January was full of cold, it was full of snow, it was full of ice, but it was not full of wind. In the end, we got a few days in a row that helped us out, but overall production was less than 220 kWhr for the month. Not great, but I guess not horrible.
Yesterday we were getting a good wind from the north, but the turbine was not spinning. The problem was it was facing into the wind and would turn around to be downwind like it should. I think my guy wire anchors may have settled some, so Mindy and I went and adjusted the wires and then all was well. I’m going to have to watch this and see if I can see a pattern in which way the tower might be leaning. I thought I had it straight up and down, but now it doesn’t seem that way.
We got our January electric bill. We owed less than $30 this past month. Our overproduction amount was 21 kWhr lower than our requirements from the grid. If we were on net metering it would have been a bill for about $3 I’m guessing. Oh well, there is news that net metering might be on the way if we can convince our coop it is a good idea.
Here is a graph of our production. The really windy days around Christmas were awesome, of course we were gone those days and my turbine shut down about 700 times in 3 days due to all sorts of errors. I’m currently in a disagreement with the manufacturers about the root cause of these shutdowns.
December has been a busy month. It started out with a good snow storm and some very cold temperatures. Here is the snow many we made, he stuck around for a week or more. Much different that last year’s snowman who melted as fast as he was made.
Can you find the wind turbine?
After finals were all graded and classes were done, the family enjoyed some time in sunny Florida. We flew down for the week before Christmas to spend time with my brother’s family and my mom and dad who were also down visiting.
Some cool birds joined us on the flight south.
Then came the flight back into Kansas City, which was in the middle of a 3 day snow storm. Let’s just say I picked a bad parking spot.
When I got to the car, I attempted to dig myself out for about 20 minutes. Of course, I had no gloves, boots, shovel, hat, winter coat, it was miserable. I gave up and went back to the bus stop and they informed me there was a number I could call for help. In the end the plow truck pulled me out of my spot. Fortunately my diesel started right up and we braved the snow packed roads home. I think for future reference I will just stay in Florida until all snow has melted. Which would, in this case, leave me still in Florida!
Happy New Year Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday.
We got our first bill from the electric coop. It is usually over twice what we were charged this month. Here are the stats. We overproduced 83 kWhr in the month, we underproduced 90 kWhr, and before the turbine was installed we used 120 kWhr. Our bill total was $33 for the month! Not bad, unless you think about the cost of the generator, then we have a long way to go. But that’s not the point, the point is we are producing energy that does not release green house gases, toxic fumes, carcinogens, or waste water.
I should mention the stats in the graph are a bit skewed because the software on the turbine was not updated until 4 days after the unit was turned on. Therefore, some of the zeros in the graph before the 14th are actually not really zeros, its just the memory chip in the turbine didn’t have the data.
We ventrued out to CO to hang out with Family last month. The kids had a blast palying with their cousins. Here a great game of hid of seek. Carmen kept giving it away.
So this is about 6 weeks after the fact, but Tim and I decided that with 2 roosters and 3(at the time) hens around, the eggs were probably fertilized and we should try to incubate some. We put 7 eggs in the incubator and then waited for 21 days. One day 20, we heard cheeping when we went to the garage. Here is what we found.
This little guy was hangin out in the corner and 2 other eggs already had holes in them where the chicks were trying to poke out. Mia stood out in the garage for about 45 minutes watching. I had already gone inside and she came running in to tell me that another one had hatched and we could put him in the pen with the other one under the heat lamp. Sure enough, when I went out, there he was. I asked her if she saw him come out and she said “yes, he had to wiggle alot and there is still some egg stuck to his head” I asked why she didn’t come get me so that I could watch and she said “I didn’t want to miss it”.
This morning I was able to turn the turbine on to test it out. It was not a windy day, so I didn’t think I would see much, maybe a slight spin that would indicate the break was off after the power switched on. Within a few minutes this is what I got!! Make sure your speakers are on, you can actually hear the sweet sound of my electric meter spinning backwards! (Not really)
I currently sit at my computer with a huge pile of grading starting at me. But do I grade these papers . . . NO . . . I would rather post updates on my blog that are ready by throngs of people awaiting my next move.
Many weeks ago the base of the turbine tower went up with the aid of a back hoe.
No energy yet, but it is a start.
And then the tower was added to the base. Can’t you see the force vectors on this picture!
I think I can I think I can
This past weekend the head went on the tower, it was all painted and now it is up blowing in the wind. Not making electricity yet though.
I will spare the gory pictures, basically because I didn’t take any not because they were that gory. The coyotes struck our chicken coup two nights ago. It was the third time our chicken coup has been ransacked by various critters. This time I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the neighbor dogs based on the color of hair that was caught in the fence. The damage was sever, two hens were killed, one left behind and one never to be seen again. Of course they leave us two worthless roosters unharmed. Where is the chivalry men, lay down your life for your woman when coyotes attack. So alas we are down to one laying hen and two worthless roosters. We do have 6 new chicks that are now about 2 weeks old, but they are a long way from laying eggs. I added some new fortifications to the chicken coop and have a plan for a motion activated radio to scare off future predators.
In other news, we drove to Colorado this weekend to visit my brother’s family and let the kiddos play. It was great fun to watch the children run around, play foursquare, Wii, carve pumpkins, etc. I have pictures, but haven’t gotten them off the camera yet. The weather turned out to be wonderful which was a nice change from the cold snap we have been having. But the Bears did lose a close game to the Falcons. Bummer.
