Happy Father's Day - 2011

And to my dad: I wish you a special and happy day. Thanks for being my father.

Crazy, unnatural radar patterns are emerging around the world.

Could man create destructive weather?  Scientists from generations ago, like Tesla, said “yes”.

This spring has been one of the most notable ones for me for weather. In my local area, we had two deadly storms, causing massive property damage. The wind has been so strong this spring that my wind turbine’s charge controller got fried. (I think the fuse burned up from too much wind energy giving a surge of electrical current.) My fence was blown apart by wind. My garden was pounded twice with hail. Temperatures are cooler than normal… one of the few good parts of this spring. And now, I’m seeing strange sights on radar images available on the Internet.

Strange radar circle in North Dakota on May-28-2011.

North Dakota, one day later, with strong storms. May-29-2011. Two strong cells shown. One of them is located where the empty circle was shown the day before.

A radar pattern has emerged. If a circle is formed in the radar images, with missing activity in the center of the circle, then 24~48 hours later a strong, damaging storm will hit that circle.

VIDEO

Here is what Michigan looked like on May-29-2011, 9:30 PM EST…

Strong cells, thunderstorms and hail head towards the center of the radar ring spotted the night before.

Another circle appears over Michigan. Why is the center of the circle empty?

‘Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of Electro-Magnetic waves.  So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations.  It’s real…’

- Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 1997 Counterterrorism Conference, Athens, Georgia.

Source

Questions

What is the source of the energy?

Are the rings man-made?

Are the circles made by electromagnetic radiation punching up into the ionosphere?  (And then storm clouds rush in to fill that void?)

Why is it so easy to predict where storms will go 24~48 hours from now by simply watching for the radar rings?

Idea

If you are concerned about the weather, have you considered praying?  (This idea is only for those that have the light. If you are blind, this will mean nothing to you.) God might answer our prayers if we ask for help with the weather.  I have been praying for rain to protect people’s homes from fire and to give farms and gardens needed water to grow food.  God answered my prayers three times so far this summer regarding the weather and each time, the weather deviated greatly from what the weather forecasters predicted.  God showed them he is in control, not the weather forecasters!  Coincidence?  It’s hard to prove or disprove.  The video below shows how beautiful the weather turned out, varying greatly for the better from what weather forecasters predicted.  How could the forecasts be so wrong?  Was it God answering prayer?

VIDEO

A couple different adapters plugged into a 12V battery

My USB adapter quit working. I opened it up to see what the circuit looks like and determine what caused it to fail.

Also shown: Charging a cell phone with a wind turbine.

As shown in the video below, the problem appears to be a cheap electronic part that may have overheated.  A voltage regulator, IC 78L05, costs about 25 cents but is not rated for the spec’s shown on the label.  The IC can handle up to 100mA while the adapter had a label indicating it was designed for 1,000 mA!

VIDEO

I did not say in the video, but the red LED on the USB adapter finally went out and never came back on, indicating permanent damage.  I read that these IC’s work better if they have a heat sink.  This circuit had no heat sink.  I bought this device through eBay.  It was cheap and made in China.  I guess I got what I paid for.

I might try to replace the part and see if I get it working again.  If so, I’ll update this page.

Using Wolfram Alpha, you can find your longitude and latitude coordinates on Earth. Wolfram Alpha also has average wind speed data for your location. You can get weather forecast data to help determine when the best times might be for your wind turbine.

How do I find my latitude on Earth?  See the video below to see:

Related posts:

Wind Turbine Construction

Wind turbines and solar panels outside Wal-Mart in McKinney, Texas

La Crosse WS-2316U Wireless Weather Station Review

This combiner box could also be used for other power sources, like combining thermoelectric generation and solar panels.

Idea for box came from the video below.

I added Schottky diodes to the combiner box to make sure that current flows in one direction.

Was driving through Texas and came across an unexpected sight. Spotted wind turbines and solar panels outside Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in McKinney, TX. I was really surprised to see them in such a public place and got the camera out so I could share with you guys.

In this video: 2 wind turbines, anemometers, and solar panels. The turbine makes a hypnotic sound.

The Wal-Mart store is located at:

2041 Redbud Blvd
Mckinney, TX 75069

(972) 542-9585

Bing Maps was used to show location of store in video and below…

Click image to enlarge Bing Maps view.

