Dr. Mark Elam - Chattanooga, TN owner Ventana de Cielo
Ventana de Cielo in Rancho Santana was built as a vacation home for my family. We rent the home to vactioners when we are not occupying it. Our electricity bills average $750 per month based on 40% occupancy. We have central air, instead of splits, which contributes to the bills. Also, we regularly experiance grid related power outages of anywhere from several hours to several daysrequiring purchase of an expensive diesel generator as backup power! This can't be good for our appliances.
J. Dennis Green - Rancho Santana - recently installed wind turbine
The system costs around $8000.00. About $6000.00 for the equipment and about $2000.00 for the tower with a 30-ft tower.
I did all the calcs and installed the equipment myself. This includes the room, the shelf that holds the batteries - and I made my own inter-connection batteries wire. As an afterthought, I would have spent about $300.00 more for a 50-ft tower including the extra wire. It is necessary to wire the house as it is being built. I did that.
My system is only for one house. The new electric meters are digital - and don't run backwards.
Check out the article of BlackoutBusterHP64.PDF at http://www.homepower.com/ I used this article as my starting point - I am using the TRACE SW4024 Inverter that they recommend.
I use the WHISPER H80. This says the max is 1000 Watts, but the newer specs (with improved blades and magnets) say 1500, so I think 20% of 1500 is a safe assumption.
I use a sub-panel with 60 amp protection for the circuits that I plan to use for battery backup. Not everything on those circuits can be used at once, but the important stuff like freezer, fridge, several sets of lights, Internet access, radio, several ceiling fans, coffee pot, the microwave (max 1/2 hr per day), and TV. I have calculated I need about 7000 Watt Hours/Day average.
Taking into consideration 90% efficiency of the Inverter, 75% efficiency of the Batteries, and a max of 60% depth of discharge of the batteries, I have run up to 35 hours from batteries alone. The Whisper H-80, at 20% efficiency, is able to generate the same amount of KW/Day for about 21 to 23 hours - so it seems very close. It keeps my batteries fully charged and allow me to run weeks at a time. As a fallback, I have a 5000KVA gas generator that I can use to charge the batteries when they need it if the wind fails. About 2 hours of generator will give 6-7 hours from the batteries. Big savings. We have been out of power here for up to 3 weeks at a time !!! and sometimes the roads are impassable during the raining season.
The system is only 120 VAC, so AC is out as most window AC's in Nicaragua are 240 VAC. I 'could' have a 240 VAC system, but that would require another Inverter at over $3000.00 here - and I really can't see that it's worth it. All my ceiling fans are BB. (Battery Backup).
My electric cost is between $100 and $130 per month - while most houses here are way over $300.00. What is the cost of a freezer and refig full of spoiled food? What is the cost of constantly watching diesel fuel and filters and service charge for a generator?
The only time that we know that we don't have power is that the 220 doesn't work and we see no lights in Limon down the hill. Our door bell is on normal power; we when we hear it, "Hey - we didn't have power for a while!"
The turbine is very quiet. It has a brake that turns the blades side-ways to the wind at about 50 mph. That you can hear for a few minutes. We are on 10.5 acres - no neighbors. But it is one hell of a lot quieter that having a diesel generator next door.
