SICUDREW

2011-10-01T18:13:00.003-04:00

Solar tour was today, We had our 34 solar panels, skystream windturbine, geothermal, 400 gallon water collection and the Chevy Volt.

Bee keeping

2011-08-12T10:41:00.003-04:00

Our first hive waiting for a colony of bees from a split. The wind comes in from the west and we put up a fence to block the wind for winter. This was done last year June 10th 2010.

Geothermal

2009-08-26T22:58:00.003-04:00

The Hole Deal connected and sealed all the wells to make them pressure tight.

2009-08-26T22:44:00.005-04:00

Last year we had Bratcher Heating and air came out an install a geothermal. I lost the pictures of the drilling of the wells but it was very muddy. They drilled down 160 feet in four places approx 10 feet apart. The Hole Deal did the drilling and attaching all the wells tubing together to go in to the crawl space.

Solar Tour

2008-10-03T17:22:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the National Solar Tour. We were left off of the booklet but we are going to participate. We are trying to put together information to distribute.
I am looking into getting a meter to be able to keep track of the wind turbine energy generation. I will be taking out the quick disconnet from the back yard and putting in the meter.

High winds and cold temperatures.

2008-02-02T06:14:00.000-05:00

Now that we are in the coldest of the Illinois winter with some pretty high winds like we all know and love here, the turbine is stalling. We did have someone already install a new soft ware to make the skystream not stall at 32 degrees F. Now it stalls at 19. We contacted Southwest wind and they are working on the problem and will let us know when a new software/hardware solution has been made. We are not looking forward to bringing the turbine down and may get a bucket truck to do the install.

Winter in Illinois and solar panels

2008-02-02T06:03:00.000-05:00

We found out today that the panels don't generate anything with a thick coating of snow. Our roof is about 42 degrees pitch so you can't stand on it in the summer time with out having ropes so it's very difficult to climb up on a 10/10 roof and remove snow off of the panels. We bought a extention rod with a squeegy on it to stand on a ladder and pull the snow down. This works well if the snow is light. We had a large snow fall and was almost impossible to clear. After we did get the snow off the power gernerated was even greater than ever. I think the reflection and the cool temperatures warranted this. We did have a second row of panel on the opposite side of the house and the snow just fell off of them.

Monitor for Skystream

2008-02-02T05:53:00.001-05:00

We received our monitor and tried it out. I could not get the display to show me the Skystream. It was transmitting out but not back to the moniter. Then we started to have stalling moments with the skystream and couldn't get it to restart correctly. I tryed shutting the power down for 10 and 30 and 60 minutes without any change. I had to unplug and take the battery out of the moniter to get it to spin freely again. We called SouthWest Windpower and he had us turn the moniter on again and it did the same thing. They sent a new moniter and the same thing happened. I ended up sending the product back to Alter systems which they were gracious to let us since they did have a 10 day return policy. But we still were charge shipping to and from Alter systems and they deducted a 15% fee for restocking and 5% fee for canceling an order. So the all awaited monitering device and we still don't know what we are generating.

Monitoring devices

2007-10-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

I orderd the monitoring remotes for our Sunny Boy and the Skystream today.
Alter Systems on line shop is where I purchased them from. Right now they don't have the Skystream remote but they are contacting SouthWest wind to see if they can get it for us.
I hope to get all the wind speeds, solar Kw hours and other data and put it into a spread sheet.

Skystream from the backyard

2007-09-04T09:42:00.000-04:00

Skystream Windturbine/ Sanyo Solar Panels Generating

2007-09-04T09:23:00.000-04:00

This is our hybrid (wind/solar) system in action!

55 ft Skystream in action

2007-09-03T13:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a video of the Skystream in action.

Lifting the tower.

