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Battery Safety

Make sure someone else is around when you work on or movebatteries

Install your batteries in a vented battery box, they emit hydrogengas when charging

Never install electrical equipment in the same compartment asbatteries due to explosive hydrogen gas

No smoking around batteries for the same reason Wrap wrench handles in electrical tape to avoid shorting between

battery terminals. Wear goggles and rubber gloves to protect yourself from sulfuric

acid Keep a box of baking soda and a jug of water around to neutralize

any spilled battery acid If you get acid on your skin, flush with lots of water In case of acid in your eyes, flush with water for 15 minutes

and call a doctor

Wind Turbine Safety

Towers can fall. So, whatever the height is, that radius around thetower should be clear. Example - a 20 foot tower should be at

least 20 feet from the property line. The blades are fairly heavy and sharp. They can do serious

damage if they hit someone. Always keep that in mind. PVC blades must be painted with UV resistant paint. Otherwise

they will get brittle and may shatter under strong winds. PVC blades will flex especially in strong winds. Make sure that

there is enough clearance for them to flex and not hit the tower. Never try to stop the blades with your hands or any object. It is

better to short the output of the generator or to furl the blades to

the side if possible. Don't install a wind turbine on a windy day. Wait until a calm day.

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(This is my blade test stand)

Introduction

We can all see how gas prices and energy costs are rising. And there isno indication that they will fall in the near future. In fact, all the evidence

points to higher and higher prices in the upcoming years. That is reasonenough to look into renewable energy but certainly not the only reason.Some people purchase rural property for a very low cost. But it is so lowbecause there is no electrical lines run to the property. And it may cost$25,000 plus just to have it run. Some people just don't trust that thegrid will always be there and would like some independence from it.Whatever your reason for being energy self-sufficient, you are probablylooking into one of two things. Solar power or wind turbines.

I actually like both and believe that they compliment each other. This isespecially true when you have a very windy winter but overcast and rainy.Then in the summer youhave good sun, but not asmuch wind.

But I believe that a solar(photo voltaic) system isway too expensive for the

average person. I dobelieve in solar hot airand water systemsthough, especially homemade versions. They canbe very inexpensive. Butthis book will focus onwind turbines and cheapor free battery systems.

And not the store boughtwind turbines, but thehomemade variety.

Why pay $1,000 for a 400 watt store bought wind turbine when you couldmake a 1,000 watt machine of your own for only $150? Why pay $4,000for a 1400 amp hour 12 volt battery bank when you can get one for free?

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This picture (to the right) is my first wind turbine made from a DC motorand some PVC pipe. The DCmotor is 190 Volt, 16 ampvariety that I purchased off ofE-bay for about $80 withshipping all the way to

Canada. It is about a 4 HPmotor and the blades are waytoo small to really push it. Theblades are only 4 and a halffeet in diameter and theyshould be about 7 - 8 feet. Imounted this one on a 10 footpole. I will go into the mathand logic for figuring out blade

to generator sizing later in this book. I will also go into what you shouldlook for when looking for potential generators. I will show you how tomake the blades out of PVC and what to paint them with. They are freeexcept for the work that goes into it.

First things first

How many windmills do you need? Do you need just one? How big?Well, I will cover more in depth math later, but first I would like to talkabout the average North American situation. The average householduses about 24 kwh per day. That is 1,000 watts per hour. As anexample, let's assume the average wind speed for the winter is 12 mph.And let's say that we have a 7 foot diameter blade on our windmill that isproperly matched to our generator. That would give us 100 watts and isonly about a tenth as much as we need. So having 10 wind turbinessetup would cost about $1500. If the average wind speed was 15 mph,

then that would make 200 watts and only 5 wind turbines would benecessary.

Simple thumb rule formula isPower= (.00477)(Radius^2)(Wind Speed^3)Radius in feet and Wind Speed is mph.

This means if we double the radius, we get 4 times the power. If wedouble the average wind speed, then we get 8 times the power. So, if our

blade was 14 feet in diameter, then we would have 400 watts output(9600 watt hours per day)and only need about 2.5 windmills to meet thenormal usage of 24 kwh/day.

Let's say the average wind speed was 24 mph, and the diameter was 7feet. That would make an output of 800 watts or 19,200 watt hours perday. Not bad for one windmill.

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You can check here to see what your average wind speed is.

US wind speed chart -http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.html

World wind speed chart -

http://www.bergey.com/Maps/World.Wind.Lg.htm

Canada wind speed chart -http://www.windatlas.ca/en/maps.php?field=EU&height=30

Here is the average inVictoria, BC, Canada.Notice, I get 4 m/s and 7

m/s about 10% of thetime. And 9 m/s about 6%of the time. While 5 and 6m/s is about 15% of thetime. So about 50% of thetime I have between 4 and9 m/s. That is 9 mph to20 mph about half thetime. About 35% of the

time it is less than that andabout 15% of the time it isgreater than 20 mph.

So, If I average 7 m/s or15.7 mph and have a 7foot diameter blade set,then I would average about 225 watts and about 5,400 wh/day. In anefficient house, that would be enough to supply my energy demands. Butin the typical house without energy efficiencies, it would take about 5 ofthose turbines setup to meet demand. As you can see, conservation iskey to a good renewable energy scenario.

I know what you're thinking, Why can't I just make one big windmill tocover all my power needs ? Well, actually it is a good idea except for afew things.

First, neighbors might not appreciate the 24 foot diameter wind machinein their bay window. If you live out in the middle of nowhere then you canpretty much do what you like. Although, the tower would have to be verystrong and expensive just to hold up to the incredible forces. Take a lookat this chart.As you can see, a 24 foot diameter wind turbine would have over 1,500pounds of force applied in just a 25 mph wind. While a 7 foot diameterwould only feel 135 pounds.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.htmlhttp://www.windatlas.ca/en/maps.php?field=EU&height=30http://www.windatlas.ca/en/maps.php?field=EU&height=30http://www.bergey.com/Maps/World.Wind.Lg.htmhttp://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.html

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Secondly, any windmill could have a problem or fail. That means that ifyou have one big machine and it fails, then you are out of luck until yourepair it. But if you have 5 small machines then you would still have 4machines functioning. That's 80% of your normal power production.Why put all your eggs in one basket?

