New best production day ever – In August?

Things are looking up. Some of you might remember last August we had a net loss of 67 KWH of power running the turbine rather than making any power. With that in mind, we were shocked to have our “best production day ever” this month – 40KWH in a 24 hour period


My husband measures every morning so in order to see the wind you really need to piece together two daily measurement graphs. The best day ever was from 8am august 24 to 8am August 25th.

 

 






The new Redriven programing and brake design must be working. We had a net gain of 108KWHs for the month of August.


Here is the graph for the whole month. Although average wind speed is a very low 1.5 mph, there were plenty of gusts this month.

A hurricane is on its way up the eastern seaboard.  Let’s hope it tracks so we only get a steady ~20 MPH.  I'm hopeful we can beat that best day record soon and get a new best month ever record too.

Improvements with the new version of software

We had a surprise visit from Kyle / Redriven Friday. He gave us an upgrade to Diagnostic HMI Version 3.18

We’ve noticed a few improvements in the software and were told about a few others.

The settings all save now in Flash. There is new flash program that seems to upload and download software. In the older version there were 3 setting that had to be re-entered when you lost power. These should hold now after a power outage.

The screen now turns off when you are not actively looking at it that should improve on power consumed by the system. Also the main screen shows Voltage, RPM and Wind speed all together on one graph displaying the last hour of readings.

We are up and running again after being down for 42 days!

Now I know why most people are just happy to see it spin. I really missed looking out there and watching it go. I can enjoy windy days again instead thinking of them as missed opportunities to make power.


When Parker was here last he diagnosed it was the computer cards that had issues so we sent both the controller card in the nacelle and in the “long board” back to Redriven to be checked out / refurbished.

Unfortunately, Parker is no longer working for Redriven, but my most excellent husband spent the whole day yesterday putting the cards back in and troubleshooting wiring connectivity issues. Being a wind tech or wind smith is a really hard job, in the summer. In the winter, it is just no fun at all. Lucky for us, my husband does this type of continuity checking for his work and has all the tools and he had time to do it. I had to work and wasn’t much help at all. Now we are back up and running again! There are only a few days left in March, the best month of the year for wind. It seems the winter just won’t give up this year so maybe the wind will continue to blow too.

Results for Jan and Feb

Today is measurement day. I didn’t post results last month since I was out of town,  so this is my very sad two month report. 

From Dec 27 to Feb 27^th we made 134KWH.  Keep in mind the turbine was only running for 16 of a possible 62 days.     

No word yet from  Redirven on when they are coming back to fix it.

Thanksgiving day

Happy Thanksgiving United States readers! I’m very thankful that both Rural Wind & and Electric (Rodney and James) plus Redriven (Dave and Scott) were here for the last two days working hard to resolve the issues with our wind turbine. They replaced a cable that was 6 wire unshielded with a cable with 2 shields and 2 twisted pair cable. This cable replacement significantly reduced the noise and raised the control signal. Dave from Redriven also programed some checks (firmware 2.05) so the system will automatically reset on the over-speed error that we just started getting.

Now our wind turbine is back making power better than ever. Since they left yesterday, we have had no errors at all. Plus now at 3.75 miles per hour the meter stands still (no gain no loss). If you remember, with the older system, the meter stood still at 8 miles per hour. This means that when the wind turbine is slowly turning we will now have a net gain rather than a loss. The parasitic loss is now about 300 watts, we think it was about 600 –to 800 watts with the older control system. This should do great things for our power production.

Installation Next Week?

My Installer says they are coming next week to put up my tower! Can I believe it?


