The power/solar/batteries/generator thread

Ok, so my Dad has a couple of draft horses. He's been wanting a treadmill for them. To my knowledge their is just one company that makes the historic kind he wants. Athens Enterprise(not on the interweb) they do advertise in Rural Heritage or the Small Farm Journal. So these tread mills are gravity operated(take no power). They also GENERATE power. I horse that already needs/wants exercise can charge a battery bank. There are small animal versions of this made for sheep, goats, and dogs. I believe they start around 2k. A couple of work/herd/sled dogs who desperately want to run 20hrs a day could supplement power needs.

The guys from google have developed a power source the size of a parking space that could produce 100kw for a minimum of 10 years. The price is a little steep at $800,000 or $400 a kw. They say they are trying to get the price down to $3000 for a home size unit. Article here
http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=223100606

Another solution for a small community.
http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/index.html
$50million
7-10 years of power
20k homes
Its basically a self contained nuclear battery buried and connected to a steam turbine.

rural/military applications hmmmm![Flower]

WE live 3 miles from utility power. Been living off-grid for 5yrs. Power our home with a wind turbine and PV. Installed the system myself.

Glad to answer any questions regarding wind turbines and PV.

I assume the wind turbine and PV setups are all tied together? Did you build the WT yourself or was it purchased? Cost and output of the WT setup?

Yes, wind turbine and PV is tied together charging the same batteries. The wind turbine I purchased is a Proven WT2.5. It is on a 70' freestanding tower. Picked the the Proven for it's reputation of surviving harsh wind sites. I have a harsh wind site. Last January had a peak gust of 102.6 mph. The turbines peak output is 2800 watts @ 30 mph. Last January with a average wind speed of 15.6 it produced 636 KW hours. The cost, 18K doing all the work myself.

PV consist of 2200 watts of panels.

Between the PV and the wind, it produces more than enough to cover our loads. Also have 12KW propane generator for a backup.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by offgrid

Yes, wind turbine and PV is tied together charging the same batteries. The wind turbine I purchased is a Proven WT2.5. It is on a 70' freestanding tower. Picked the the Proven for it's reputation of surviving harsh wind sites. I have a harsh wind site. Last January had a peak gust of 102.6 mph. The turbines peak output is 2800 watts @ 30 mph. Last January with a average wind speed of 15.6 it produced 636 KW hours. The cost, 18K doing all the work myself.

PV consist of 2200 watts of panels.

Between the PV and the wind, it produces more than enough to cover our loads. Also have 12KW propane generator for a backup.

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Welcome to the forums. That's a lot of power. 24V I take it? how many AH of storage do you have?

48 volt system. The advantage to 48 over 24 is lower current, smaller gauge wire $, single series string of batteries.

1180 AH battery bank, 24-2volt cells. A nominal 50V's x 1180 = 59, 000 watts capacity. We use about 8 KW's a day. Battery bank gives us 3 day storage discharging down to 50%. Very rare to go 3 days w/o sun or wind.

This thread and another one got me thinking about a solar unit to charge batteries for power tools.
If the SHTF and your house is damaged power tools would let you fix your house up faster. Being able to charge the batteries for the tools off a solar powered battery system seems like a logical step to me.
Could the same set up be used for recharging cell phones, flashlights and AA or AAA batteries?

A small solar setup will absolutely work for charging you cordless tool batteries.

Get yourself a 100 watt panel, 12 volt charge controller, 150 AH battery, and a Pure Wave Sign inverter.

You can not use a modified sine-wave inverter. There is a high probability your battery chargers will not work or worse burn up your chargers.

You can start small with just a solar panel, charge controller and battery. Run a few lights in your house. You can get 12V lights at most RV/camper stores. You can use a 12V light in any standard lamp.