2007-09-02T16:38:00.002-04:00

Sterling, my youngest son came to help us raise the tower. The gin pole is connected to the opposite side of the tower base from the hinge. The gin pole is 20 feet long and weights approximately 300 lbs. The gin pole is secured to the tower base with 3 bolts and has a cable that connects to the other end. The cable is connected to the tower at about 15 feet from the top of the tower. This cable will off set the stress of the pull from the winch at the base. The gin pole has a second cable that runs down to the pulling source. I connected this end to my winch on my Jeep. For extra stablity I put 8x8 timbers in front of my wheels. The 9500lb winch had no problem pulling up the tower. Sterling is shown here watching, to make sure the foundation holes line up with the bolts, so we don't damage the bolt threads. Rena is on the winch, and watching the tower so it is going up safely. I am maning the gin pole and waiting for the tower to get to the balance point so I can slowly lower the foundation base over the bolts. Debbie, our friend is documenting the raising with pictures and video. We had some difficulty with getting the gin pole securing bolts to clear the washers and nuts. We got the middle bolts on first. Then the gin pole was loosened and the bolts where placed on those bolts. We had to loosen the hinge plate slowly and lower the hinge side of the foundation base to get the bolts placed on the last three bolts. The tower was then leveled with small torpedo levels on the base. Then later, we readjusted for level after watching the turbine head.

There was no wind that day so the only rotation of the Skystream was when a bird landed on the blade and it's weight made the blade turn. The first of these three picture shows the windturbine from the back yard and the second is a view from the front road. It shows our hybrid system of the solar and wind.

Attaching the blades to the Skystream.

2007-09-02T16:13:00.001-04:00

We have taken the blade plate and hub off of the Skystream. Rena is torquing the blades onto the hub to 50 ft/lbs. I picked up the entire assembly and placed it on the rotor shaft. Then I attached the nose cone. Here is the final product with Rena at 5 ft 1 and 1/2 in.

Attaching windturbine to tower

2007-09-02T16:05:00.001-04:00

We placed the Skystream on my home built scaffolding. Connected the windturbine to the tower with the vibration dampeners to 80 ft/lbs of torque.

Connecting tower together

2007-08-28T17:42:00.000-04:00

We connected the next section to the stubby base section and pulled it down 2foot 6 inches with two hand winches. Then we braces that section and added the next few sections the same way. We had to use dish soap/water to ease the towers together.

Stubby segment installed

2007-08-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

We connected the first stubby segment to the hinge plate and gin pole. This helped with getting the bolts lined up so when the tower is raised the base will clear all the bolts and come down correctly. I had to use a sledge hammer to move the bolt to the correct alignment . After many adjustments I got a good alignment( The only reason that we had to do this is because the holes on the wooden template that they sent us had been positioned incorrectly. We contacted Green Ridge Wind Farms about this and they made corrections on their future templates.

Tower arrival

2007-08-28T17:18:00.000-04:00

Our tower finally arrives from Green Ridge Wind Farms http://www.greenridgeenergy.com/. There are 5 pieces that weight about 200lbs a piece. We made a wooden ramp down the side of the truck and slowly lowered the tower segments with ropes onto the grass.

Gin Pole and Hinge plate

2007-08-07T18:02:00.000-04:00

Just received the gin pole and hinge plate today. The hinge fits just great, even though our template holes were off slightly. I bolted the hinge plate on, at the exact height. The hinge plate is 4.25
inches from the top of the bolts and the other bolts opposite these are at 2.25 inches. We have not heard when we are getting the tower but we only have 4 more days for the concrete to cure.

concrete curing

2007-07-30T23:44:00.000-04:00

The concrete has been curing for 14 days now and will have 14 days to go. No tower yet, but we're hoping that it will come soon. This picture doesn't do justice to the actual mass of this foundation. The concrete is 4 feet deep by 7 foot square. The bolts are actually 3 1/2 feet long and 5/8 inch in diameter.The l 1/2 inch conduit displayed is for the electical wire. We plan to landscape the area around the foundation with either grass or some kind of ground cover.

2007-07-14T22:48:00.000-04:00

Here is the concrete truck right on time. Jay Reynolds' truck will mix the concrete at the site, no waste. Jay is from Mansfield Illinois, Mid State Mobile Concrete, Inc.
We start the pour with Jay's father at the chute. Make sure the pour is done slowly enough that the j-bolts do not shift.

Herschel is using the vibrator to disipate all the air and get the concrete to flow to all the areas.

The forms are almost full, and we are starting to screed to get the concrete level.

Herschel and I now start the finishing of the top and edges.

Rena adds the finishing brooming to the finished concrete.

2007-07-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

Here is the foundation all formed up and ready for the bolts to be placed. The 5/8 rebar is 3 inches off the bottom and 3 inches away from the top of the forms. We placed the 1 1/2 inch conduit for the wiring that will come out about 1 1/2 feet down . I placed rebar from the bottom to the top mat to make it so that it was suspended. I had to place 2x4 blocks on each side to keep the top mat centered.