With the larger blade set you would also have to have carved woodblades because PVC would flex too much at that size. That adds a lot ofexpense or a lot of complexity.

Also, a larger blade set spins very slowly and would require either ahomemade generator designed for slow speed, or it would require theuse of extra pulleys and bearings to gear up the speed to match atypical generator.

Just as an example, let's consider the 24 foot diameter machine and itspower production. Using the average here of 15.7 mph, we would get2,650 watts average and about 63,000 watt hours/day. That is enoughfor 3 average homes or maybe 6-10 efficient homes. That would beoverkill. The biggest I would recommend going is about 12 foot indiameter with PVC blades. That would be 5 foot blades each and a footgap at the center between blade and the shaft. But the tower assemblywould be more beefy and you couldn't raise and lower it by yourself.With a 12 foot rotor it would produce good power though. In this locationthat would be 660 watts or 15,800 watt hours/day. That is a good targetfor a moderately efficient house. You could produce about the samepower with two 8 foot diameter machines.

Really, the big issue would be the average wind speed in your area. If

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you live in a place that only has 8 mph average wind then you would need16 wind turbines (8 foot diameter) in the above example. In that case, Iwould suggest getting your daily watt hour usage down to about 8,000 orless. That way you would only need 8 wind turbines. It's doable, but still,that's a lot of windmills. If your average wind speed is more than 10 mphthen this picture starts to look a lot better.

So, to reiterate, the two big considerations are how efficient your house isand what your average wind speed is. Hopefully, you can get your energyusage down to 10 kwh/day or less. And if your average wind speed is 10mph or greater, you are in business.

Another way to think about it is to just start off small. I live in asubdivision and use windmills for small jobs. Like one windmill justcharges a battery and inverter pack for the tool shed. Another windmill

ties into my solar system and augments my solar, mainly for the winter.

What, Where, and How Much?

I contend that a wind turbine, with a 6 to 7 foot diameter blade andproduces 1,000 watts in 30 mph wind, can be made for less than $150! Ialso contend that a 12 volt battery bank with 1400 amp hours can be hadfor less than $300 and likely FREE! In this section I will cover what partsare needed and where to obtain them. The actual construction will be

covered in later sections. Later in the book I will also talk about a 3,000watt windmill using 11 foot blade design.

Parts needed for Wind Turbine:

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Total $148

3 bags of cement for base $15

1 can of spray paint for blades - must block UV $5

2 2 gauge flexible cable to run to batteries Free

1 pvc primer paint $5

1 short pipe and flange for yaw bearing assembly $10

1 steel flat bar for hub assembly 1/8 x 1.5 x 36 inches $10

1 4 inch pulley $10

1 various nuts and bolts for blade attachment, motorattachment, etc

$10

1 8-12 inch diameter green PVC pipe - 3-6 feet long Free

1 Door or gate hinge for furling system $8

2 21 foot schedule 40, 1.5-2 inch steel pipe for the tilt up

tower- from salvage yard

$25

1 DC Motor/Generator with shipping cost $50

Qty

Description PriceEstimate

DC Motor/Generator

This doesn't have to be DC. It could be a permanent magnet alternator.If it puts out AC then you would have to use diodes to rectify to DC. A DCmotor would also need a diode in line otherwise the battery bank wouldtry to spin the motor.

So, let me try to explain what to look for. First, the best place to startlooking is ebay.com. Search for DC motor. The main attributes you arelooking for are amps, RPM, shaft size and voltage. Here is a listing I'lluse as an example to help explain.

http://ebay.com/http://ebay.com/http://ebay.com/

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It has 5/8 Shaft Diameter.1800 RPM.1 Horsepower.

90 volts DC.$5 and $38.50 shipping

For shaft size 1/2 inch is usually too small. Look for a 5/8 or larger shaftsize because that signifies that it can handle more power and has largerand stronger bearings.

For RPM look for 1800 or less as a thumb-rule. Let's say you aregoing to be charging a 12 volt battery with your wind turbine. To figure

out what RPM it will have to spin in order to start charging the battery (cutin speed), then we can do the following:

RPM = (bat volts / motor volts) x max rpm ===> (12/90) x 1800

That works out to 240 RPMs to start charging a 12 volt battery. If themax voltage of the motor was 180 instead of 90 then that would look likethis:

RPM = (12/180) x 1800 and the RPM would be 120 for cut in speed.Typically you would aim for 100 - 300 RPMs as your target cut in speed.

Next we will look at amps. Notice that this ebay listing doesn't mentionamps but it does mention horsepower. One hp is about 750 watts, but 1hp at the shaft usually means about 850 watts of electrical power isapplied. So, if we take the 850 watts and divide by 90 volts then we get

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getting close to 1 HP. Well, it is all based on the air cooling effect.Usually, the winds are stronger in the winter. Cold air is much moredense than warm, therefore many more air molecules hit per square inchon each blade.

Notice how low the RPM is. I could start charging at 107 RPMs. Actually,

to be more precise, I would say that a fully charged 12v battery is reallysitting at 12.7 volts. And I would have a 80 amp diode in line that wouldhave about 0.7 volt drop. So effectively, I would need 13.4 volts or betterto start charging. RPM = (13.4/36) x 320 = 119.1

Steel Pipe for Tower

I have two recommendationsdepending on the weight and size ofyour wind turbine. If your wind turbineweighs less than 50 lbs and the rotordiameter is less than 5 feet, I wouldsay that you could get away withusing electrical conduit pole fromHome Depot or any other hardwarestore. It comes in 10 foot sectionsand I would recommend about 1.5

inch in diameter. I've seen it forabout $15 at Home Depot. You willneed two pipes for the tilt up towerand I'll describe how to set that up in a later section. But the height wouldonly be 10 feet.

