The Top 40

Windmills produce a piddling amount of unreliable expensive electricity but the enviros keep pushing this nonsense.

"Electricity generated by US wind farms fell 6 per cent in the first half of the year...."
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Why doesn't 6% seem huge to me?

Anyway, windmills are mechanical and doomed to fail sooner than later.

Go solar, and go for good.
And don't put em on the roof, mount them at ground level, so you can perform the necessary maintenance (bird shit, snow, etc.) without risking your life unnecessarily. But make sure you secure them in some manner so they cannot be damaged or stolen. I recommend a concrete wall and 24 hr 12 ga dbl 00 buck surveillance.

re: go solar, and go for good--GS

What do you do at night?
What do you do in the winter?
What do you do if in the higher latitudes?
Who is going to pay for it?

Dan Kurt

Back in the old days windmills were used to pump water and charge some 6v car batteries. When the lights went out oil lamps were lit.

If you're gonna go solar or wind, just how much power you reckon you'll need?

Or is this some sort of Luddite retreat to nature, living in a sod hut and making clothes out of flour sacks? Live off the land, grow yer own, breed goats for meat and milk?

What's the problem with paying the utility to provide power to you? We buy fuel for our vehicles, food and clothing for our families, other commodities.

Don't worry, if the entire system shuts down we'll have more to worry about than plugging in a hair dryer.

TANSTAAFL.

Interestingly, Vermont is trying to use totally renewable and sustainable power. They have littered the ridgelines with turbines and are coating the landscape with solar panels. They shut down Vermont Yankee, the nuke plant which produced about 34% of the state's power.

Now they have to buy power from Seabrook in New Hampshire and power generated by Hydro Quebec. Electric rates have soared.

The State will look like the Tin Man in Oz in a few years.

It took me some research and after negative results I finally fell upon the stat that the huge wind boondoggle, er - wind project, in Washington state will (not yet, but when they get all the turbines they plan on) equal less than the output of one Hydroelectric turbine. Now consider that electricity is diminished by friction over distance and you see the complete tomfoolery of the windys.
But, don't stop at giving is wind. Next rail against the dams.

Some folks think that electricity is a naturally occurring commodity, like air or sunshine.
"Why, we just flip a switch and there it is".

I almost hit a windmill blade with my train today. That would have made the news.

The truck hauling it was stopped on the crossing waiting for a light. Due to having a short, light train and an incline, I was able to stop in time.

Part of me wanted to hit it just to see what would happen, but they are pretty big, it was sitting pretty high off the ground, and it might have sheared off the cab.

If you want to run your life as you do now and power it solely with solar you better have deep pockets.

Regular people should evaluate their lifestyle, study the options, and find a happy medium between reducing the amount of electricity they require and the means of producing it.

If you do a DIY deal on an existing home you can do it 1 room at a time, with an eye to the future, so that it is financially manageable.

An incentive is to get all your electric bills out over the past 7 years and get them into a database so you can see the trend, then align that trend with the rising costs. Then flip those numbers backwards to get an idea of what the electric you use is going to cost over the next 7 years.

When you realize what the juice is going to cost over the next 7 years and you'll have nothing to show for it, and compare that to the same amount of money spent toward your future with solar and at the end of the period you still have all the stuff and it's still saving you money, the path will be clear.

Example:
My office is *12'x24'* in a detached building with a window air conditioner and a propane heater and our elevation here is 846'and it is seriously cold for about 4 months per year.

For electricity my main computer system uses about 600 watts peak, I have a ceiling fan, and 2 80 watt ceiling lamps. If I don't use the air conditioner this room can be powered with 1 250 watt panel and 2 batteries, 1000watt inverter, charge controller, all for about $1000.

I have modified my lifestyle, and continue to do so, so that my electricity use is a fraction of what it was say 5 years ago.

Next year I will make my wife's office in the main house solar powered. I will keep adding rooms til the whole conversion is complete. Then the electric company will start paying ME for a change.

I also experiment with solar stuff, using fresnel lenses and reflective fenders to increase solar output and 1/8" copper tubing waterlines for panel cooling, and a host of other ideas. My goal is to get 500 watts out of a 250 watt panel, and beyond.

**The entire building is 24'x36' of which 24'x24' is my workshop which is not solar powered. I built this building myself with 1 helper 9 years ago and it has serious energy conservation materials and methods.