Needs Pictures: 0
Picture(s) thanks: 0
Results 16 to 30 of 79
-
13th November 2014, 09:45 PM #16Senior Member
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Melbourne
- Age
- 54
- Posts
- 380
G'day Joe,
You often see the type of light poles you mentioned lying off the side of the road after they have been plowed into by cars.
Sometimes they are mangled at the bottom but I reckon with a bit of cut and shut they would still be the business.
They appear to come in three sections that could probably be disassembled for ease of transport.
They often lie there for months and one day they're gone, I often wonder if they were removed officially or just disappeared by someone who needed one.
We've got a block near Maldon and I would like to put up a wind turbine and have often thought one of those old towers would work.
For access purposes you could always weld on foot pegs and install a Ladsafe.
I have worked on comms towers that have a hydraulic jack in the base which allowed them to be jacked up and down, I think the lights at a lot of sports grounds use a similar mechanism, nice but prohibitively expensive.
Another option might be an old power pole, you used to be able to get them from the pole dumps back in the SEC days but I've got no idea what they do with them now.
I reckon it might be worth contacting SP Ausnet or whatever they call them selves today as I would guess they'd have responsibility for both the decommissioned light towers and poles?
Might be worth a try anyway.
Cheers,
Greg.
-
13th November 2014 09:45 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
- Join Date
- Always
- Location
- Advertising world
- Age
- 2010
- Posts
- Many
-
13th November 2014, 09:50 PM #17How does it reduce the mast height need though?
In fact there are a number of advantages. The helical designs these days make the torque issue referred to above less of an impediment. But they are expensive."I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."
-
13th November 2014, 10:00 PM #18Pink 10EE owner
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
- Location
- near Rockhampton
- Posts
- 4,304
-
13th November 2014, 10:02 PM #19
What are your plans with providing the generator Joe. The reason I ask is that there are many examples of home made units on the net that are extremely good. I think the biggest cost is the RE magnets. There are a number of write ups where people have installed these in remote locations and have got very good output from them. I think 1 of these was a guy who was an amateur astonomer and had bought a property out in the wilds of America. They had vanes up to 20 ft in diam.
Dean
-
13th November 2014, 10:04 PM #20
I know what you mean Richard....
Trouble is there are 6 acres of them on my place and another 20 acres or so on the neighbour's place..... The tower needs to go in a 50m gap in between....Cheers,
Joe
9"thicknesser/planer, 12" bench saw, 2Hp Dusty, 5/8" Drill press, 10" Makita drop saw, 2Hp Makita outer, the usual power tools and carpentry hand tools...
-
13th November 2014, 10:09 PM #21
Hi Joe,
I've got a 12m tilt over tower sitting behind the shed, it's triangular and cross braced and about 600mm a side, and tilts over at the 6m mark.
Has anyone asked yet about the orange bellied parrots in your area?
Ray
-
13th November 2014, 10:12 PM #22Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2007
- Location
- Country West Oz
- Age
- 77
- Posts
- 201
What is the purpose of the turbine, is it to provide off grid power, or maybe just backup?
Given the tower and infrastructure required there maybe cheaper alternatives.
An affordable tower of that height will require a large quantity of guy wires and the bases for them.
Which ever way you go it is going to cost serious dollars.
All I can see here is those little, I mean large money bags with wings rapidly flying away.Regards
Bradford
-
13th November 2014, 10:26 PM #23
making power
There are alternatives to a wind powered gene
I am currently setting up a single cyl. Lister diesel CS 6 hp engine. I have a 3 kW 240 Volt alternator for the Lister
Many of these CS engines are currently made in India and are known as Listeroids . The original UK made CS was made from 1930 to the 1980's in the UK . No glo plug or pre heating is needed , just crank it over and release the valve lifter .
The Indian copies do have issues - casting sand left inside and other problems. The big positive is, the spare parts are cheap and plentiful .
-
13th November 2014, 10:33 PM #24
Well Bradford, that's actually why I'm more leaning to a self-supporting tower or pole. Guy wires are a bit risky in my environment.
Oh, the idea of a wind generator is to capture carbon free energy at night and on 'dark' days. It will supplement our PV system.Cheers,
Joe
9"thicknesser/planer, 12" bench saw, 2Hp Dusty, 5/8" Drill press, 10" Makita drop saw, 2Hp Makita outer, the usual power tools and carpentry hand tools...
-
13th November 2014, 10:38 PM #25
Hi Morrisman, we also have a 6.5kW diesel genny....
We are a long way in the bush on the very end of a SWER line that's already too long....Cheers,
Joe
9"thicknesser/planer, 12" bench saw, 2Hp Dusty, 5/8" Drill press, 10" Makita drop saw, 2Hp Makita outer, the usual power tools and carpentry hand tools...
-
13th November 2014, 10:40 PM #26Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
Most powertools have sharp teeth.
People are made of meat.
Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.
-
13th November 2014, 10:43 PM #27
Can you take that discussion elsewhere please soundman?
I would get the posthole borer on RC's tractor out and get a redimix truck in and put the tower up the next day... let's leave it there?Cheers,
Joe
9"thicknesser/planer, 12" bench saw, 2Hp Dusty, 5/8" Drill press, 10" Makita drop saw, 2Hp Makita outer, the usual power tools and carpentry hand tools...
-
13th November 2014, 10:52 PM #28Senior Member
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- blackburn vic
- Posts
- 221
20m Pole
Hi Joe
If you havent already done so I would be doing some wind loading calculations to establish whether the pole will support your generator. Self supporting devices have a habit of falling over if the load is too much.
Roger
-
13th November 2014, 11:39 PM #29Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2007
- Location
- Country West Oz
- Age
- 77
- Posts
- 201
I don't know anything about your site, but have you checked and tested for wind quality, quantity and consistency? If you do not have a good wind site you may be spending a lot of money for very little return.
Not trying to knock what you are wanting to do, just trying to be helpful, I've seen quite a few people go down this path to be very disappointed at the result.Regards
Bradford
-
14th November 2014, 12:06 AM #30
Roger,
yes, I'll certainly do that when the time comes. At the moment it's at the 'find out what's possible' stage and lots of variables. I don't have a generator nor decided on anything more than 2kW as a desired output. Everyone's input and hints and cautions will be taken on board!
Thank you all!
Bradford,
no more than collecting preliminary data so far. We are on a slope of a long range which funnels the winds from the prdominant direction right over our property. At some stage I will put an anemometer on our antenna tower to get some actual readings at the elevation the turbine might go. Then I will have some 'real world' information to decide to go ahead or not.
I'm just aware that there is no output from my PV panels at night and very little on 'dark days' - and there is often consistent wind at those times.
You are of course right, it might be a wasted effort and should not go ahead at all.Cheers,
Joe
9"thicknesser/planer, 12" bench saw, 2Hp Dusty, 5/8" Drill press, 10" Makita drop saw, 2Hp Makita outer, the usual power tools and carpentry hand tools...
Similar Threads
-
Any of you seen those decorative laser cut weathering steel light boxes
By beefy in forum METALWORK FORUMReplies: 21Last Post: 19th January 2013, 05:54 PM -
Magnifier/light on articulated arm wanted
By scooter in forum SCROLLERS FORUMReplies: 10Last Post: 28th July 2004, 08:52 PM -
Taller feet for Work Centre?
By Synergy in forum TRITON / GMCReplies: 4Last Post: 2nd July 2004, 06:21 PM