If you are using a rotor larger than 5 feet or if your generator assembly,including blades, is greater than 50 lbs, then I recommend usingschedule 40 pipe, about 1.5 to 2 inches inside diameter. You will need

two pipes and they usually come in 21 foot sections. I've seen them atscrap yards for less than $25 for two of them.

In either case, you will cut one pipe in half and leave the other full length.The two shorter pipes will be mounted in cement and will provide for thepivot point of the larger pipe. This will create the tilt up tower. I'll discussthis later.

Door or Gate Hinge

The hinge should preferably be a heavy duty gate hinge, the kind that islong and triangular shaped. This will two pieces of wood. The bottompiece will have a short pipe mounted to it. This short pipe goes insideyour tower pipe and allows the windmill to yaw into the wind. The toppiece of wood mounted to the hinge has the motor mounted to it. Thehinge allows the whole assembly to pivot and point up in high winds

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acting as a furling mechanism. Thisprevents damage due to high winds.

As it pivots up, there is less area ofthe blades exposed to the wind.Therefore, it takes more and more

wind to complete the furling. Whenthe generator is pointing almoststraight up, it hits stops. The fastspinning blades have a gyroscopiceffect that acts to resist the changeof position. This acts as a naturalshock absorber.

PVC Pipe for Blades

I highly recommend the 8 to 12 inchgreen sewer PVC pipes. You canfind end pieces at construction sites

that are 3 or 4feet long. You'llhave to ask theforeman if they

are throwing itout. Usuallythey are,because thosepieces are justtoo small forthem to use foranything else. Iknow someone

that works forthe city, and hefinds smallpieces like thatall the time. Ifyou had to buy a pipe, it would cost a few hundred dollars and would beabout 18 plus feet long. This type of pipe seems to hold up much betterthan the thin white PVC. It is also thicker and flexes a lot less in higherwinds. With a 3 foot length, you could make a 7 foot rotor. This accounts

for about 6 inches between the root of the blade and the shaft.

Various Nuts and Bolts and Yaw Bearing

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You will need severaldifferent nuts and bolts forassembly of your windturbine. Notice in thesepictures that the yaw bearingjust consists of a short pipe

section that fits inside themain tower pipe. It issecured to the furlingbase(smaller block of wood)by a 4 inch flange piece.This small pipe screws intothis flange piece.

As you can see, the small

pipe fits into the bigger pipe(tower) and rides on a smallbolt that pierces the towerhorizontally. The bottomend of the short pipe issanded and polished smoothand is then greased up. Youcan use Vaseline or any

thick grease. The bolt going through the tower should have threads just

on the end. The middle of the bolt should be just smooth metal.

The U bolt holding the motor downcan be homemade by using brass allthread rod cut to length. Using inchshould work fine. A homemadebracket can be made for either thefront or the rear of the motor. The rearwould be stronger but sometimes it isjust easier to mount to the front. It justdepends on the motor.

The tail of the wind turbine is just a2x2 piece of wood cut to about about 4feet and wood screwed down to thetop wood piece. You should use a 2 x6 or 2 x 8 for the top piece and useseveral 3 inch wood screws to hold thetail in place.

The tail should be a piece of plywood about 2 feet by 1.5 feet for a smallturbine (6 foot diameter rotor or less). Paint all the wood with severallayers of marine enamel paint and it will last for years.

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Paint

You need a good UV inhibitor to paint the blades with. Titanium Dioxideis the key ingredient. Krylon makes a good one that is meant for plastics

Hub AssemblyThe hub assembly consists of a 4-6 inch aluminum pulley with 1/8 to 1/4inch flat steel pieces to hold the PVC blades. The inside diameter of thepulley should match the shaft diameter of the motor.

Putting It All Together

The base of the pulley has a

hole drilled through it and itcorresponds to a hole drilledstraight through the shaft ofthe generator. The holeshould be 3/32 inch. A 1/8thinch soft steel rod is theninserted through the hole inthe pulley and through theshaft and out the other side.

Then the ends are twistedtogether with a pair of pliers.You can use a short piece ofcoat hanger for this purpose.This method seems to workmuch better than using aarbor system and a nut totighten up. No matter howmuch locktite you use, it will

eventually give way.

The flat steel pieces are bolted to the hubvia 6 holes in the pulley. Each hole is 60apart. The simple way to do this is to usethe attached template on the next page.Start by printing it out and then place thepulley on the page with the hole perfectly

centered. Where each line intersects withthe edge of the pulley, mark a dot with afine tip marker on the pulley's edge.Connect each opposing dot with a lineusing a straight edge. From the outer edgeof the pulley, measure 1 inch toward thecenter and mark on the line. Do this for all6 bolt hole positions. Then drill out all 6

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positions with a 5/16 inch drillbit. Drill the correspondingholes in the flat stock (12 inchpieces). It helps to do onefirst by itself and use it as atemplate to make the other

two pieces. At this point I addanother two holes for myblades to be mounted.

Next, place the pulley

on the motor shaftwith the pulleyprotrusion pointingtoward the motorbody. Take a 3/32drill bit and carefullydrill straight throughthe pulley protrusionarea and the shaftand out the otherside. Take the pulleyoff the shaft now, wewill install it later aftereverything else isready.

Once all 3 pieces offlat stock have 4holes drilled ( 2 formounting to thepulley, and 2 forblade mounting),then you can mountthem to the pulley.The second and the

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third flat stock you mount will have a gap between it and the pulley. Itmakes it more stable to either put washers in that space or to use one ortwo small pieces of flat stock (with a hole in it) as a washer.

Template for pulley bolt pattern.

