Guru
Joined: 26/07/2007
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
| Posted: 10:40am 08 Dec 2008 |
Matt,
Quiet amazingly, this is by far the best use of the wind power here. If I grid tie it, the best I could hope for is to demolish my power bill.... which is only $5.00/day or so. The mill would have to run 24/7..
With this setup, 4-6 kwh would more than save 2-3 litres of fuel/day. As you know on a farm, you putter along, checking the fences, the dams, doing odd jobs, etc etc. On 400 acres just plodding along around the boundary may take 30 mins... or a couple of liters. Over here that is $4.00, add a few trips here and there getting stuff together to do something, and you probably save $6.00. The mill only has to run at night to get that.
I have tried all sorts of other combinations to see what is the most effective saving of money via wind, and this seems to be it. Hot water is best done with solar, and a proper grid tie induction one will do for the grid.
This thing can do 20kmh happily, and draws about 70 amps to do it.... thats a few hrs driving about the place. My best idea yet I think to utilise the mill for the best bounce to the ounce.
If you can track down and old suzuki swift or similar, and a old ride on floor scrubber to get the motor and controller out of.... well it's a fun effective project.
This thing needs windows though. Will look out for some other vehicle to use the idea on if I can find one.... over here that is the problem. On the mainland, it's no problem at all.
Have fun with it.
.........oztules
Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth