Indiana Towers Class 2012

Here are a few pics of our recent workshop in Indiana. We had about 6 folks there, plus the home owner and Amy Sue came to visit and help out. Good time!

This is George's system. Surprisingly, it's been signed off by the state inspector - especially surprising because it 'can' be grid tied, through an outlet in the wall there. I don't consider that best practice but it's how they set it up. He has 8 L-16 batteries, and Outback inverter, 1kW of solar and a 12' wind turbine that we built/installed last year, on a 93' tilt up tower. Based on 'research' there is 'no wind' in Indiana. It seems to be wrong though, his wind turbine has been providing between 200-300kWh/month and has reduced his electric bill by about 20%. The day before we showed up in April he put 1kW of PV online, through an outback controller.

One of our projects was to put a data logging anemometer on his tower. Etesian Technologies, an educational sponsor of ours (thanks Bill!) gave us a nice one to play with. Pictured above is the display. It's a neat unit, the anemometer is self powered, it starts up around 2mph and transmits data to the receiver (pictured above). Nice folks, we met them a couple of years ago at the MREA fair. Check out their website here:

Above is the antenna that picks up the signal from the anemometer. The tower is about 400' away.

While the tower was down we took apart the turbine/greased and inspected everything. Unbelievably, there was no cotter pin holding the castle nut in the hub! Yikes.... this is the sort of stuff that can happen at workshops when folks (like me) are not well focused and running up against time. I'm amazed it ran this way for so long.

Above is the anemometer, about 10' below the hub and 3' out from the tower.

The tower going back up.

We have a pulley on the top guy wire which is tied to a small boat winch near the 'main' winch for back haul. Lots easier than pulling by hand, and safer. Nobody is in the fall zone.

We use a grip hoist on this tower. It takes a while and it's a fair bit of work but it's nice and peaceful. This one came from Northern tool, it's made it China, it works with 5/8" cable and only cost about $250.

Almost up.

Amy Sue operating the back haul winch.

Above is a picture of the back haul pulley on the top guy wire.

Everything wen't safe and smooth in Indiana this year! (unless you're a turtle in George's pond). Lots of fun. We were back from that for only 2 weeks and went to Chadron NE for 12 days of workshops, work, and good food! Will post about that next.