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centerline. On the right side of thetemplate at the blade tip, pick a pointabout 1/4 to 1/2 inch below that and markit. Then, on the bottom left of the templatemark a point that is 1 to the right and 1from the bottom. This will be your first bolt

hole for mounting. Draw the offsetcenterline by connecting that bolt holepoint to the point you made at the blade

tip.

Cut this blade shape out of thepaper and place the newtemplate on the outside of thepvc pipe using tacky removable

hobby spray glue. Line upthe offset centerline on thetemplate with the centerlinedrawn on the pvc pipe. Thiswill put a twist in the blade sothat the angle of attack at thetip is much smaller than atthe root of the blade.

With a permanent marker, trace around thetemplate and mark the two bolt holes. Dothis process twice more to mark the othertwo blades. Use a jigsaw to cut out theblades. The inside of the pipe will face intothe wind. The leading edge should berounded off and the trailing edge should beground down on the inside of the pipe sothat the trailing edge is sharp. You can usea hand grinder to do this but it is easier touse a belt sander. The blades should all beidentical in size and weight. Also, the

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you can make one out of some steel all thread rod. The U-bolt is only tohold the motordown but it doesn'tprovide support foraxial thrust due tothe wind. A small

piece of 2x2 woodabout 4 feet longmounted rightbehind the motorworks fine and issimple. This canbe screwed orbolted down and itwill prevent any

axial movement ofthe motor becauseit will be buttedright up against therear.

Place a heavy duty hinge between the motor mount wood and the yawbearing wood block. That will allow it to furl in higher wind. Also, a smallpiece of wood should be added to the bottom of the yaw bearing wood

block. This will act as a stopper during high wind furling and keep it fromgoing completely vertical.

Connecting the Cable

Using thicker and more flexible cable is ideal for small windturbines. It can easily replace slip rings and can last formany years longer. Most people think of welding cable,

between 2 and 6 gauge. But welding cable is fairlyexpensive. There is another option. You can get FREEcable but it does require some phone calls and somewaiting. If you don't want to wait, I suggest using tworegular 3 pronged extension cords. Twist the ends of allthree wires together on each end and use each cord as onewire. One for the positive and the other for the negative.When you twist two of the same size wires together, theeffective new size is the wire gauge minus 3. So, two 16

gauges together would be a 13 gauge. When you add thatthird wire it would be about 11 gauge. (it doesn't subtract 3again)

When running the wire try to keep the distance to thebatteries at a minimum. With a 12 volt battery, try to keepdown to less than 100 feet unless you are using really thickcable.

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To get the free cable you will have to call around to various hospitals inyour area. Ask if they have an MRI machine. Every few years theyreplace their MRI power cables for troubleshooting or regularmaintenance. These cables are made up of 3 wires at 2 gauge each.They usually just throw them out. You can get these and cut off the outer

sleeve and just use 2 of the wires.

A simple connector for the end of these large wires (besides usingexpensive crimps and crimping tool) would be to use a small piece ofcopper tube about 3 inches long. Trim about an inch of rubber off theend of the wire and stick the copper piece on the end. Use a propanetorch to solder from the inside of the tube. After it cools, smash the endof the copper tube with a hammer to flatten and drill a hole through it. Itmakes a great cheap terminal.

The cables should be attached with a few zip ties or coat hanger wire tothe side of the motor mount wood block parallel to the pivot point of thehinge. You want it parallel because if the two wires get tight, they will tryto either furl the motor or they would prevent furling.

The two wires would then hang down loosely on the side of the tower.They should be secured to the tower closer to the ground. A rubberbungee cord should be connected from the hole in the motor mount woodpiece and run down to the yaw support bolt through the tower. It shouldbe almost snug so that the windmill can turn 180 either way before trying

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to resist the turn and bounce back. This will keep the cord from gettingwrapped around the tower.

The TowerI'll assume you have picked up 2 pipes (21 feet each) for the tower. Cutone of the pipes in half. Dig a hole where you want to mount the windturbine. It should be about 2 ft x 1 ft and about 2 feet deep. I prefer totake 2 T fence posts (6 feet tall) and hammer those into the hole so thatabout 2 feet stick up above the hole.

This is a tilt uptower and willneed a pivot pointclose to the topof the two 10 footpipes. Obtain along bolt about10 inches long oruse all threadand a metalsleeve for therotation point.

Fill in the holewith cement.Then slide thetwo 10 foot pipesover the T posts

and down into the wet cement. Let it harden for 24 hours unless youhave the instant cement. Still it is best to let it sit until the next day.

Then, mount the windmill tower to

the base with the 10 inch bolt orallthread. It is best to do thiswithout the windmill and yawbearing in place. Pivot the towerinto the upright position andtemporarily secure while drillinganother hole toward the bottom ofthe two 10 foot base pipes. Thiswill allow another 10 inch bolt to

secure the tower in the uprightposition. After that has beendrilled and tested for fit, lower the tower and place the windmill and yawbearing assembly on top.

The guy wires are not even necessary unless the tower is taller than thisor if the blade diameter is greater than 7 feet or if you live in a high windarea. But if you use them, it is easiest to make the connection half way

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going to get rid of soon. If they say yes, then tell them you are runningtests on old batteries in an attempt to rejuvenate them for use inrenewable energy applications and to help the environment. Also, tellthem that you would be willing to sign their environmental protectionforms to promise that you will dispose of them correctly when you aredone.

If you have a 1/2 ton truck you can pick up maybe one 24 volt bank or two12 volts at a time. Also, remember that you will have to get them off thetruck somehow. You will need a hoist of some kind that can handle theweight. Some 36v and 48v batteries weigh 3,000 to 4,000 lbs. A 12vusually weighs about 700 lbs or so. If you can't take them off the trucksomehow then you can call a fork lift sales company and use them todeliver the batteries. They usually charge about $50 to $70 an hour fortheir services. But they have a large flatbed truck and plenty of fork lifts

to move the batteries.

