When C got his bonus at work we were finally able to out some money towards getting a wind turbine. It was about $2300 for the set up but we were excited to finally have the ability to keep the batteries charged when there wasn’t sufficient sun for days. We got it installed on top of the battery house (after trying to manipulate a giant metal contraption shaped like a moveable insect, it was quite difficult).
The battery house is about 10 feet above the ground, and then we put it on a 6ft tall metal pipe, so about 16 feet off the ground.
At first there was wind, but we had installed it wrong and it made lots of noise but no electricity. After about 24 hours we fixed the installation problem, and proceeded to have about 10 days with little to no wind, of course.
Finally we got wind, but discovered that since the battery house is in a valley the wind that we get is considered “dirty” wind (meaning it’s really turbulent) so we aren’t using the turbine efficiently and it’s not making as much energy as it should. We figured out that we either need to raise the turbine another 10 ft, or move it to higher ground. It’s probably going to be cheaper to move it up on the hill and have it 16 ft above ground there. Hopefully that will solve the problem. I’ll let you know when we finally get around to it.
