Anyone use alt energy to power your greenhouse or outdoor projects? specifically wind

[DirtyCoconuts]

I have a few wind spinner decorations and they are always spinning and twirling like mad and i am constantly wishing i had some sort of a device to harness that because i like to catch free things (rain water; fruit) when i can.


It seems way too complicated to do a grid in system and so i wanted to toy with the idea of a low (under 15') turbine that would be used to power some outdoor stuff like lights, timers, pumps etc.

I see a HUGE range of super manicured, come-to-your-house-and serve-you deals to instructions about making one from parts found in the garage.

i think the smaller, assemble yourself ones in the 2-5Kw range is MORE than id need and i would also need a controller, and a car battery (or two or three) - I know these components can handle weather but i'd also want a box (not sealed, acid batteries, duh!)of some sort to contain everything.


i am really asking if anyone has anything similar (or more grand scale) and what they have experienced from it? I have no outlets on the North side of my house and i would really like them for all sorts of reasons lol so this would actually serve a purpose if it could be done


any one have any experience or thoughts.... or funny jokes?

[estación seca]

I've never done it. We have much more sun here than wind. When it is windy, the wind is too strong for windmills. Last night a big storm came through. I had no damage but there are lots of downed trees in my neighborhood and the parts of the city near me.

Have any friends who are engineers? They can probably help a lot. Of course you will wind up with a Mercedes instead of a Yugo.

Unless you can power everything in your greenhouse with direct current from the batteries, a big issue is transforming the irregular revolutions per minute of the windmill to 60 Herz alternating current flowing at a constant rate. It's not that simple.

If you just want fans... you can make your own system of pulleys and belts from the windmill into the greenhouse. I saw a very elaborate and impressive system of fans belted together in sequence and in parallel in a large restaurant in Tucson, Arizona years ago.

[Ray]

I like the idea, but you’re going to need a LOT of battery storage and an inverter to turn the DC to AC.

We had power outages fairly frequently in my part of PA, and my propane heater required power for the controller. I bought a big battery (I don’t recall the amperage rating, but it was special order and weighed about 80#) and inverter/charger that kept the battery charged when the power was on, then automatically switched to the battery and provided AC power to the heater when it was off. The two, combined, were over $500, and that was decades ago.

The heater controller only consumed milliamperes, and its two fans (exhaust and circulation) consumed under 10 amps total, so I figured I had about two days of capacity, but in reality it was about half that due primarily to conversion losses and fan-starting surges.

[DirtyCoconuts]

What’s that great saying....advice is what you ask for when you know the answer but wish you didn’t...

The fans are a fun idea but it’s a lath house so when the wind blows it’s cool lol

I am going to dig up my old solar stuff (super small camping rig) and see if I can’t steal any parts

I might be able to get a few gelcell batteries at cost of I still know anyone at the car audio store

Anyone know where to get one of those Tesla batteries

[Ray]

I have a solar boat lift - the two 12V motors are powered by two 12V Optima car batteries wired in parallel. Each bank is charged by a Lakelite solar charger. Works great.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Those are ones I like. Marine deep cycle. Not cheap lol