Wind Power For Dummies E-Book

Ian Woofenden

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 615

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

The consumer guide to small-scale wind electricity production! Maybe you're not T. Boone Pickens, but you can build your own home-sized wind-power empire right in your back yard. Wind Power For Dummies supplies all the guidance you need to install and maintain a sustainable, cost-effective wind generator to power your home for decades to come. This authoritative, plain-English guide walks you through every step of the process, from assessing your site and available wind sources to deciding whether wind power is the solution for you, from understanding the mechanics of wind power and locating a contractor to install your system to producing your own affordable and sustainable electricity. * Guides you step by step through process of selecting, installing, and operating a small-scale wind generator to power your home * Demystifies system configurations, terminology, and wind energy principles to help you speak the language of the pros * Helps assess and reduce your energy needs and decide whether wind power is right for you * Explains the mechanics of home-based wind power * Shows you how to tie into the grid and sell energy back to the power company * Offers advice on evaluating all of the costs of and financing for your project * Provides tips on working with contractors and complying with local zoning laws Yes, you can do it, with a little help from Wind Power For Dummies.

Leseprobe

Wind Power For Dummies®

Wind Power For Dummies®

Ian Woofenden

Wind Power For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier!, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting a specific method, diagnosis, or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. Readers should consult with a specialist where appropriate. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. No warranty may be created or extended by any promotional statements for this work. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any damages arising herefrom.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009935225

ISBN: 978-0-470-49637-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Ian Woofenden began exploring renewable energy as a preteen growing up in the Midwest, where he built a solar greenhouse, used a clothesline, and walked, ran, and bicycled extensively. Later, when he was a teenager in New England, his parents had a solar hot water system, and he read widely on sustainability, renewable energy, and country living. After marrying his college sweetheart and going on a 1,200-mile honeymoon on a tandem bicycle, Ian lived in a tipi in Maine and on an island in Lake Michigan before settling on an island in the inland waters between mainland Washington state and Vancouver Island, Canada. There, he and his wife bought 10 acres of off-grid property and began an experimental life with country living and renewable energy that has now spanned almost three decades. Raising a large family off-grid had many lessons to teach, and running a production woodcraft business for 14 years was challenging and instructive, too. Starting with an automobile battery and a few taillight bulbs, Ian’s renewable energy systems have grown to include three wind generators, multiple solar-electric systems, two solar hot water systems, wood heating, extensive gardens and orchards, and again, clotheslines. Ian’s favorite mode of transportation is a bicycle, and a solar recumbent tandem trike may be in his future. Ian comes to renewable energy first and foremost as a user and abuser, an experimenter and active learner. In the early 1990s, Ian decided to pursue this passion as a career and began to take workshops offered in Colorado by Solar Energy International (SEI). A year later, he was coordinating workshops in the Northwest for SEI. Three years later, he landed a job as an editor with Home Power magazine, his all-time favorite publication. Today, Ian is one of the senior editors at Home Power and is Northwest and Costa Rica Coordinator for SEI, organizing and co-teaching 8 to 10 weeks of workshops per year. Ian is author of numerous articles on wind energy and other renewable energy topics for Home Power and other publications, and he is one of the supporting coauthors of Power from the Wind by Dan Chiras. He also teaches wind-energy workshops for other organizations and does private consulting for individuals, businesses, and organizations. He particularly enjoys teaching and consulting in Central America, where he spends several weeks each winter. With his family mostly grown, Ian is excited to see some of his kids involved in renewable energy and environmental education. His family homestead is still an experimental lab where new products are tested and new lessons are learned. If he hasn’t already overcommitted himself, Ian likes to correspond with readers at [email protected]

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my seven children, who have the capacity to change the world they live in by changing themselves and the way they live; my wife, who has lived with my wind-energy addiction for lo these 31 years; my parents, who taught me by example to think for myself, read, write, and care about the important things in life; and my many friends, supporters, readers, and students, who have discussed, laughed, cried, critiqued, and ranted with me over the years.

