I’m renovating an old stone house that hasn’t been lived in for 40 years. I think that the main reason that it’s not been lived in for so long is that there is no mains water or power available at this property. It’s in the country and on acreage, but mains power isn’t close, so I had to look at alternative energy sources to bring this house back to life again.
It’s windy at this location quite a bit of the time… and there used to be a windmill just 15 metres or so from the house. The original windmill was long gone before I bought the place, but the tower was still there – and solid, scary but solid.
So it seemed the logical place to put a new wind generator. I started doing research as I knew nothing about energy alternatives, especially wind turbines. I needed something light as it had to be mounted to the top of the tower, which is 11 metres high. It also had to have a storm brake, cause the wind here can sometimes be wild. And I wanted it to have it’s own regulator, so that I didn’t have to buy anything more… just to keep it simple.
I found quite a lot of options and settled on a 12/24v wind turbine I found on eBay. I already had a 12v system that I’d put together running on solar. I had bought a 24v inverter (car boot sale) and planned to upgrade everything to 24v in the future, so this wind turbine I bought could be used on either a 12v or 24v system with the flick of a switch.
As it turned out the inverter didn’t work and wasn’t worth repairing, so I’m still running on 12v. I’ll eventually upgrade to a 48v system. I believe it’s the most efficient.
Anyway, the video below is the exciting moment when the wind turbine had been attached to the top of the tower, all the wiring was done and the switch was flicked! It starts off a bit slow, but starts really cranking after a while…. a really exciting moment for me!
How fantastic is that? Free, green energy using a wind turbine.
Looking for green energy alternatives,
