RE: Lightly OT: Solar Power

["Benfield, John" <john.benfield@xxxxxxxxx>]

>I was wondering if anyone here had gone down the rout of solar=20
>power/wind power, and was wondering how they found it. Firstly, did=20
>they find it worked well with their automation set up (any probs=20
>with X10), and did it allow them become in any way energy self=20
>sufficient.

You will only become self sufficient in energy if you spend quite a bit of
money. Wind is okay in the winter, however you need to have a good average
wind speed (> 5 m/s, approx 13 mph). That is allot of wind. You will
need t=
o
have PV cells for the summer. Also, to become self sufficient and not rely
on the grid you need somewhere to store the energy produced. So you need a
battery bank, you also need and charge controller/inverter to run it all.
Even to power a modest house you are talking serious money, say =A325K
plus=
.

A better way of doing it, if you are interested, is a grid tied system.
Basically your wind turbine/PV array are attached to an inverted. This is
also connected to the grid. When your system is producing electricity you
will run on this and be topped up by the grid. So on windless nights you
ca=
n
still turn the lights on. During the winding/sunny days when you are
producing more electricity that you are using, you can then sell the excess
to the grid. In effect (and literally) you meter runs backwards.

As for running X10 or anything else. This will depend of the inverter that
you are using. The grid produces AC on a real sign wave, however inverts do
not produce real sign ways. They step the out to produce the sign wave. The
more steps the better the wave and the better 'quality' the electricity.=20

A couple of things about the wind turbines. First the higher you can get it
the better it will perform. I can't remember the exact figures off the top
of head, but basically power doubles with height (within reason). Also, you
need to be aware of any turbulence near the turbine. You need clear run
wit=
h
no buildings, trees etc for as far as possible. The best type of wind is a
strong steady one, turbulence will create too many dips and trough. Also,
the wind will change direction with the turbulence and so the turbine will
constantly be hunting for the wind.

JB


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