Author’s Acknowledgments

As an editor, I have been intimately involved in shaping others’ writing, and I know from experience that no one is an island. Anything produced is the result of collaboration on many levels. I stand on the shoulders of others who have been working in the field much longer than I and on those I have shared space with in foundation holes and on top of towers in 25 mph winds. In particular, I’d like to recognize the following: Hugh Piggott has been a source of much information, experience, and perspective for many years. I appreciate not only his technical savvy but also his humility and generosity. Having him as technical reviewer on this book is another high point in a long trail as friends and colleagues. Mick Sagrillo is gradually leaving huge shoes to fill, and I appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge, his recommendations, and his time. As mutual thorns in each other’s sides, being around the two of us has been said to be “worth the price of admission.” Paul Gipe is a model of straight-up journalism, and he knows more about more wind generators — large and small — than anyone else I know. He calls a spade a spade, and for that I have great respect. Other renewable energy colleagues who have helped in my education are my earliest renewable energy guru Windy Dankoff, Christopher Freitas, Richard Perez, Joe Schwartz, Michael Welch, Johnny Weiss, Robert Preus, Dan New, Ed Kennell, Mike Klemen, Dan Fink, Dan Bartmann, Randy Brooks, Kelly Keilwitz, Rose Woofenden, Bill Hoffer, Brent Summerville, E. H. Roy, Roy Butler, Steve Wilke, Tod Hanley, Darren Emmons, Chuck Marken, Megan Amsler, Conrad Geyser, Tom Wineman, Randy Richmond, Victor Creazzi, Eric Eggleston, Jason Lerner, Dana Brandt, the crews at Home Power magazine and Solar Energy International, and many others. My island neighbors and renewable energy users have played a strong role in my renewable energy education. I especially appreciate wind-energy system owners Holly and Kevin Green, John Meyer and Lisa Kennan-Meyer, Frank and Deb Dehn, Blake and Nancy Rankin, and the Anderson family. My editors at Wiley, Mike Baker, Danielle Voirol, Megan Knoll, and especially Georgette Beatty, have been professional, patient, and insightful. They have formed my rough book into a saleable creature. The many people behind the scenes at Wiley also have my appreciation. I am blessed with many friends inside and outside of the renewable energy world who give me support, feedback, and encouragement in following my chosen paths in life, with its struggles and triumphs. In particular, I’d like to mention Clay Eals, Andy Gladish, Juby Fouts and clan, Heather Isles, my sister Laura, Susan Miller, Doug Moser, and Steve Dyck, among many, many others. My immediate and extended family has been an inspiration and a blessing. Several writers are among them, including my father and mother; my favorite and only surviving uncle, George; my brother Lee; and my terribly missed father-in-law, Dave Gladish. My children and future grandchildren are a big part of my inspiration. My hope is that this book reduces wasted resources, time, and money and helps people use one of our abundant natural resources more wisely. While I’m appreciative of all that these many people have contributed to my life and ultimately this book, responsibility for errors, missing info, and my ever-present personal biases is mine, all mine. Life is imperfect and short; take what you like and leave the rest.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Senior Project Editor: Georgette Beatty

Acquisitions Editor: Mike Baker

Senior Copy Editor: Danielle Voirol

Copy Editor: Megan Knoll

Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editor: Hugh Piggott

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistant: Jennette ElNaggar

Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South

Cover Photo: Ian Woofenden

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery

Layout and Graphics: Joyce Haughey, Melissa K. Jester, Mark Pinto, Melissa K. Smith

Special Art: Thomas Brucker, Precision Graphics (precisiongraphics.com)

Proofreaders: Caitie Copple, Evelyn C. Gibson

Indexer: Estalita Slivoskey

Special Help: Elizabeth Rea

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Wind energy is without a doubt the most difficult renewable resource to capture. At the same time, it often ends up being the most attractive. Should you be discouraged by the difficulty of the job? No! But if you don’t take the difficulty seriously, you will be disappointed. In my many years of working with wind-electric systems, I’ve seen many, many problems and failures. Some of these were due to equipment design flaws or freaks of nature, but most were due to poorly designed systems and poor maintenance.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat the technology or the industry. This is to your benefit! I suspect that your goal is the same as mine: a successful wind energy system that gives you electricity that’s cleaner and perhaps less costly than what you’re using now. Getting to that goal requires looking seriously at what it takes to generate electricity with the wind for the long haul.