Here are the j-bolts attached to the template. The top of the j-bolts will be 8 inched above the finished foundation.

Here I am in the hole securing the j-bolts so they won't move ( or move much), when the concrete is poured.

Upgrades on the Skystream complete

2007-07-03T17:52:00.001-04:00

This is the Skystream windturbine being upgraded with new softwear and testing the radio frequency remote. It will set approximately 50.6 feet in the air so we are hoping all the upgrades are done and we won't have to bring the tower down to do any work on it for at least a year. We plan to purchase a radio frequency monitoring device later to track our energy production. The sky stream information can be found at: http://www.skystreamenergy.com/skystream/

Here are the
Technical Specifications
Model: Skystream 3.7
Rated Capacity: 1.8 kW; 2.4 kW peak
Weight: 170 lbs / 77 kg
Rotor Diameter: 12 ft / 3.72 m Swept Area: 115.7 ft2 / 10.87 m2
Type: Downwind rotor with stall regulation control
Direction of Rotation: Clockwise looking upwind
Blade Material: Fiberglass reinforced composite Number of Blades: 3
Rated Speed: 50-325 rpm Tip Speed: 66-213 ft/s / 9.7-63 m/s
Alternator: Slotless permanent magnet brushless Yaw Control: Passive
Grid Feeding: Southwest Windpower inverter 120/240 VAC 50-60 Hz
Braking System: Electronic stall regulation with redundant relay switch control
Cut-in Wind Speed: 8 mph / 3.5 m/s Rated Wind Speed: 20 mph / 9 m/s
User Control: Wireless 2-way interface remote system
Survival Wind Speed: 140 mph / 63 m/s Sound: 45 decibels @ 40 ft / 12 m.

The True performance of the wind turbine doesn't really take off till it wind speed gets around about 15- 20 mph were it then generates the 2.4 kwh.

Rebar and foundation forms

2007-07-03T17:27:00.000-04:00

Here are the 5/8 inch rebar, cut to length to fit 3 inches away from the top and bottom of the tower foundation. This is one of the two rebar mesh that is 78 inchs square with 7 inch intervals between each bar. The top forms are constucted of 2x8's to make the top level at 4 feet in depth. The template will be set later, but here it is placed to give us an idea of where the tower will sit in the yard and where the deadman and gin pole will fall on the back side of the foundation.

2007-07-03T09:22:00.000-04:00

With Kevin on the backhoe he starts to make our 7 foot by 7 foot by 3 1/2 foot hole.

Here's Herschel cutting some of the tree roots, after the backhoe started the hole.

Here is Rena in her rough cut hole. Now, all we need to do is a little shaving of the sides of the hole and making the edges as close to 7x7 as possible.

And there it is, though it doesn't look like much. It will be filled with 81/2 yards of 4000 psi concrete.

Digging for the water

2007-07-03T09:14:00.001-04:00

For the wind turbine project, first I dug the 4 1/2 foot hole to monitor the water table. I dug it 3 foot wide just in case we could have gone down 10 ft to use a pier (column) foundation base. I had to cut a lot of tree root to get there. Water started to pool at 4 1/2 feet so we decided that a mat (cube) foundation would be better given our shallow water table.

Finished product

2007-07-02T00:28:00.000-04:00

All 18 panels are up and generating up to 3600 watts/h of power. Stay tune for the next project, the wind turbine. Our maximum output has been 3400 watts/h and we have an average of 20 Kw/

day on sunny days and 10 Kw /day on cloudy days.

In order to get credit from Ameren for the surplus electricity that we can't consume, we had to sign an Interconnect Agreement. Our local Ameren web site will give you details of who to contact and requirements needed. http://www.ameren.com/ENVIRONMENT/ADC_EV_WindSystemsRequirements.asp

We also went to the Depatement of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for information on the solar energy rebate program.

http://www.illinoisbiz.biz/NR/rdonlyres/10C37851-6A33-492C-A8BC-88FE356CACCA/0/FY07SolarEnergyRebateGuidelines.pdf

Everything wired and ready to generate power

2007-07-02T00:25:00.000-04:00

Sunny Boy connections were made by Dave. I recommend either a proffesional installer or certified electition perform this step. We only had one positive and one negative coming in from the combiner box. But if we were going to have only 3 stings of 7 or less panel the Sunny Boy could have accomodated it this way. The power out on the Sunny Boy has two wires coming from the L1 and L2 to the A/C disconnect box, then to a 30 amp breaker in the breaker panel. The neutral and ground go through the A/C disconnect and into the breaker panel to the grounding/neutral bus bar.

