Wind power made affordable and easy.
We produce wind powered charging generators for remote off-grid homes, cabins, and villages using DC battery systems for power.
We hope you enjoy your stay!
arizonawindpower@yahoo.com
760-408-0456
We operate totally off the power grid.
Every generator we sell we use ourselves for power generation.
If you are new to windpower and are considering purchasing a wind generator, please read our About Blades page before purchasing ANY wind generator.
General Information About Wind Generators
Towers
Selecting the correct tower size/height for your wind generator determines how well it will produce energy.
As a good rule, your tower should be tall enough that your generator is at least 25-30 feet above trees and buildings within a 450-500 foot surrounding area.
Raising your wind turbine this high will decrease turbulent winds from reaching your generator and allow your wind generator to produce more constant power, run more smoothly, and less stress on the tower and wind turbine itself.
Also, using a taller tower increases your wind speed to the wind generator blades. There can be a 10mph difference of winds speeds in just 20 feet of height.
Types of towers that can be used are free standing lattice towers, ridged poles in concrete with guy wires, and tilt up towers so it can be lowered and raised from ground level.
The higher one can mount the wind generator in the air the better.
Battery Charging
For areas that have good winds, a wind generator or several wind turbines working together will produce more energy for the cost than solar panels. A wind generator charges batteries on cloudy and overcast days and during the night hours.
Depending on power usage and how large of a battery bank that needs to be charged, one generator, several generators, or one large KW wind generator may be needed.
Most small boats and sail boats using battery systems for power can usually get by with one 450 watt wind turbine since the winds out at sea or at anchor are almost steady between 6.1 - 17.1 knots. Full time - Part time homes and cabins relying on wind power alone is another story.
Unless your winds are between 25-40 mph constant at your site, installing only one small wind turbine generator in an area where the average winds are only 7-10 mph will do very little for charging large high capacity battery banks.
5-10 small turbines as a mini wind farm hooked in parallel (higher amps) will increase charging current in low wind areas, making it worthwhile to install wind power.
For example:
If one 450 watt wind turbine is producing only 3 amps in low winds of 7 mph on a 12 volt system, hooking 10 of them in parallel will give around 30 amps of charging current in these low wind areas.
Any winds higher with these 10 turbines such as in the 25-30 mph range will be putting out close to 2,800 watts combined.
Another option is to purchase a single large wind generator turbine from either 2.5kw (2,500 watts) to 10kw (10,000 watts)
These large generators are mounted between 50-120 feet high and produce power in the lowest winds due to the large blades and design of the generator.
Off Grid Living
Off grid living is great but it's not for everyone.
Most people who live on the grid (buy power from the local power company) can turn the central air conditioner on in the summer months, turn on a 1,500 watt space heater on in the winter months, use 60 - 150 watt light bulbs all over the house at once, cook with electric stoves every day, heat water with electricity 24/7, and so on.
All of these items either create heat by shorting wire elements, or use 220 volt AC current or both together.
Anything that heats electrically is pretty much off limits with a solar home that is powered entirely by batteries and inverters, unless you are running a high voltage system with a super high capacity battery bank and use inverters capable of at least 15,000 - 20,000 watts constant AC 120 &220 volt current.
Even with a system of this size, battery capacity and the amount of batteries needed would be massive and could run into the many thousands of dollars alone, not to mention an acre of solar panels and possibly one large 10 - 20 kw wind turbine 180 feet tall. It could possibly cost more to power an off grid house totally on electricity than one layman would make in a lifetime of income.
Since most people do not have $800,000.00 to begin putting together an all electric off grid home, most battery powered homes have limitations on what can be used, and how long items can be used.
Powering high wattage items from batteries that create heat as a by-product can run them down faster than you can recharge them.
Here is a list of items that are pretty much off limits to battery powered homes using 12 - 24 volt systems:
Electric stoves, large electric griddles
Electric water heaters.
Central heating
Central air conditioning
High wattage lighting (Flood lights & most light bulbs)
Alternatives:
Propane stoves or wood burning stoves.
Propane water heaters or solar diversion load heating elements.
Wood or pellet burning stoves for heat.
Small window air conditioners (for humid environments) or evaporative coolers (for dry environments)
Low wattage fluorescent tubes or bulbs.
Items that are ok for 12-24 volt battery powered homes since they are for short use:
Electric coffee makers
Microwaves
Hair dryers
Curling irons
Soldering guns
Some electric griddles under 1000 watts
If your needing to power high wattage loads such as small electric stoves, hot plates, or small window air conditioners, a 48 volt or higher battery system is a must. If not, you will constantly be recharging your batteries, over heating your batteries, or replacing them only after a short time from constantly draining them, and/or damaging them internally.
Backwoods Solar has more info for off grid system sizing.
Backwoods Solar also has special appliances such as DC and AC refigerators for solar powered homes.
Batteries for your system
The amount of batteries, type of batteries, and voltage battery system you are going to run depends on how much power you plan to use and what you are going to power.
If the system is for a small cabin or cottage, a simple TV, lights, and a small microwave, 4 - 6 Trojan T-105 high capacity batteries would be a good start.
If it's an entire home, Trojan L-16 HC high capacity batteries will work great and give out plenty of current for a longer period of time without recharging.
A smaller version of these batteries are call Trojan T-105.
