wbvs58
Well-known member
hurleyjd":1hcjtl9u said:
Yes we are off the power grid, the battery shed is just to the right of the cattle crate, I have two banks of the big Century Yuasa lead acid batteries which I alternate daily. The wind turbine does help when overcast as we often get a bit of wind then from the east but when we get a lot of overcast weather I will run a small generator during the evening when power consumption is higher until I go to bed but not to charge the batteries.
Just an aside, I scored the 2nd bank of batteries from a neighbour who had them replaced under an insurance claim after a lightning strike on his wind turbine took out his charge controller and inverter. They thought it damaged his batteries as well so replaced them which is the most expensive part of a system. I got them and set them up and put a few equalising charges through them and they are as good as gold, I knew they wouldn't have been damaged. There are people around that set up these systems and put the various components together for exorbitant costs but very few people that really know what is going on and can fault find accurately, they just keep replacing components at big expense until something works. Ironically my neighbours wind turbine which was his biggest source of power is still out of action about two years after the lightening strike because he can't get anyone to fix his charge controller, I can get him one for about $500 on ebay but he is hesitant to go that route.
I live about half way up the Eastern part of Australia and a bit inland at an altitude of 960 metres (bit over 3000') which makes for milder summer temps with lower humidity than on the coast. I am at 28.69 degrees S which puts at similar latitude to the northern part of Florida except south of the equator.
Ken