If the post office doesn't have old batteries, try any of the warehousesaround you. These types of businesses don't change their batteries outvery often, maybe every 3 to 5 years. So they end up calling a recycler tocome pick them up and they have to pay the recycler for the service. Thetrick is to find someone who is planning on changing them out soon buthasn't called the recycler yet.

Something to note here is that these batteries are used hard and putaway wet. They don't take very good care of them. They work great inan 8 hour shift at first. Then, after a few years, they seem to not last aslong, maybe 6 hours of heavy use or so. That is still 75% capacity andwould work great in a renewable energy home. But I'll show you how torejuvenate them to 90% or better.

The easier way to get batteries isn't free but it is much quicker. Find afork lift sales company as close to your house as possible. Then tellthem what you are doing and they will usually sell the batteries to you forwhatever the scrap guy pays for them. They will even deliver for you. If Iwere to get those two 24 volt batteries from the local fork lift place, itwould cost about $60 for the weight of them and about $70 to deliver. So,only $130 for the two massive batteries. Not bad.

Important note - try to look for batteries that are in descent shape. Checkthe voltage before you get them. Aim for 10.5 volts or better for every 12volt section. This is after a full charge and after a few hours of sittingthere. For example, a 24 volt battery should be 21 volts or better. Youcan still repair them if they are lower, but it is much harder to do and theyprobably have shorted plates or are way to sulfated.

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I got em, but how do I fix em?

Well, about 85% of all dead batteries are really just sulfated batteries. Ifyou can de-sulfate them, you could have an effectively new battery. Whatis sulfation, you might ask. Well, all lead acid batteries need to staycharged. If they are allowed to stay in a less than charged state, thenthey form layers of sulfate crystals on the lead plates. There are only twoways to get rid of those crystals once they are that deep. You could takethe battery apart and scrape the lead plates clean. No thank you.

The other way is to use an electronic de-sulfator. Very few work that well,but there are a few and they are expensive. All you need is a way to sendDC pulses to the battery that are higher than the battery voltage. If youhit the resonant frequency then the sulfate crystals break loose anddissolve back into the water. This turns the water back into sulfuric acidagain.

Most de-sulfators are set to 1,000 hertz. I will share the plan for myhomemade one that pulses at 120 hertz. This seems to work better onthe large fork lift batteries than the 1 khz machine does. This is probablybecause the lead plates are bigger and resonate at a lower frequency.

All I did was cross connect the two 24 volt batteries together by

connecting the plus from one to the minus of the other. Then theremaining plus and minus connections were made with my pulser circuit.When the battery voltage reached 55 volts I switched to low power to tryand maintain that voltage. Let me explain the battery a bit. All lead acidbatteries are made up of cells. Each cell is 2.12 volts. So a 12 voltbattery is really 12.7 volts and a 24 volt battery is really 25.4. To maintaingood battery health a few things should be remembered:

Fluid levels must always be maintained

Never leave a battery partially charged Keep the battery on a float charge - 2.3 volts per cell once a month or so perform an equalization charge for about 3

hours. About 2.4 v to 2.6v per cell

WARNING! Be aware that all lead acid batteries will release Hydrogenand Oxygen gas when they are being charged or discharged. Anyspark near the top of the battery could cause an explosion. When youare connecting or disconnecting a charger or even a load, then you

should always turn the power off first. That way it doesn't spark. Thisis true even if you are just adjusting the cable clamps.

The battery should be in a ventilated compartment or outdoors. You don'twant a buildup of these gases in your garage or home. Besides, thereare small lead particles mixed in the gas and you don't want toconcentrate that in a garage for you to breath in.

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Making the De-Sulfator

I call this circuit a pulser. It consists of the following:

AC plug 1 Run Capacitor (for low setting - 10 to 30 MFD) 1 to 4 Run Capacitors (for High setting - 30 to 80 MFD)

GFCI pluggin 2 SPST switches (house light switches work fine) 1 SPDT switch (two way house light switch) 1 stainless steel bolt 2 inches long by 1/4 inch diameter 25 amp fulse

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Notice the 1/4 inch stainless steel bolt (about 2 inches long). It has tobe stainless, not plated or galvanized. And the wire connections mustbe exactly 1 inch (1.026 inches to be exact) apart. This is your shuntand when you select ampson the switch above, you need to turn yourmeter to milivolts. A reading of 5 milivolts would indicate 5 amps forexample. A reading or 8.9 mV would be 8.9 amps. When you switch

back to volts, you will have to turn your meter back to the right rangeunless you have anautoranging one.

OK, You Have thePulser, Let's Fix theBatteries

When you get the batteriesyou should check the fluidlevel. Remember to usesafety goggles and rubbergloves. The fluid levelshouldn't be all the way to thetop. But it should be fairly close, usually to the bottom of the plastic lipinside the hole. Distilled water is the best choice, but you can use any

highly purified water. You don't want any chlorine and you don't want anyminerals.

For fork lift batteries, it's a good idea to use a small funnel. For smallerbatteries, you can use a bulb and tube (looks like a turkey baster). Becareful though. You don't want to splash battery acid on you. The stuffeats through your clothes too so don't wipe your hands on your jeans.They will look fine until the next time you wash your clothes thenmysterious holes will start to appear. The WAF (wife approval factor) is

low in this situation.

Next you should check the specific gravity with a hydrometer. You canpick them up for $5 at any auto parts store. You are aiming for about1275 or more. You should check each cell and write down what eachone is before you start pulsing and charging.

Then hook the pulser up to the battery and make sure the polarity iscorrect, otherwise, you'll blow the DC fuse. (Don't do this, it will scare the

hell out of you!) The DC volts will show the battery voltage at this point.Plug in the pulser, select low setting and look at DC amps. The ampsshould be 1 amp for every 24 MFD installed. To add more amps (Irecommend this) add more capacitors in parallel. You should use about50 to 80 MFD if you are charging a big forklift batteries. This is for thelow setting. The high setting should use at least 3 times that.