Trojan L-16 HC Batteries:
395 amp hour industrial size 6 volt battery weighing 120 pounds. They are 30% taller than auto or golf cart batteries, 12" x 7" x 16 inches tall, so they take less floor space for a given battery capacity. Typical life is 8 - 12 years. L16 HC is High Capacity model in a red ribbed case with two handles, Trojan's best. Not the standard L-16 model which is only 350 AH. Both have a reputation of reliability in home power systems. 12 month warranty. Each battery is 6 volts, made of three 2-volt cells in one unit. Six-volt batteries are series connected in pairs for 12 volts, or in strings of four batteries for 24 volts or 8 to make 48 volts. Then several series strings may be parallel connected to add more ampere-hour capacity. Each 12 or 24 volt series string of L16 HC is rated 395 Ampere Hours, so two strings are 790 Ampere-Hours, 3 are 1185 A. H; 4 are 1580 A. H; 5 strings are 1975 A. H
Trojan T-105 Batteries:
These lead-acid "golf cart" batteries are very popular with first-time renewable energy system buyers. They are comparatively compact, lightweight, and affordable for a deep cycle battery. They can be wired in series of two for 12 volts, or four for 24 volts. Capacity is 217 amp-hours at a 20-hour discharge rate. Unlike larger, heavier, and more expensive batteries, these T-105's have a lower life expectancy of 4 or 5 years.
Refill with distilled water as needed. Available with 3/8" threaded posts with hex nuts.
Call around your local RV supply where you live and ask them if they can order the Trojan line of batteries. They might have sales on going and you might possibly get a good deal up to 40% off if your lucky.
There are many other batteries very good for off grid homes, some of them are:
2 volt lead acid batteries (Very high capacity - 1000-3500 amp hours at 200-600 pounds each)
Exide 6 volt deep cycle lead acid batteries (Used in Golf Carts and small electric cars)
Rolls Batteries (High dollar)
Surrette Batteries
Optima Batteries
Lifeline Batteries
A deep cycle battery page with tons of great info can be found HERE.
We also highly recommend a Battery Desulfator to help keep your batteries in top performance.
Not only will this neat device remove sulfate buildup on deep cycle batteries, they can extend the life of your batteries far beyond the normal years. Small sulfate buildup on lead acid battery plates can be taken care of in a few days to a week. Some batteries that are deep cycle can take up to two months to be fully operational.
We know the BLS (Battery Life Saver) works because we use them for all of our deep cycle batteries.
You can also build your own for the DIY'er.
Plenty of info on building your own battery desulfator can be found doing an internet search on "Battery Desulfator Circuit".
Inverters:
There are many inverters on the market, but you do get what you pay for.
Simple inverters that are great for homes or small cabins are called Heart Freedom Inverters. (Modified sine wave)
They are for marine use but we did have ours running the house and shop for years with no problems.
The ones we used were two 2,500 watt units. One half of our house was powered by one 2,500 watt inverter, the other half was powered by the other 2,500 watt inverter on a 12 volt system.
All AC lines from the inverters were ran to our house breaker box and fed to our outlets.
If you have very sensitive equipment you are trying to power like digital electronics, Boche power tools, certain medical equipment, some computer types, you might need a Pure Sine Wave inverter.
A pure sine wave inverter is just like using power from the city power lines (or better quality) but they are much more expensive the higher in wattage you get. There are certain power tools, medical equipment, and household items that will not power up on a modified sine wave inverter, pure sine wave is what would be needed.
We now use a 48 volt system consisting of 16 Trojan L-16 batteries ran through a Trace 5548 pure sine wave inverter.
Backup battery capacity: (24) 2 volt 2,500 amp hour batteries wired for 48 volts for summer air conditioners and winter month electric heater units.
Other great inverters are Outback.
Charge Controllers:
We use two Trace C-35 controllers set to 24 volt mode for our battery charging.
These are very low priced but work very well hooked on the 24 volt sections off our batteries.
They are all set in diversion control mode to heat parts of our home in the winter months by way of several 300 watt resistors in series, but this is changed to make Hydrogen gas during the summer months.
You can get these controllers in C-35, C-40, C-60. The numbers at the end of these models are the amps rating they can handle, but can actually handle almost twice their rating.
Whatever controller is purchased, there will be a booklet inside showing how to hook up different configurations for diversion, load, or charge control mode.
Other controllers are Outback and Morningstar.
What voltage system should I use?
12 volt systems are by far the most simple, uncomplicated, and much less expensive way to run than higher voltage systems, but they may not always be the best voltage to run.
The lower the voltage running, the higher the amperage and thicker the cable used.
The higher the voltage running, the lower the amperage, the thinner the cable can be used, and the longer you can power items without over heating your battery banks or cables.
For example: A 12 volt battery system on a full sun light day could input about 18.50 volts @ 200 DC amps into a battery bank. Since we now have a 48 volt system, the amperage is only 20 amps @ 63.50 volts.
With higher voltage systems such as 36 or 48 volt, the equipment (Inverters, charge controllers, certain high voltage products) are most of the time harder to find and certainly higher dollar.
Most wind generators can be much more expensive, solar panels are double or tripple the price since you have to buy more panels to get the higher voltages, you have to buy more batteries to get the higher voltage output also. Plus, there is a potential shock hazard with high voltage systems low voltage systems do not carry. But, the plus side is that more things can be ran on higher voltage systems than lower voltage systems for longer times.
Lower voltage systems use tons of amps going through the inverters and put more drain and heating on the batteries and cable if your trying to power heavy loads. This is why you will not find a 12 volt inverter over 2,500 watts or 3,000 watts tops. Higher voltage systems are closer to the 120 volt usage and use much less current, and you can find these inverters rated up to 6,000 watts 10,000 watts surge.
If your going to power a small cabin or home with small loads, 12 - 24 volt systems are good.
If it's a large home and shop with limited electrical heating, window air conditioners, many computers, large power tools and constant power usage 24/7, a higher voltage system is the way to go.
