Our Very Own Renewable Energy System
A few days ago, I woke up to see this thing out our front window:
It took me a minute to remember that the installation process for our solar array and wind turbine was starting that morning. It wasn't very long before our yard was a construction zone with noise to match!
Roy's going to install a Raum 3.5 wind turbine and 14 solar panels. The turbine alone should cover our electrical needs - that will be $100/month less in utility bills - and the solar should produce an equivalent amount of electricity that will just be a bonus. The electric coop will pay us wholesale rate on any electricity we put on the grid that we don't use.
That big chain-saw looking thing turned out to be a trencher. It digs trenches, like the ones we needed for the electrical lines between the renewable energy systems and our electric meter. In our soil there is a layer of a hard rock called caliche about 6-inches down that made the trencher shake and buck a little, but it got the job done!
The next piece of machinery to arrive was a caisson rig. It's a giant drill that we hired to make the holes for the solar array's support and the much larger hole for the wind turbine's foundation.
In the picture above is the caisson rig with a small drill bit for the solar.
This is the drill bit for the wind turbine:
Here is the big drill in action on the caisson:
When they pull the drill out of the hole, it's loaded with soil. They carefully move it aside and turn the drill again to dump it. Here's the dump in action:
When they finished the hole, they lowered a rebar cage into it.
A look down the hole:
That's 12 feet deep and just big enough for an adult, toddler or dog to fall into! Don't worry, no one was harmed!
The electrical conduit was run through the trench and into the hole so it can eventually be connected to the turbine.
Then it was filled with concrete:
And then the base of the turbine was set down with big bolts running down into the concrete.
And that's how it will look for a month as the concrete cures.
Here's how the foundation for the solar looks:
At the end of the month, we'll continue with the install - stay tuned!
By the way, Roy sells these systems! If you're interested check out his website: ColoradoWindTurbines.com . He's also a great resource on energy efficiency, so if you want some advice give him a call at 1-888-520-1258.
It took me a minute to remember that the installation process for our solar array and wind turbine was starting that morning. It wasn't very long before our yard was a construction zone with noise to match!
Roy's going to install a Raum 3.5 wind turbine and 14 solar panels. The turbine alone should cover our electrical needs - that will be $100/month less in utility bills - and the solar should produce an equivalent amount of electricity that will just be a bonus. The electric coop will pay us wholesale rate on any electricity we put on the grid that we don't use.
That big chain-saw looking thing turned out to be a trencher. It digs trenches, like the ones we needed for the electrical lines between the renewable energy systems and our electric meter. In our soil there is a layer of a hard rock called caliche about 6-inches down that made the trencher shake and buck a little, but it got the job done!
The next piece of machinery to arrive was a caisson rig. It's a giant drill that we hired to make the holes for the solar array's support and the much larger hole for the wind turbine's foundation.
In the picture above is the caisson rig with a small drill bit for the solar.
This is the drill bit for the wind turbine:
Here is the big drill in action on the caisson:
When they pull the drill out of the hole, it's loaded with soil. They carefully move it aside and turn the drill again to dump it. Here's the dump in action:
When they finished the hole, they lowered a rebar cage into it.
A look down the hole:
That's 12 feet deep and just big enough for an adult, toddler or dog to fall into! Don't worry, no one was harmed!
The electrical conduit was run through the trench and into the hole so it can eventually be connected to the turbine.
Then it was filled with concrete:
And then the base of the turbine was set down with big bolts running down into the concrete.
And that's how it will look for a month as the concrete cures.
Here's how the foundation for the solar looks:
At the end of the month, we'll continue with the install - stay tuned!
By the way, Roy sells these systems! If you're interested check out his website: ColoradoWindTurbines.com . He's also a great resource on energy efficiency, so if you want some advice give him a call at 1-888-520-1258.
Posted by Susan at May 10, 2010 
Categories: Rural Living
Tags: electricity energy wind system solar install renewable installation
Categories: Rural Living
Tags: electricity energy wind system solar install renewable installation
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