As you can see I haven’t written in my blog for a long time. I was thoroughly discussed with this whole thing and thinking that I should have never done this. Two of my coworkers who ask me all the time “did you get your wind turbine yet?” Were sorry they asked when I started complaining to them. I realized the other day if only I had put my money in the stock market, it would have doubled by now. They told me that power generation companies always have in their contracts that the generator service providers must pay the cost of any down time or lost power. Doesn’t matter if the problem is late installation or malfunctions, if there is any down time they get paid for power lost. I didn’t expect this in my wildest dreams, but I did expect that if I’ve been waiting for a part since March that it would be delivered by now. Three months of lost power could pay for the cover to be Fedexed. Why was I waiting to get booked on the next slow boat from China? I decided to call the guy at the top. The very first person I called about Redriven almost 1.5 years ago was Christopher Grant, one of the owners of ReDriven.

I told Chris  that I was totally discussed that I’ve after a year and a half, all I have is a block of cement. He said he thought that all my parts had been delivered in Feb. but he wasn’t sure if my blades had the right drilling and that he would call me back.

When he called back he told me that all my parts were there and that he just wasn’t sure if the blades had the right holes drilled. There was a change in the bolt pattern in the blades so they fit the flange. He said that he had a temporary cover that could be used until the new improved cover was delivered. The Controller card I was waiting for could be by-passed and the old controller system could be used until the new controller card could be installed. He told me (as he told many of you when you called about my web site) that they were completely re-designing the system one piece at a time. First the Controller was redesigned before I put in my order, then the blades (see blade issue blog ). Next they re-designed the tower because of failing FEA (Finite Element Analyses). Last the turbine itself – hence the missing cover (one last part to be built). He said that the generator was now NEMA class H winding rated at 180 degrees Celsius.

About an hour after he verified that all my parts were there and I was ready to be installed, Ginny Weaver called and said they are coming next week and they would call later and tell me more details about what day. They need to rent some equipment to assemble the tower.

Christopher told me about this YouTube video that shows the new system that I will be getting. This shows the complete new tower base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xwwEKRYMs

The second video is a turbine that my installer put up. It says 80 meters, but it is really 80feet. Shows the turbine and top of the tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl4QQx6HfYQ

You see the tower is now one large hydraulic instead of two, the Nacelle has a different shape. I think he said the blue is the temporary cover. The blades look more aero dynamic. Chris said they hired an experienced engineer from LM Glasfiber to design them.

I used to scan the Internet weekly for any new Redrive information, but since the New Year, I guess I gave up hope that this would ever really happen. I stopped looking. People that commented on this site and I couldn’t believe that I still had nothing yet one year and four months later.


As you can see from my blog my installer has been stringing me along with “just a couple of weeks” since July 09. Instead of just telling me last July when NYSERDA approved my project that the manufacture was redesigning the whole thing and that is wouldn’t come for many more months, he kept telling me it was going to be 3 more weeks. Then my turbine was delivered in Feb, he kept telling me a few more weeks. (Update 5-22-10 - my installer says that he was just telling me what ReDriven was telling him - read my May 22 blog and you will see why the installer seems more credible here than Redriven)


Redriven tells me they have a huge backlog of people waiting for their turbines. We are all in queue for a turbine with no published track record. I guess that is better than one with a poor track record.  Redriven says that the new design is much more reliable. We hope they are right.

I guess that my installer didn’t want to do my installation because he knew he would have to make a return trip or two when the real cover and controller came in. Which means a long drive for him and his crew. I guess I’ll have to hear his side of this. Truth is always better in the long run.

Chris Grant says the people at NYSERDA have always been updated on what was happening. I guess that is why they were not concerned about how long this was taking. They did call me about a month ago checking up on what was happening. They said they wanted to see if everyone is getting the same story.

Chris Grant from Redriven told me that they are submitting for the small wind certification and they’re seeing a much more reliable system with the new design. He said that updating the web site hasn’t been a priority for them. I guess it wouldn’t be a priority to let everyone know there is no history on the new turbine and they are fresh off the design bench.

Last steps in the foundation for our Re-driven 10k wind turbine

The last step of building the foundation is taking the forms off and the dirt is pushed back.

Now were back to waiting. First, waiting for the cement to cure and then for the tower and turbine to arrive.

