Let’s Go Viking!

And building Spaceships, but the alternate energy provisions of H.B 1387 (personal tax exemptions for wind and solar) discussed here last year have been stricken.  The Governor signed the bill on June 2nd and I received a copy of it this afternoon from Rep. Randy Terrill’s office.  After reading it over, I noticed that there are a lot of incentives for Oil and Gas and moving chicken litter, but nada! on wind power. Then I asked myself why? Because, I believe, of the political clout of the  big Oil, Gas and Electric companies in the state. Their interests do not coincide with ours… they don’t want the people making their own power; it’s bad for business. Now I don’t have a problem with oil and gas making a profit, I would just like to see the same consideration given to the people who choose a more independent life and make their own power.  No oil and gas company that I am aware of in the state fronts 100% of the cost of production. We need to start making waves and yelling loud! Contact your local representatives and let them know what you think!

Sorry for not up-dating the site in awhile, and especially to the users that have been asking questions related to wind power. But I’ve recently become involved in a project that up to now has taken almost all my spare time, and has made posting any information regarding wind power somewhat problematic until all the legal documents are done. I wish I could say more, but I will tell you that it promises to be very interesting and I will share all I can when I can.

About the bees… same project got in the way there too, though it has nothing to do with bees, I just didn’t have the time to properly set them up and now the season has moved on and the main honey flow here is almost done.  So hopefully next year we will have bees to write about. In the meantime I will share what I have learned about the proper, sustainable way to keep bees and have them prosper. And help avoid CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) while growing feral populations of mite and disease resistant bees.

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Since we multiple projects on hold for now due to various reasons, it seemed appropriate to start a new one! This one, like the rest on this site, is directly related to self-sustaining, more natural lifestyle, bee keeping. But unlike most of our projects, this one can be done in almost any backyard, with a minimal investment. And for the self-reliant, the products of the hive are great, giving one freedom to use ones own products, or barter/sell for other goods. Some of the profit centers are honey, bees wax, selling bees and breeding/selling queens. This give you multiple lines to work with and help bring in some cash to the homestead.  Now that we have the rational out of the way we can get on with the real deal…bees are cool!  

I spent a little time over at nws.noaa.gov looking at the historical wind for a site about 2 miles from here. I looked at each month of 2007 and copied that data into Excel to get an idea about power expectations for this area. Here is what I came up with:

A quick look shows that we can expect to see more than 180 days of power producing wind (defined as over 10 mph) and that the tower should be stout since there are several days with gusts above 40 mph. Note that in this graph NWS was missing daily data for most of February. Now to do the daily expected power production to see how much solar will be needed.

The design phase of the first wind power project is almost complete. The generator design is complete except for the stator bracket, but that’s not difficult. Here is the second rotor, which also has 8 magnets. That gives the generator 16 mags with 8 poles. Given the strength of the magnets, I have changed the blade design from 5′ to 8′ and reduced the TSR (tip speed ratio) to 6 from 8. This will allow better low-wind performance and lower RPMs at the expense of high-wind performance. Since low winds are more common here than high winds, this will be an overall net gain.

The stator design is basic, and the dimensions are estimates. Until I wind and test the first coil, I’m not sure what the final size will be. I know it will be close, but I’m not sure how close. This is 6 coils of 16AWG magnet wire, estimating 80 turns. We’ll have to see how it performs when tested, how much power it puts out (in amps) and how much resistance there is (in Ohms). This stator will be wired for 3-phase, 24 volts in star. The lugs to the left of the picture are the power points which will lead to the 3 diode recitifiers to convert the power from wild AC to steady DC which the battery bank can use. The lighter band in the middle is the magnet path. The coil colors represent one phase of the 3 phase system.Here’s how it all goes together: Well, that’s the plan so far.  Still working on the details of the blades, but that’s more a matter of figuring out how to model them in Google’s SketchUp! Let me know what you think so far…

Well, the easy part’s done, the rotor for the generator is designed. The hard part will be the stator, (where the coils that produce the electricity live). Designing the coils requires knowing what the magnet size and placement are and is something of trail and error process. Here is the rotor design so far. It will tweak somewhat one the hub is sourced, but overall nothing will change. 