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If you are charging :

12 volt battery,charge to 13.8 volts24 volt battery, charge to 27.6 volts

48 volt battery, charge to 55.2 volts

Maintain this float charge for a week or two and check the specific gravityevery few days to monitor progress. After a few weeks it will hit a stickingpoint. This is when an equalization charge is needed to mix up thesolution of acid. Then switch to high setting. The amps should at leasttriple.

For equalization charge (3 hours max):

12 volt battery, charge to 14.4 to 15.6 volts24 volt battery, charge to 28.8 to 31.2 volts48 volt battery, charge to 57.6 to 62.4 volts

After the equalization charge is done (2 to 3 hours), then you should goback to maintaining the float charge. Monitor this for the next two weeksor so. Some fork lift batteries can be repaired in 2 weeks and some maytake 3 months.

One final note - When connecting your new wind turbine to your battery,make sure you have a diodein line with the battery. It is easy to tell if it ishooked up wrong. If the wind turbine begins to spin when you hook it up,then reverse the diode and try again.

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Specific Gravity Log12 - 24 volt

12

11

10

98

7

6

5

4

3

2

1Cell # Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

12

11

10

98

7

6

5

4

3

2

1Cell # Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10

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Formulas

Power is in WattsV is velocity in miles per hour

Diameter is in feetTSR is Tip Speed Ratio - blades in this plan = TSR of 6

R is radius in feet

In this section I will discuss some handy formulas. The easiest way toexplain them is by example:

Example 1: A 7 foot blade in 20 mph wind ==> (.00477)(3.5^2)(20^3) =467 watts

Example 2: A 7 foot bladed turbine is generating 200 watts of

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power..how fast is the wind? ===> cubed root of (200/((.00477)(3.5^2)))===> 15 mph wind

Example 3: To make 300 watts in 18 mph wind, how big should theblades be?===> (square root( 300/((.00477)(18^3)))) x 2 ===> 6.57 feet

Example 4: How fast would the 7 foot blades in this book be spinning in25 mph wind?===> ((25)(6)(28))/7 ===> 600 RPMs

Example 5: If the 7 foot windmill in this book is spinning at 300 RPMs,how fast is the wind blowing? ===> ((300)(7))/((6)(28)) ===> 12.5 mphwind

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3000 Watt Wind Turbine

The concept of the 3,000 watt wind turbine is simple. You will needwindmill blades that are 11 feet in diameter. Normally, blades this sizewould produce a little more power, but this windmill will have losses via

the DC motors and losses through the pulley system to gear up theoutput rpms. The blades are mounted on a shaft that is held into place bytwo bearings. On that shaft, right behind the blades would be two pulleys( not necessarily the same size ). Those pulleys attach to their respectivemotors via belts. The two motors are wired electrically in parallel. Thisdoubles the amp output and therefore doubles the power output.

The blades are 5 feet long each and there is a 6 inch gap from the shaftto where the blades start. This will give you a 11 foot rotor in diameter. Itwill spin clockwise in the above picture, but you could make the bladesreversed if needed. The motors and the bearings can be mounted on 3/4

inch plywood, or you could use steel plating if you like. I prefer plywoodbecause it is so much easier to work with. You just have to paint all ofthe wood you use with a good marine paint so it will last a long time.

Notice in the above picture that the pulleys on the main shaft line up withtheir respective pulleys on the motors. In other words, one motor sits alittle bit further back than the other.

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The motor mount holes in the plywood have to be slotted so the pulleybelts can be tightened. You want them tight enough so they won't slip athigher power.

The shaft is 1 inch diameter and about 15 to 25 inches long. This fitsnicely into 2 bearings meant for a 1 inch shaft. On the left end of the

shaft, you can see that there is a flange screwed on. It is screwed onto a6 inch galvanized pipe, 1 inch inside diameter. If you wanted to swap outblades to a smaller set for the winter, then you can just drill a hole anduse a cotter pin to secure it after you slip it on the main shaft.

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Getting Started

What you will need to get started:

Total $220

1 heavy duty hinge $41 1 inch water pipe 6 inches long $31 3/4 inch water pipe 36 inches long $101 1 inch diam steel shaft ( 15-25 inches long ) $102 smaller pulleys for motor shafts $102 larger pulleys for main shaft $15

2 pulley belts $152 1 inch shaft bearings $151 various nuts and bolts $152 2-3 hp DC perm. magnet motors $1001 24 inch x 3/4 inch galvanized water pipe $41 1 inch water pipe flange $41 3/4 inch water pipe flange $33 1 inch steel square tubing 24 inches long $121 scrap green PVC pipe ( 8 to 12 in diam 5 feet long ) free

QTY Description Price

Making the blade mounts

The blade mounts are just made of 24 inch tube steel pieces arranged120 degrees apart from each other. They are laid down flat and clampedinto position. Then the 1 inch pipe flange is laid flat on top of them at thecenter with the threaded side pointed up and the flat side down.

The flange is centered by making sure that the edge is the same distanceto the scribed marks on the tubes. Then the flange is welded to the tube

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steel. If you don't have a welder you could make one using my batterywelder book ( http://www.poormansguides.com/welding-clickbank.htm )or you could pay a welder to do it for you.

The 1 inch (6 inch long) water pipe is screwed into this. You can thenweld it too so it doesn't come unscrewed. This is slipped over the 1 inch

shaft. Then you can drill a hole through the pipe and shaft so you can puta cotter pin in. Separate the two pieces until later.

The motors and bearing assembly will be mounted on a piece of 3/4 inchplywood. At the bottom, just under the main shaft, mount the heavy dutyhinge. The bottom of the hinge should be a 2x4 block. Here you shouldmount the 3/4 inch flange. This is where you will put the 3/4 inch waterpipe going straight down. This is the furling and yaw system. It worksjust like the smaller 7 foot diameter windmill discussed earlier.