I checked the location with Google Earth first but the images were so old that Google Earth showed bare ground where the Wal-Mart was supposed to be.

Click image to enlarge Google Earth view.

Bing Maps actually has more up-to-date images from the bird’s eye view as of this post.  Yes, I am surprised that Microsoft has improved so much lately.

–

The large turbine produces 50 kW.  The expected annual power production is 80 MWh.

The smaller turbine is a 1 kW stand-alone turbine which powers the Wal-Mart sign.

There is just one other such store in the US and it’s in Aurora, CO.

[ Source of some data in post and in video:  renewableenergyworld.com and ashrae.org ]

I am documenting the construction of my first wind turbine. I am not an expert, just learning as I go. I am not building a turbine from scratch, but instead trying to first succeed in mounting one to a tower and wiring it up to power small devices inside my house.

The Power of Wind

I want to document the process so that it would be easier for me to duplicate this a second time, as I would like to construct more than one turbine. Also, if the instructions are of any benefit to others doing a similar construction, I would be happy to know that. Let me know if you have tips to share or would like to show off your own DIY wind turbine.

Buy Wind Turbine

After I raise my first turbine, I would like to attempt building the turbine itself from scratch. But for my introduction and education, I decided to buy a pre-made wind turbine I found on eBay. I found a small turbine from eBay seller blairusa. Butch (the eBay seller) builds turbines and sells them on eBay. The particular turbine I bought is small and according to Butch has the following spec’s:

• 12V
• 140 Watts
• Starts spinning in winds of around 4 MPH
• Can withstand winds over 40 MPH but not recommended
• weighs about 22lbs
• Made of aluminum and steel
• Propeller diameter: 36 inches
  
• Length of generator: 42inches

I paid $305 total (including shipping).

Dig hole

I don’t have the windiest location but want to give this a try anyhow.

I picked a location in my backyard. My primary consideration for picking this spot was that it will be out of view for most of my neighbors. I don’t want to make enemies. The turbine will make a little noise when spinning which might bother my neighbors if I put it right on the property line. Some people, for whatever reason, do not like the way wind turbines look. I haven’t talked with all of my neighbors about it, so to be safe, I’m keeping this one tucked away to eliminate any trouble with the neighbors. Also, the location I chose is fairly close to the house, meaning the wiring will be fairly short, making it easier for me to run wiring to get the power into the house.

The turbine will be mounted to a steel pipe. The pipe will be secured in the ground with concrete and guy wires.

At the target site, I dug a hole 1 ft wide and 2 ft deep.

I used a pick and mattock with a shovel to dig the hole.

I had to get on my hands and knees to dig the last several inches using trowels and the shovel.

Assemble Pole

Now we need a pole to mount the wind turbine onto.  I did some reading online and found a helpful site:  mdpub.com.  That site got me started making a pole out of  steel pipes commonly found at home improvement stores.  Below I’ll show you how I assmembled the pieces.

Above you can see a hinge joint so that the wind turbine can be lowered and raised from the ground whenever maintenance is needed. Most of the pieces for my tower came from my local Sutherlands store.  The tower constructions uses the following steel pipe parts:  elbow, tee, nipple, coupling, and adapter.

Note that the tee above is a bigger diameter than the rest of the pieces, so that the threads are unused on the tee, allowing the tee to function as a hinge joint. Most of the pipe pieces have a diameter of 1 ¼”. The tee above is bigger, though, with a diameter of 1 ½”.

A tee was chosen above to allow the electrical cables to exit from the pipe. Later, you will see how the wires come out of this hole.

Concrete

Insert the pipe into the hole.

Mix concrete and pour into the hole. Used about (4) 60-pound bags of mix. The mix itself then was about 240 pounds but water was added as well, adding to the weight of the base of this mount.

Dig a second hole and place a stationary pipe in it. The second pipe has an arm that latches onto the first pipe. The arm can be detached at any time. I’m surprised how sturdy this connection is.  The arm can hold the pole up with wind turbine mounted to the top without any guy wires.  However, for safety and extra stability, guy wires are a must.  The guy wire installation is detailed lower down on this page.

