Posted: 6/14/2014 3:37:00 PM EDT
| Looking for suggestions for a wind generator for a livestock barn. Liking for a 5 kW unit to help supplement what the barn uses. |
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Quoted:
Consider solar, quiet and safer for livestock... From doing a little bit of research on the Bounce Energy page. Average cost per Watt of solar energy is about $1.03. Going off prices for 1kW generators, looking at around 98ยข per Watt. So if my math is correct for a 1 kW rated turbine @ 26 mph. The average wind speeds for the location are 16 mph so it'll average around 600W of power generation. So at $980 (roughly), we are looking at an average of 51.84 MJ of energy collection per the daily average of wind. 1 kW worth of solar panels will run around $1030 and will collect (6 hours of sunlight per day) 21.6 MJ of energy for the daily average. So it's looking to be a little more than 2 times as cost efficient to run wind over solar. |
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My previous neighbor built a 5 kw wind generator. 4 blades that he carved himself, 22 foot swept diameter. It would only produce that in sustained 20 mph winds, on a tower with the generator head 90 + feet from grade.
Do the math on energy in the wind, with varying wind speed values typical of your location. You need a lot of wind, a tower 30 or more feet above anything within 300 feet, and a large swept area to get that kind of power. Good luck. J. ETA, if I was in a sunny location in TX, I would spend 5x that amount on solar, storage, inverter, before I spent a dime on wind. Longevity, useful power, and low maintenance being the factors. Do the math and figure out the kinetic energy actually available in wind and apply an appropriate efficiency. Swept area needs to be big. |