Also, make sure that the blades are out far enough from the platform sothat they can't flex backwards and hit anything.

The motors will be wired in parallel, but with a twist. Each motor may notbe identical, and they don't really have to be. So, wire the negative foreach motor together. Then run each positive wire to it's own rectifier.Then run each rectifier to it's own fuse (appropriately sized).

DC Motor Analyzer

This program will allow you to test different aspects of your windmillbefore you put it together. In this sample I show two motors. Both are120 volts, 3000 rpms and 17 amps (that is why I show 34 amps in theamp section). At 11 foot blade and a gearing up of 5 to 1, I can expect3,060 watts at 31.2 mph. If you hold your mouse over the chart in theprogram it will show the expected watts as you move your mouse.

Notice the wire length is set to 0 feet. If you put in a length and a wiregauge, it will compute voltage drop as well. A 30% voltage drop is all theprogram will allow. If you go over this it will let you know. I always do mycomputations set to zero feet in wire length. Then when I've decided onall other factors, I switch to the actual distance and play with the wiregauge.

Also notice that this is going into 24 volt battery bank. If you went into a

12 volt bank it would cut your power in half and you would need todecrease the size of the blades to about 9 feet.

The program is actually very easy to use, just play around with it for a fewminutes and it will all make sense.

http://www.poormansguides.com/welding-clickbank.htmhttp://www.poormansguides.com/welding-clickbank.htm

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F.A.Q Section

Q: How long is a forklift battery rated for? Does it last longer thangolf cart batteries?

A: Forklift batteries are rated for 20 years while golf cart batteries areonly rated for 5 years. They are both considered "traction" batteries andare deep cycle. In comparison, running your house on a large bank ofcar batteries would only last about 6 months of heavy cycling.

Q: I know someone with a small windmill that produces 400 watts,but, My God, that thing is loud. How loud will your homemadewindmill be? I have neighbors you know.A: I've gone through about 10 iterations of blade testing and all of them

have been quiet, even in high winds. The only difference is that most ofthose designs weren't as efficient as my latest. These blades startspinning in about 3 mph wind. They start charging a 12 volt battery atabout 5 to 12 mph wind (depending on generator used)

Q: Can I power my house from one windmill?A: Simple answer is yes, but it wouldn't be practical for most. In thisbook I look at practical. People use way more power than they think."Could you power your whole house with 1 solar panel?" Well, yeah, if it

were really big! In the book I look at the power you use and talk aboutconservation being key. Another main concern is average windspeed inyour area. Then I show equations to figure out how much power toexpect. On the average, most people would need about 2 to 10 smallwindmills on their property to become energy independent. Remember,it's not how powerful the windmill is, it is all about average wind speed. A10,000 watt windmill with a 20 foot blade will only produce about 250watts in 8 mph wind. But in 16 mph wind, it would be 8 times that...or2,000 watts.

Q: What if I would rather have one big one instead of 10 smallerones?A: First reason is tower strength. A 7 foot blade set will have a loadingof about 86 pounds of force from a 20 mph wind. A 21 foot blade wouldproduce about the same power as 9 smaller windmills (7 foot) but thesame wind would push on the tower with 775 pounds of force. Andsince the generator and tail are bigger, then you are looking at a verystrong and expensive tower. It may take a small team just to raise it.

Also, the bigger the blade, the slower it spins. So you will need to gearup the output or use a homemade generator. But if you are going to addmore complexity, you might as well drive 2 motors at the same time andmake twice the power.

And, thirdly, if you use a single big generator and it fails for some

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reason, then you have no backup. Why put all your eggs in one basket.

Isn't it easier to build a small generator that you can install by yourselfand build more as needed?

Q: Can I use an alternator out of a car in this design? 90AMP to beexact?A: Well it will work with a modified alternator. But if you are using aregular alternator, then you would need to step up the speed with apulley. You will get 300 to 600 rpms in a good wind and the alternatorneeds a few thousand rpms. So you could gear it up but not too muchbecause then it would need a very big wind just to start spinning. So,maybe 3 to 4 times gear up. If you do 4 to 1 gearing, then that would

give you 1200 to 2400 rpms on the alternator and that would work. Butyou will need some descent torque just to start it going. So you shouldhave at least a 7 foot diameter blade to do it.

You will also need a wind activated switch that can turn on theexcitation voltage to the alternator when the wind gets going fastenough.

Q: How do I convert the dc from the batteries to ac, so I can use it

at home? thanks.A: Hooking it up to the house is tricky. The house requires 240 voltswith a center tap (so three wires) and it makes two phases each with120 volts. And to get enough power and a three wire 240 volt output, youwould have to purchase the stackable inverters. Also, people don'trealize how much power their 240 volt appliances consume. A dryertakes up to 5,000 watts, water heater about 5,000 to 6,000 watts. Astove and oven about the same. Central air conditioning can take up toabout 15,000 watts. Also, you would have to have an electrician put a

disconnect switch and a 240 volt generator pluggin. With those kinds ofloads, you would need several forklift batteries and lots of windmills orsolar. I say, just run an extension cord into the house and use thepower off of that plug and just run your 120 volt appliances. You canalso take a long phone cable and run with that to hook up the remoteswitch to your inverter (some inverters have that). It will use any standardphone cable. When you need power to the plug, just push the redbutton. After you are done, turn it off again. If you leave the inverter on,it will steadily consume power even when nothing is running. So I

always turn it off when I don't need it.

You can also put in a subpanel. There is plenty on the internet explainingthis or you could talk to an electrician. I did mine myself and had aelectrician friend take a look at it. I just used a 30 amp subpanel and aautomatic disconnect switch to supply up to 3000 watts to two different

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circuits.

