HOME WIND TURBINE VS SOLAR PANELS FREE

The air is still, and the wind turbine only turns during storms or in foul winter weather. We’re located in a micro pocket where there’s hardly any wind, even above the tree line. Our wind power comes from a Bergey XL1 (1kW) wind turbine on an 80-foot guyed tower. If you’d like to know how much, check out this graph from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Energy efficiency has improved over time. Notice 17.5 volts * 17.1 Amps ~ 300 Wattsįor more information on translating solar specs, check out this article. Vp – Voltage at max power ie ideal conditions Resistance, as if you took the two wires from the panel and short-circuited them together Theoretical maximum voltage with zero resistance Pp: Maximum nominal power (ie these are 300W panels) Specs sheet attached to the back of the solar panels on our greenhouse. The AC side of the house powers things like our computers, the well pump and other modern electronics that you’d use during daylight hours. That means that the inverter can be turned off at night to conserve electricity. That includes the refrigerator, chest freezers, lights and heat pumps for radiant floor heat. The wall outlet plugs are set up with two different outlets, and all critical systems run on DC (direct current) electricity straight from the batteries. The entire house is wired in both AC as well as DC wiring. After 5 years on our homestead, we’re still learning every day, and making improvements anywhere we can. It took us over a year to get it functioning on a consistent basis, and even longer to feel like we even understood the basics of the system. The house had been vacant for 2 years, and some of the system was in disrepair. Much of the system was unfinished, literally open wires alligator clipped together dangling in the basement. The builder/owner had died, leaving no notes about the design. A whole-house solar system was daunting, to say the least…īeyond that, we were moving in blind, with no spec sheets or system documentation. We’re agriculturalists, not tinkerers.īoth of us lack the mechanical aptitude to repair a car, regardless of how much time we put into trying to learn.

When we found our off-grid homestead, we were intimidated. Nonetheless, you asked for it, you got it. The other three power-starved months are another story… I’m not complaining, I love being able to live in modern luxury while off-grid 9 months of the year.

HOME WIND TURBINE VS SOLAR PANELS FREE

That abundance of power (and honestly, lack of battery storage) means that we’ve come up with some pretty extravagant ways to use the free glut of summer power. We’re often asked for details and specs on our solar/wind setup, especially when we talk about the abundance of power we have 9 months of the year.

Home wind turbine vs solar panels