Whether you come to this technology with environmental, financial, independence, or hobby motivations, you can get some or all of your home’s electricity from the wind. The wind, driven by natural cycles, originating from the sun, is an abundant and renewable resource. Although you still have the capital and maintenance costs of any energy-generating system, you’ll never pay a fuel cost on a wind-electric system. (And a system is what you need — not a single component but a wisely designed collection of components that work together to capture wind energy, condition it, perhaps store it, and make it usable to you and your neighbors.)

If you do your homework, find good partners, and design, install, and maintain a robust system, you’ll be set up for years of satisfying energy. When the wind blows, you’ll smile, knowing that it’s working for you.

About This Book

Many people have written books about wind electricity, several of which I use and recommend. This book focuses on a real-world, nontechnical approach to designing and installing wind-electric systems. I didn’t write it to turn you into a wind-generator designer, a tower contractor, or an electrician. It’s for homeowners who want to explore the possibility of using wind energy and want straight advice from someone with nothing to sell and a great deal of experience with what does and doesn’t work.

You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover; it’s designed so you can dip into and out of any topic at any time. Read what you want, put the book back on your shelf, and bring it down again whenever you need.

If you decide to install your own system, you’ll need more than this book. If you decide to hire the job out, you’ll be well positioned to ask the right questions, scrutinize the answers you hear, and make wise choices about contractors and system design.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate this book, I’ve established the following conventions:

Boldface text emphasizes the key words in bulleted lists and actions to take in numbered lists.

New terms in this book appear in italics and are explained in the text (and often in the glossary in Appendix A).

All Web addresses appear in monofont.

Some Web addresses may break across two lines of text. Where that happens, rest assured that I haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. When using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending that the line break doesn’t exist.

What You’re Not to Read

Please don’t read anything that you think is boring or pushes your buttons. If my writing or opinion or the topic doesn’t capture your imagination, move on! Each chapter is written to stand on its own, and there’s no requirement to read it all or read in sequence. Also, any text preceded by the Technical Stuff icon or included in a sidebar (a shaded gray box) is extra, and you don’t need to read it in order to understand the subject at hand.

Foolish Assumptions

Some wit once said, “Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.” I state upfront my basic assumptions about you so I can help you avoid making a mess. Here’s what I assume:

You are interested in successful wind-electric systems.

You want to know whether a wind-electric system is a viable option for your circumstances, and you want a solid grounding in the concepts and components of such a system.

You want your misunderstandings, myths, and fantasies about wind energy to be corrected. You’d rather hear straight talk than sales hype.

Your goals include cleaner, cheaper, or more local electricity.

You know that really valuable things cost — in time, money, and energy. In other words, you know that TANSTAAFL — there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into six parts. As a strong advocate of not coloring between the lines, I encourage you to seek out the parts and chapters that you’re interested in and read them first. Here’s how the general topics are divided.

Part I: A Wind Primer: Stuff You Need to Know

This part focuses on key wind energy information. It’s important to decide upfront whether you’re a good candidate for wind energy and to understand the basic parts of the systems and how those parts fit together. Electrical terminology and concept basics can help you understand how these systems work, and understanding some basic wind energy principles can help you understand the resource you’re trying to capture.

Part II: Assessing Your Situation

This part is perhaps the most important part of the book because it takes a hard look at your home and its energy use and your site and its energy resource. Energy efficiency is a vital strategy that helps reduce your energy load and therefore your system size and budget. Understanding wind site assessment helps you get realistic about your site’s potential. How you interact with the utility grid — or don’t — is covered here, as is economic “payback” and your options if you decide not to use wind energy.

Part III: Assembling Your System

After you’ve decided to have a wind-electric system, you have a number of choices about system design. An early question is whether you’ll be doing this all yourself or working with others. You also need to decide on a wind generator, a tower, and the other components. And then you pull the system design together into a unified whole.

Part IV: Installing and Operating Your System

The culmination of all your design work is the actual installation. Before you start, focusing on safety — with towers, mechanical and electrical aspects, and so on — is step number one. After your installation, you need to learn to live with, maintain, and enjoy your system.