Combiner box and panel up

2007-07-02T00:15:00.000-04:00

Here is Jarred (Dave son), getting ready to place the combiner box and wire all the panels together. He also added grounding lugs to each of the rails and grounded it to the combiner box. There are three fuses in the combiner box with each string(row of panels) wired to each of the fuses. All the power is still D/C and combines all the strings to one single power line that runs down the side of the house into the D/C disconnect and in to the sunnyboy. The wires that are used to connect the panels to the combiner box are 10 gauge outdoor rated. There are wire clips that can be attached to the underside of the panels that hold the wires off the roof if needed. The wires have a male (+) side and Female (-)side that are easily connected and water tight.

Sunnyboy placed and wired

2007-07-02T00:12:00.000-04:00

Sunny Boy inverter:

( http://www.sma-america.com/) is mounted on an exterior wall next to the meter and DC disconnect box. The Sunny Boy is a 6000 kw system and weights in at 84 lbs. The Sunny Boy has directions with it to show how to mount it. It has a T bracket that mounts to a wall stud, then the Sunny Boy is hoisted and placed onto the tab of the T bracket. A lag bolt is screwed into the bottom hole of the Sunny Boy and T bracket. The DC disconnect has a wider space between the wire connections to prevent arcing. The positive wire goes to the disconnect and the negative and ground go directly into the Sunny Boy.

first row of panels are up.

2007-07-02T00:10:00.000-04:00

We're finished with the first row of panels. The wiring of the panels is pretty simple. The panels have a positive and negative end that have male/ female connectors. One panel's negative end connects to the next panel's positive end until reaching the end or the 7th panel which ever comes first. The negative end connects into the combiner box to the ground bus bar. The positive end will go into the combiner box and connect to the fuse. If you are only using up to 3 series of panel rows, you can connect directly to the Sunny Boy inverter. There is a small grounding clip that goes between each of the panels that fits on the top mounting clamp. At the end of the panel a grounding clamp needs to be placed to fasten the grounding wire that goes into the combiner box and clamp onto the grounding bus bar. Each panel has 4 top mounting clamps, two on each side of the panels that a nut is secured onto the the bolt that is in a channel on the top of the rail. The first and last panels on the outsides are only holding the one panel on, but all the ones in the middle secure adjacent to each other.

Panels going up

2007-07-02T00:07:00.000-04:00

Here I am taking up one of the Sanyo panels and handing it to Dave. We have 18 panels that are rated at 200 watts per panel that are wired in series to the combiner box that will be attached to the roof. Each of the panels weight in at about 35 lbs. We first got all the panels up on the roof for the first row before they started to bolt them on. The panels can go into a series up to a maximum of 7, we only did 6 due to the length of our roof and the rail that we purchased. These rails can be joined together to make a long continuous row or cut if needed.

Solar panel rails.

2007-07-01T23:57:00.000-04:00

June 8th, (while were having a garage sale!) Dave Merrill and his son came to install the solar array. Since our roof is a 10/12 pitch, (approximately 42 degrees), they used ropes tied onto the trees on the opposite side of the house and then to themselves to place all the rails and solar panels on the South side of the roof. I had to go into the attic to make sure all the rafters were at the correct distances. They place all the L brackets into the roof and sealed them with caulk. This picture shows the solar panel rails going up. The Uni-Rack system has a bolt that slides into the rail and a nut secures the rail to the L bracket. Each of our rails are 18 feet long which will accommodate 6 panels across. The rails are spaced with 1/4 of the length to the top and bottom of the rail and 1/2 the length between the rails in the middle.

Solar panel and Wind turbine

2006-11-15T17:35:00.000-05:00

Rena and I are starting our project, solar/wind energy.
We have purchased 24 200 v Sanyo solar panels, 6000 sunnyboy inverter with a 18 feet trac system for our roof. Our wind turbine is a Skystream. We are awaiting our 50 foot monopole.

First post

2006-11-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

This is my wife, Rena and myself.