Thread: Wanted: 20m or taller steel street light pole....

How does it reduce the mast height need though?

A VAWT does not need as much wind to generate power and so can be closer to the ground. They are simpler in operation because they don't need directional mechanisms to point them into the wind. The vanes can be mounted on a pole with the generator itself lower down making it easier to access and they don't need as solid a mounting structure because there is less force placed on it.

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.

Originally Posted by jhovel

That is determined by the trees nearby.....? About 20m

Oh I can assist with "fixing" them..

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

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....

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

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.

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 .

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.

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....

Originally Posted by .RC.

With zero mechanical equipment other then hand tools....a day and a half for two people..

so..how long to dig the footings and let the concrete go off.


and is that from nothing to pumping water.

cheers

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?

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

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.

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.