Apply Plumber’s Grease

I want to be able to detach the steel pipes at any time for maintenance, re-wiring, or other future modifications. Since the steel pipes are outside and exposed to rain, condensation, and humidity, the pipe threads will rust and fuse the pipes together. Already in the short time I have had them outside, they have already developed rust. I picked up some Plumber’s Grease from Sutherlands.

I used an old toothbrush to apply the grease to all the pipe threads.

I put most of the pieces together, minus the turbine itself, to see how it fit together.

With the setup above, the wind turbine blades will be 16 feet above the ground.

Attach guy wires

When the turbine is up on the pole and the wind starts blowing, we need a way to keep the pole from falling down.  I attached (4) guy wires to secure the pole and prevent it from falling down in high winds.

But how should the guy wires connect to the metal pole?  One site showed how eye bolts could be attached to a pole.  [jerryriverguy.com]  That encouraged me to try the same.

Another site showed how a hole was drilled into steel to make a tripod.  That gave me an idea of how to go about drilling holes into the wind turbine pole.

The video above shows how to drill and tap a steel pipe coupling. Eye bolts are attached to the coupling. The guy wires will connect to the eye bolts.

Attach guy wires to pole.

Video above shows how to assemble guy wires for a wind turbine.  I learned most of the details from a PDF:   windenergy.com and from a web page at otherpower.com.

Raise pole

One thing I like about this setup is that the pole is raised and lowered by one person and requires no fancy equipment.

The next video below shows the typical power output of this little turbine on a windy day. It’s not as nearly impressive as I had hoped, but I was still very excited to see “free” power going into my battery.

Typical Power Output on Windy Day

The wind turbine was advertised to produce up to 140 W. So far I have witnessed a more typical output of around 33 W (about 2.5 A at 13.1 V).  I now see that it is common for wind turbine sellers to overstate the power output of the units they sell.

Add Anemometer to Measure Wind Speed

I wanted to measure the wind speed required to spin the blades and begin producing enough power to push current into my 12V battery. I added an anemometer to the wind turbine pole.

The anemometer is part of a weather station kit, the La Crosse WS-2316U Wireless Weather Station.

Before you consider buying this, you might want to read my unbiased review of the La Crosse WS-2316U Wireless Weather Station.

Hoping for Wind

Will be continued…Next steps:

Add fuse and blocking diodes for electrical safety.
Install a bearing system to allow the turbine to turn into the wind more easily with less friction than the current steel pipe on steel pipe setup.
Install heavier gauge wire to see if that allows more current to freely move from the turbine to the battery.  (I am currently using an extension cord with 16 AWG wire.)
Put wraps around guy wires for safety to make them more visible so people (like my kids) don’t walk into the wires.
Use deeper stakes in the ground to keep guy wires safely anchored.
Install new blades for better performance.
Install another turbine in series or parallel with this one for greater volts or amps.

I bought mine through eBay for $159.00.

Here is my unbiased review based on 4 months of ownership.  Video is below.

More points not mentioned in video…

It seems to work better when the weather is cooler. Maybe the heat makes it produce bad wind speed data. I wonder if it will resume working better again when summer is over.

Other reviews are at Costco.  Most of the reviews agree with my experience.  Here’s a sample:

“was fabulous while it lasted, but started to have too many problems after 6 weeks. wireless sensors did not connect anymore. replaced batteries, tried the adapter, moved everything around to less than 15 feet distance, nothing worked. got tired wasting my time on this unit and returned it for refund.”

“I’ve purchased 2 of these units over the past 3 years. The first time, it was the outdoor components that failed, primarily the wind gauge. The bearings seized and the company was not at all helpful in providing a solution to repair or replace them. In the unit I own now, the indoor wireless receiver failed, and looking back it was never right from the beginning…beeping randomly in the middle of the night, flashing display in the middle of the night, followed by complete blank screen and eventual total failure. Expect to use your unit for 6 months, then expect it to fail. I will not waste my time contacting LaCrosse, I will just purchase another brand next time.”

“the La Crosse failed after a few weeks, I returned and exchanged it at costco. The replacement also failed after approx 6 months, I could have returned it again but, I decided to simply toss it and not buy this brand in the future.”

Conclusion

I do not recommend this unit, mostly because it failed after just three weeks of use.  Other people have had the same trouble, so there must be a design and/or quality issue with these La Crosse weather stations.  I am looking at other brands now.