Part V: The Part of Tens

This part, which is a feature of all For Dummies books, starts with ten goals for your wind-electric system. These help you get on track. I then outline ten common mistakes so you can steer around them. And ten stories — of successful and not-so-successful systems — give you examples to follow or avoid.

Part VI: Appendixes

In this part, you find a brief glossary full of important wind energy terms as well as abbreviations and conversion tables.

Icons Used in This Book

This book is peppered with the following icons to draw attention to specific concepts:

This icon highlights key theories and practices worth keeping in mind during your design and installation process.

Sometimes I like to show off my technical prowess. You can decide whether to read and indulge me.

Look for text marked with this icon for ways to work or ways to look at things that you may not have thought of.

Safety is the number one priority. Don’t ignore the advice you find with this icon.

Where to Go from Here

Scan through the table of contents and see what excites you, and then dive in. If you’re determined to be organized, read straight through. But this book isn’t entirely linear. As with my teaching style, it’s more circular, with recurring themes. This isn’t because I forgot I’ve already said something but because some ideas bear repeating.

If you want a quick overview, read Chapter 1, which summarizes the key concepts in this book. If that’s too much, check out Part V, the Part of Tens, where the chapters are bite-sized and pithy. Wherever you start and however far you go, I hope this book will help you become realistic about wind-electric systems. If you follow the advice here, you’ll be well positioned to capture an abundant, free, and dynamic resource!

Part I

A Wind Primer: Stuff You Need to Know

In this part . . .

This part gets you off to a good start in understanding wind-electric systems. Chapter 1 gives you an overview of wind energy. In Chapter 2, you look at your motivations and goals, common objections and legal issues, and your chances for success. Chapter 3 identifies the components of a typical wind-electric system and how they can be put together. To wrap up, Chapter 4 gives you a foundation in electrical terminology, and Chapter 5 covers wind-energy principles.

Chapter 2

Is Wind Energy for You?

In This Chapter

Examining common motivations for trying wind energy

Knowing the necessities for a wind system

Conquering irrational fears

Leaping over legal hurdles

Making electricity using the wind can be extremely satisfying, or it can be very frustrating. It can be environmentally friendly or high-impact. And it can be cost-effective or a dollar sink.

People come to wind energy with many motivations and goals. Others come to wind energy with objections. What do you really need to be a successful home wind farmer? First of all, you need a reasonable wind resource and a good site. Then you need the appropriate attitude, education, and experience to tackle buying, perhaps installing, operating, and maintaining a system. This chapter helps you decide whether wind energy is a good match for you.

Exploring Motivations for Using Wind Energy

People have many different motivations for wanting to use wind energy. Perhaps they’re concerned about the environmental effects of their current fossil-fuel systems, or maybe these systems have become unreliable. They may want to try wind energy to save money or to be on the forefront of the renewable energy movement because they’re fascinated with the technology.

Take a few minutes to determine why you want to use wind energy before you spend your hard-earned cash and precious time on a system. In this section, I describe the most common motivations people have for using wind energy.

Green reasons: Living more sustainably

Many people come to wind energy — and to renewable energy in general — with an environmental motivation. North Americans are gradually discovering that the last 200 years have been an anomaly. They’ve been blessed (or cursed) with cheap fossil-fuel energy, and in the not-too-distant future, they’ll gradually have to return to the energy cultures used for thousands of years — energy from sun, wind, water, and biomass (plant and animal products).

People are getting tired of this supposedly “cheap” energy they rely on so heavily today. When you look at all the true costs and impacts, it’s not cheap at all. For example, a large percentage of electricity in the United States is made with coal, which results in removal of mountaintops in Appalachia and strip mining of large tracts of open land in the West. How cheap is this really?

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that renewables (including wind energy) have two distinct advantages over nonrenewables:

Long-term costs: Both technologies have capital costs and maintenance costs, but renewable energy systems bypass one of the largest ongoing expenses of nonrenewables: fuel costs.

Environmental impact: Although all technologies and people have an impact, renewables’ impact is modest compared to that of nonrenewables. Coal mining leaves behind damaged land and decapitated mountains, as well as polluted air. Nuclear energy leaves dangerous waste that needs containment for hundreds of years. Gas and oil generation result in contaminated land, air, and water.