Rodney from Rual Bolt Generation and Wind says the parts will be coming in about 4-7 weeks. He said he would try to do a better job at keeping us up-to-date on what is happening.

Getting ready for the tower and cabling

This week the people that place little flags to mark the electric and phone lines will be coming. This is to make sure that we don’t dig in the wrong area for the wind turbine foundation and the underground cables to attach to the inverter.

It is also time to get insurance. I talked to my insurance company back in February when I started this project.

One article on the net that I found helpful on insurance was this one by Mick Sagrillo, Sagrillo Power & Light


http://www.awea.org/smallwind/sagrillo/ms_insur2.html


We’ll need insurance for an “appurtenant structure” and possibly liability insurance (which we already have). From what I’ve read so far, it seems New York State doesn’t allow utilities to require liability insurance.

Going with the 80 foot tower!

I’ve decided to go with the 80 foot tower .

-The payback period is shorter

- I wouldn’t have to wait for NYSERDA to re-approve me

- I'm getting a tower that has been out and working for over a year

- I’ve spent a lot of money all ready – it is time to make some green power!

My installer says he is ordering the anchors, rebar and pad. We should be ready to dig in 3 weeks. Now I’ve got to clean my garage so I have room on the wall for the inverter equipment. I think my installer said he needed a 6ft by 6ft space. I’ll have to ask again for the spec for that that wall.

Weibull curve

My price for the tower was not right - sorry back to the drawing board on trying to figure out the pay back to determine if this is the right thing to do. My installer thinks that the NYSERDA re-aproval for a 100 vs. 80 foot tower will be quick.

Ellen

NYSERDA approval has arrived

Great news! I’ve got my NYSERDA approval. We could start poring cement, but I’d still like to find out how much more it would cost to go up 20 feet or ever 40 more feet. I wanted at least 100 feet in the beginning, but they didn’t make a 100-foot hydraulic tower then. They do now.

My installer doesn't have the pricing for the higher towers yet. They’ve got it for the 20KW but not for my 10KW. Just another week and ½, but that is what they have been saying for a month or so. I think what I’ll do is talk to my town about what it will take to amend my permit to cover up to 120ft just in case I can afford to go the extra feet.

It really means a lot to the projected energy out put. Here are the stats the NYSERDA’s way of measuring.

With an 80 ft tower I could produce 41.1 KWH daily
With a 100 ft tower 52.7 KWH daily almost 28% more
With a 120 ft tower 63.6 KWH daily 55% more power

If power was 10 cent a kW the power I’d be producing would be 4.11 dollar per day with the 80ft tower or 5.27 per day.

I’d have to go back to NYSERDA to get there approval again for the higher tower. I’m not sure how many more months we’d be waiting. They give more money based on tower height. Also, the Federal tax credit is uncapped so I’d get 30% back on the added expense of the extra feet.

It is a very windy day today. Wish I had my wind turbine up and spinning.

Small wind - is it worth the price?

I'm a member of the small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com . This a group of people interested in Small wind. Someone posted this article from Low Tech magazine. Redriven the turbine that I'm waiting to install was not in the study. Of coarse the small wind group found many things wrong with the study.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/04/small-windmills-test-results.html As you can see from this looking at the test, their towers were not tall enough. The turbines should tower over the trees like the radio tower in the picture.

One of the conclusions of this article is that large scale turbines are more efficient. Would anyone disagree? But what they are missing is that these small wind turbines will help promote wind. They will prove to people that wind generators are not the evil noise machines that the anti wind people would have everyone believe.


I considered going big - getting a lot of neighbors or investors to get a very large wind turbine. I've seen how much work it is to get permits to do that kind of project. There was an attempt to do a wind farm near where I live. There was a huge out cry from the community that ended with a ban on all large scale wind farms project. Maybe my small project will show them that wind turbines are not so bad. Then when a neighbor tries to get a permit to go a little bigger there will not be the backlash. Some day we might get those more efficient models in our hood.

We could invest in wind farm stock, but we all know how much fun the stock market is these days.

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