Q: I purchased your book on constructing wind turbines from PVCpipe a couple months ago and I have a question. In the charts,formula's, and diagrams in your book, the results were derived

from a 3 bladed rotor I assume. In your book you also show a 3and a 6 bladed rotor. How does the available torque, disk loads,and power change when additional blades are added to the rotorsystem? And is the additional time required to construct theadditional blades justify the power gain that you will obtain.

The design you have come up with for the blades is simple butshould be very affective. Much better than carving the blades froma 2x6 as some plans show. Thanks for your time and feedback.A: Thanks for writing. My 3 blade design and equations are based on30% efficiency and a Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) of 6. My testing showed thatthe 6 blade design goes up to 35% or so but the TSR drops to about 4.So, for example in a 20 mph wind and a 7 foot diameter blade....

# of Blades Watts RPM-------------------------------------------------

3 467 480

6 545 320

I didn't feel that the extra effort was worth it though. I found that RPM isvery important. Most DC motors need at least 200 to 300 or more RPMsjust to start charging a 12v battery. So in the above example, the 3 bladewould be charging nicely while the 6 blade would not. Remember, watts

available in the wind is not translated to power to the battery if you can'tget the speed to match what the generator needs.

Also, an odd number of blades is better for any imbalance situation. So ifyou wanted to go more blades you should go with a 5 blade design. Also,you should make each blade a little thinner than my plans if you go morethan 3 blades. Otherwise, that TSR number will be closer to 3 instead of4.

The disk load due to wind would be about the same, slightly higher.

Q: I did have one tech question. On page 5 you give a simplifiedrule of thumb power equation (in English units). What are you usingfor the air density component, and does the final product take theBetz Criterion into account or is this for an ideal situation?A: For the air density I used 1.22 kg/m3 at sea level and I used 30% as

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the efficiency. So if you wanted to use 35% instead, for example, youcould divide by 0.3 then multiply by 0.35. Or use 0.00557 as yourcoefficient instead of .00477.

Q: I don't want to do batteries. Can small windmills be gridconnected and net metered?

A: They can be grid tied but only with expensive inverters. So my bookdoesn't talk about that. I also don't believe that the grid will always bethere. The north american grid is stretched to the max and hardly anyupgrades are being done. I'm a big believer in batteries especially whenthey are free.

Q: Does your book talk about how to put the power back into thegrid. I own a business and we are looking at "slowing down" thatpower meter because it is terribly expensive. We are on top of a hill

- it's windy almost all the time.A: My book doesn't go into "grid tie" systems. Mine is based on using abattery bank and a dc generator and an inverter. You could do what I didand take parts of your overall load and run off your windmill and battery. Itook one room in my house and have it off the grid and running just off ofa windmill and battery bank. I also run my shop off of another windmill.Wood lathe, drill, miter saw, table saw, etc.

Q: I'm looking at buying your book to generate enough power toservice my home. What would it take to generate and average of2,500 kWh per month? Does your book tell how to wire directly intothe electrical grid or is this possible with your system?A: Hi. Well my book doesn't talk about grid tie. It is just for smallwindmills hooked to forklift batteries.

I'm concerned about 2,500 kwh per month. That is about 80 kwh per dayor about 3.3 kw per hour average. That is at least 3 times the averagenorth american. I would focus on conservation first to try to get down toabout 20 kwh per day. But to look at your current numbers would help.You would have to average about 3.5 kwh per hour 24 hours a day, solets look at average windspeed.

If it is 15 mph and you use 7 foot diameter blades it would average200 watts and you would need 18 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you wouldneed 8 windmills.

If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and youwould need 5 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you would

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need 2 windmills.

====

If you were running at 24 kwh per day or 1 kwh per hour on average,things look a lot better.

If it is 15 mph and you use 7 foot diameter blades it would average200 watts and you would need 5 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you wouldneed 2 windmills.

If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and youwould need 2 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you wouldneed 1 windmill.

Don't know if you can get your energy usage down that much. And I'mnot sure what your average windspeed is.

Do you use electric heat? Just trying to figure out why you have such alarge energy consumption.

Also, my book focuses on 7 foot blades up to about 12 feet. Any biggerthan that, you are looking at big expensive towers.

Q: Great Publication! From what alternator did you use for thediode assembly in your pulser circuit? Salvage yard or rebuilt?A: That alternator was off a chevy minivan engine. It had sat outside for2 years. I just took it apart and cleaned up the diodes and heat sink. Soit is definitely used. It's funny too, as I was experimenting, it arced andsparked as I made various mistakes. But it still works like a champ.Those things are pretty tough.

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Battery Safety Note

Important!! Batteries can be safe if you keep a fewthings in mind. When current is going into or out of a

battery, then it releases hydrogen and oxygen from thetop. And hydrogen and oxygen together is a veryexplosive combo. So, whenever the battery is beingcharged or used, or even a minute after it was chargedor used, then any spark at all within a couple of feet ofthe battery's top can cause an explosion. Hydrogen andoxygen does dissipate very quickly though.

Let's give some examples.

I'm charging the batteries for a few hours and then Iaccidentally bump the charging cables. A smallspark then causes ignition.

I'm welding some metal and a spark flies 5 feet overtowards the battery bank and BOOM

I turn on the charger circuit and then hook it up tothe battery. The first connection is fine, but then Iconnect the other terminal and a small sparkcauses.....BOOM

The charger is hooked to the battery bank and staysthat way but it is in the off position. I turn on thecharger circuit. I notice that the voltmeter says 110

volts. I realize what the problem is, it must becorrosion on the alligator clip on the battery. I knowthat my charger puts that much voltage out whenthere isn't a load. So, I go to the battery and wigglethe alligator clip and it sparks and BOOM

So whenever you do anything around a battery ask

yourself if current was going into or out of the battery?And ask if you are about to cause a spark near thebattery?

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Well, good luck in your new endeavor for energy independence!

May your windmill never cease to turn, may you batteries alwayshave a charge, and may you learn something every day for the restof your life.

Richard Lewis