On the other hand, the impact of renewables, though not zero, is minor. These systems have embodied energy; that is, you need materials and processes to make them. And they can be built without regard for environmental damage. But even if constructed in a dirty way (and most aren’t), they have little ongoing impact on the environment after installation. Wind is not damaged or depleted by wind generators, and the surrounding environment sees only minor (and subjective) impact.

Individuals who value clean energy — not just cheap energy — put short-term cost aside and continue to be willing to pay more and exert more effort to get it. Just as people value organic food, nontoxic finishes, and such, they value energy that has a low environmental impact.

Getting a backup power system

Most city dwellers in North America take the reliability of the utility grid for granted. Outages are actually quite rare, and when they happen, they’re generally of short duration. But where the grid is less reliable in rural environments, a large minority of people do need backup. And many people want backup even if they don’t really need it.

When I need to find out whether a wind-electric system client is looking for a backup system for utility outages, I ask three questions:

How often do you have utility outages, and how long do they last? In many urban and suburban settings, the answer to this question tells me whether the grid is reliable. Personally, I’d avoid battery backup unless I had a dozen-plus outages a year, but you may be happy to pay for a backup system to protect against only a few outages.

Do you have backup loads that are critical to life, health, and safety? This question can identify folks on medical support such as dialysis or oxygen who may require very reliable, 24-hour electricity.

How do you react during an outage? If outages are significant, this question tells me whether the person becomes alarmed because of the lack of electricity or pulls out candles and enjoys a relaxing ambiance.

With batteries, wind-electric systems can provide stable, 24/7/365 electricity. These systems can produce electricity of higher quality than the utility grid and with higher reliability. Batteries mean backup systems are higher cost and take maintenance, but if reliability is high on your list of motivations, they can satisfy. Asking yourself the preceding questions can help you decide what system configuration you need (see Chapter 9 for more on this).

Saving money

Many people approach wind electricity in the hope of saving money. In fact, I’d say that most people are unrealistically hopeful about the financial benefit of small wind-electric systems. Some even think they’ll be getting a big check every month, which is unrealistic for home-scale turbines. On the utility-scale, wind farms are reliable money makers; on the home-scale, things aren’t so rosy. In between, there are some possibilities for financial return as well.

But everyone wants to save money, right? So, rather than tossing out this motivation, you may just need to temper it and take a long view. Energy efficiency will almost always be a better investment than wind energy, but if the right conditions collide, you may see a 3 to 10 percent return on your investment if you install and maintain well. In rare cases with excellent wind resources and incentives, it may be better. And if line extension costs are high to your off-grid property, a wind-electric system can indeed save you a lot. However, home wind-electric systems aren’t primarily moneymakers.

In many cases, you have to look at the large picture of “true value” rather than simply dollars. How much money you’ll save depends on your wind resource, your tower height, the size of your turbine, your utility rate, and how well you design and install your system. Check out Chapter 10 for details on calculating your payback on a wind system.

Experiencing the fun of doing it yourself

Some people go for wind electricity just because they like playing with the technology. I call these folks “wind-electric gear heads.” They love putting things together and keeping them running.

One strain of this do-it-yourself virus is the homebrew disease. All over the world, folks are finding out how to build their own wind generators from scratch, often with salvaged parts. Many follow plans or books from the likes of wind energy experts Hugh Piggott of www.scoraigwind.com or the otherpower.com Dans (Dan Bartmann and Dan Fink — see Chapter 22 for their stories). Others make it up as they go along. Results vary, of course, but it’s quite possible to make a durable, functional, productive machine yourself.

Even if you buy a manufactured wind generator, wind-electric systems can bring out the hobbyist in you. The whole project lends itself to hands-on folks who are ideal for home-scale wind, because the technology isn’t mature enough to be trouble-free.

Being on the cutting edge

A distant cousin of the do-it-yourselfer, the cutting-edge class of wind-energy users wants to be on the forefront of technology. The attraction is not for environmental reasons, reliability, or cost but because wind energy is the latest thing. This sort of motivation turns up frequently in other fields — cars, computers, clothing. So why not energy technology?