There will actually be two of these with the stator in between. So the current specs are 8 mags per rotor on a 10″ diameter, 1/4″ thick, steel disk. The mags are 1″x2″x1/2″ rare earth. These things are expensive and powerful! There are eight bolts holes, 1/2″, four for the hub bolts and four to allow the two rotors to be positioned without the danger of losing a few fingers due the attraction of the magnets. The stator will consist of 6 coils of roughly AWG 17 copper magnet wire (also not cheap!) at 80 turns (I think…).The design goal is to produce 300 watts with a 5′ diameter wind mill. Keep in mind that this is the quarter scale model for the final 20′ wind genny to produce 3 kW power. 

Here is a great example of space designing from Spuds…the details below are from an email describing his small space plan (~the graphics aren’t great due to multiple passes to convert from WMF to a form that I could use with my Mac and then to PNG…Spuds, please forgive me! -Ed.) 

First FloorLoft Bedroom“To give you an idea of the scale back. Where you see the double set of windows off the dining area? That’s now just one smaller set. And the west wall has now moved in, within walking space (behind) of the fireplace seating group. The guest bedroom has been re-purposed and reconfigured. Where you see closet currently, is a space for a Murphy bed and the closet now backs up to the utility room. (yeah I know about the bi folds’ swinging the wrong way) Now, the home office and entertainment area have been moved into that space (unless company arrives). The garage, is now a wider two bay instead of a three bay. The HW tank has been eliminated. (I’ll explain why shortly). And the kitchen over all has been reduced by the length and width of a full set of cabinets including the center island. The north to south dimensions over all, have been reduced by approximately the width of the corridor space between the kitchen and guest bedroom. What doesn’t show, is the configuration of the stair risers’ that wrap around the masonry fireplace mass. Underneath on the east is enclosed pantry/storage space. On the north face, is a small coat closet and a inset space for firewood. On the south face, is a doorway that leads down below to the safe room/wine cellar and electrical distribution center. The west facing set of risers, are visually free floating wood treads. Each supported by a pair of steel rods and steel framework buried back behind the stone facing. The handrail from outside corner to outside corner in a similar way, free floats from post to post. Steel wrapped in bent green wood, with angled knee braces. Haven’t tackled scaling back the Mstr. loft space just yet..Another feature, that’s not readily evident is the details of the greenhouse. The walking surface floor, is a hinged set of panels that flip up out of the way. Beneath that is a 3′ deep composting pit. Buried under that is a heat exchange loop that leads to a buried exchange tank; thru which a loop for domestic hot water and another loop for the radiant heat system passes. On demand HW units, will serve to boost domestic hot water to desired temps (if needed). One unit will serve both baths, and one for the kitchen. The closed greenhouse pit loop also has a solar panel incorporated on the return end. As long as the pit is kept “fed” it generates between 80 - 140 degree water. This somewhat elaborate scheme with a small amount of labor (feeding the pit) should provide “almost free” heat & hot water. The hydronic system, also has its’ back-up heater, if need be. Fireplace, is mainly for aesthetics unless we hit a long stretch of single digit weather.Exterior elevations? Kind of a country French look, with a Tudor influence. Exposed face timber frame beams, stone facing one third up from ground with stucco above. Roof line is a steep 10 in 12 pitch, with a long eyebrow window dormer on north face. Oh, I almost forgot? I altered the main entry. A rounded conical spire entry. Stone face below and cord wood above. -Standard stick frame construction.” -Spuds

Here is the alternate floor plan…in this one the sound suppression wall has been replaced and larger closets added to the bedrooms. Still not sure which one I like better…the costs and labor will be less with the rev b design, but I think that rev a offers more decorating possibilities and furniture layouts…hmmmm…

Well, in spite of the crush of our normal lives, I’ve managed to mangle the floor plan down to 2,830 square feet while retaining the design requirements I was given. It’s still shy of the 2, 500 we were looking for but I’m confident we can get there!

Thanks for all the great input! Based on that, I have version 2.4 of the floor plan finished. There is still a ton of design work to do, but it’s starting to come together. Click on the image for the large version.

Note that the plumbing now lines up against one drain line. Moving the washer/dryer (in red) moved south across the room to accommodate this. We have also reduced the oversized master to add the office back in. There is still a problem area in the central part of plan where there is over 100 sq feet of dead space, but my brain hurts so I’m calling it quits for the day!

Thanks again to all those on the  the Yahoo! Group OkieBaleHeads for all the valuable input!