I’ve had over 49,000 page views on the site and I realized if you haven’t been following a long (thank you followers), It would take you forever to read through this like a journal. So I’m creating this FAQ list of all the things people want to know. If you want the full play-by-play of the excruciating wait, by all means read the blog from start to finish.
Q. How do you like your wind turbine, would you do it again?
A. The answer is yes. I'm now on my second wind turbine. The first one a 10K a Redriven was way to complicated for a 10KW system. I believe that is why Redriven filed for Bankruptcy. I like the Redriven tower! It keeps on working for us and is now way more tower than we need for our 1 KW.
Q. What was the best day you have had when it was working?
A. See Sept. 13, 2011 post for the best day ever results. I'd make a link to this page, but I'm hoping that I will get a "new best day ever" every month.Q. What was the best day you have had when it was working?
Q. Why did it take so long to get the turbine?
A. This process started in Jan 09 when I paid my portion. I got my permit in Feb. 2009; we waited for NYSERDA until July 09. At the same time, Redriven came out with a 100 ft tower. It took about a month for them to give me pricing to upgrade from an 80 tower to a 100 ft . I know higher is better, but I wanted to see if it made sense to go higher. The payback came out even longer, so I said no thanks to 100 ft. tower on August 27. Why the turbine was not shipped that day, I now know. They they were re-designing the whole thing and there was no hope of it coming soon. Ginny Weaver told me that when NYSERDA approved the turbine would be shipped and the foundation would dry while the turbine was in transit.
The cement actually poured on Oct 27, 2009. The Turbine shipped around Christmas time. On Jan 14, 2010 the turbine went into customs and didn’t come out for a few more weeks. In Feb. Installer got delayed by snowstorms. While installing someone else’s turbine they found that we are missing a cover for the top of the nacelle. March 30th Installer said we are waiting for a new model controller card. my blades were delivered June 16. The nacelle cover came about June 22. It was the first nacelle cover off the line for the new design. On June 28, my installer got all the wiring done and Redriven came to finish up the wiring but they ran out of time and daylight. On July 2, the whole thing was complete and it was putting out power. This is with the older style controller card. The turbine could not run until we got an electical inspection and our power company approved. On July 27, National Grid came out and put in a meter that measures power used and sent to the grid. July 27, 2010 is the day we call "day zero" in our measuring.
Q. How much did you lay out for the wind turbine?
Here are all the costs for Wind Turbine #1:
Survey to map with GPS coordinates - $350
Wind turbine and Installation my payment – $32,224.87
Permit for year 1 –$25
Permit for year 2 - $25
Extra expense to pump cement across my lawn $800. Rodney (my installer) picked up the other half of this unanticipated cost.
County Electric Inspection required by National Grid - $150
NYSERDA’s payment (This is not my expense but NY States) Incentive -$25,600
You have to pay up front. NYSERDA holds back their funding until delivery and then they give final payment after it is hooked to the grid.
Rodney says that the cost of shipping has doubled since mine was ordered. I got free shipping by being one of the first people to order.
In 2011, we got a 9,000 tax credit . Once the system starts running consistently, I'll do the payback projections. It is clear now that payback will never happen.
I sold the Nacelle and blades to a Neighbor for $250. I hope he gets it working.
The Second turbine costs
South West Whisper 200 HV on Ebay -$650
Tower Extension Parts- ~$1,200
Welding of the plate - $250
Stainless steel pole ~$300
Help and new Control panel Box from Scott ~$625 Estimate TBD
Tower extension design - No charge from Husband
New CAM when we stripped the threads that hold the blades on -300
New nose cone -50
- Minus the 250 received for the old Nacelle and blades.
Q. Are you crazy?
A. Yes, some how I think this is fun when we get it working.
I was actually jumping up and down with joy when the second Turbine started turning.
Q. Where did you get the site survey done?
A. Brooks Forestry and Resource Management Company (315) 676-5737. They did a great job at producing a map with all the elevations, distances to the land boundaries, and GPS coordinates of the proposed location. NYSERDA and my local town loved this.
Q. Who is your installer?
A. First Turbine. - Rural Generator and Wind – They were new to wind back in 2009, but they had a lot of experience with installing conventional gas powered generators for homes. They answer the phone, which most wind companies just can’t manage to do and they work really hard. They I'm fairly sure they lost money on my installation because of all the trips. I was very impress with their response on our first problem; they came out the day after we called even though we are about 3 hours away from their office. I believe they are no longer selling Redrivens, but do sell wind turbines from other manufactures.
Second turbine - my husband and I did the grunt work. My neighbor ( inspected the hydraulics) an Amish Company did the welding and Scott Fouts (QED Wind) Built the control box and remotely walked us through the connections and programming the Inverters.Q. Was it hard to get a permit?
A. In my town, they used to believe in a homeowners right to use their land as they see fit, as long as it doesn’t harm others. So it was very easy compared to some others I've heard about. NYSERDA required my town to do an environmental report.
I've heard that there has been a change and than no one in my town will ever get a permit again.
Q. How do you know you have enough wind? Did you measure it?
A. See this posting. Also, NYSERDA makes sure you have enough wind or they won’t fund your project. NYSERDA will give you an estimate on what to expect. You should believe their estimate they have done this a few times before.
Q. What is the pay back period for your investment?
A. Below are the numbers I put in the calculator to determine pay back before I had the wind turbine. It says 11.73 years, but now I know to add another 1.5 years to that figure for wait time. You must add all of the time waiting where you are not making a bit of return. Also, the system didn't work consistently for the first year so add one more year. So 14.23 years is the new calculation. That calculation is if the price of the power company's KWH stays the same and that the generator is up and running all 13 years. This was based on Redriven’s old design power curve.
The real answer - Not in my lifetime! But the money is gone so now what ever power we get back is good.
Q. Do you publish all the Comments on this blog?
A. I will publish any comment that has a source – including a way to contact that person or if it is just a question. I won’t publish anonymous posts that are hurtful or that are deceiving. For example, I just rejected a comment that said the source was UPI , but when I looked at the article, only the first sentence was from United Press International – who knows were the other so called facts came from. That is what I call deceptive. So if you want your comments posted, identify your self or point to sources that can be verified.
