The permit is in the mail

The town called and our permit is in the mail! The guy who does the permits for the town said he would love to come and see it when it is done.

Getting a permit for the 80 foot tower

This week we submitted the paper work for a permit for a 80 foot tower with the town. We'll find out in a few more days if this is going to be easy or if we'll have to go to a town meeting to plead our case. I submitted pictures along with the satellite photos, and a survey map that show there are no close neighbors to the turbine. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Predicting My Wind Speed

I know it is windy at my house, but how windy is it really?

Late last fall, we bought anemometer http://www.peetbros.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=18 . the anemometer was pretty inexpensive (compared to a wind generator). My husband bought 35ft of antenna poles from Lowes and braced it with guy wires. He extended the wire to come into the house and connected it to the computer and the display box that shows the temp and wind speed and direction. We have a few months of data now. Now we have some data, but measuring at only 35 feet. If you have seen the charts wind increases dramatically with height, but still we could see direction and get a some data rather than just a feeling that we have wind.

There is also a web site where you can go find data on your average wind speed called first look. http://firstlook.3tiergroup.com/ you can plug in your address or your latitude and longitude and find your wind speed at 80ft. When I plug in my proposed generator site, I get a average range of 8.5 to 13.5 mph which is great. Watch out 80meters =262 feet so most of use will use the 20meter button.

******UPDATE ************

In early April we had a 55mph wind that bent the pole right in half, so antenna pole is NOT a good option for anemometer mounting. The 30 foot fall broke the cup off of the anometer too.

Well that is what this blog is all about - learning from others

Small Wind I'm really doing it

After thinking about getting a wind turbine for about 10 years and seriously looking into it for the last two years, I've finally done it. I'm might be crazy, but here I go. I've put a ton of money down on Redriven 10kw wind turbine.

See a lot of information of people that have installed a Redriven Turbine. Most articles end with the owner saying I can't wait to get it connected to the grid. There is little to no info about the results they are getting.

I've created this blog to chronicle my journey as I get my permit , NYS approvals for the NYSERDA incentives, the turbine installed and then most importantly - how is it working.