. He noted: "I don't keep track of power produced
and power used. We use every bit of power we produce, and have
some amount of electric bill to pay. The utility co. is happy and
so are we."Whether or not Zimmy's system is cost-effective, I can tell he's had a wonderful time tinkering. Keeping our eyes open for salvage and seconds is a good lesson for everyone to learn.
Achieve true freedom with Microbusiness Independence.
| This post is part of our Energy Efficient Mobile Home lunchtime
series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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