My wind turbine, an A.R.E. 2.5 KW unit. It's somewhat modeled after the old Jacobs from the '30's, as in lots of rotor dia. and a low RPM, so long lasting and pretty quiet. Grid tied, and with a dump load (heater grid) to keep the thing under control when the grid goes down and there is no load against it over speeding, (very important!
The panels on the roof to the right are thermal, hot water, panels. They circulate a antifreeze mix in a sealed loop, that uses a plate heat exchanger to warm the water that is in the shops radiant floor heat system. The circ. pump for the sealed loop is powered and more importantly controlled by a DC pump wired to a 50 watt PV panel. Sun comes out, pumping starts, sun goes away, pumping stops. Or anywhere in between. Am elegantly simple and fool proof way to not let the system over heat, which creates steam (oh yeah...LOTS of steam) and then the pressure relief blows and the system is down until it's re-bled to get the air out. This system has been in operation for 9 years, with only 1 over heat/blowoff, when I parked a truck that shaded the PV panel that runs the pump, but the panels remained in the sun, not good! The rad floor circ pump has a thermo controlled switch, so that once the solar loop is up to temp, and ONLY then, (90 degrees) it then starts pumping the floor water through the flat plate heat exchanger. On a good sunny winter day, it pumps 100-120 degree water through the floors 5" concrete slab for 5 to 6 hrs a day.
If it all went away tomorrow, if the hydronic panels blew away, I'd replace them with.... PV. The water panels sit there empty all spring summer and fall, and are only "working" during the winter. A PV system is working every day, storing enough energy in the grid, to supply an electric boiler. This is how I setup my crane yard building, NO hydronics, just a 1920 watt grid tied PV system making power all year, unused until mid November when the 2 KW electric boiler goes back on, it keeps the floor slab 45 to 50 degrees, plenty warm enough for storing the crane and beating hell out of parking outside! PV has gotten that cheap, to where it out performs hydronics for making water hot, 10 years ago I would have bet money that would never happen.
(Some designs possibly more "bird friendly" also.) And living in a "big town" (city of Toronto), plenty of "tall" buildings that could maybe support a more "light weight" generator. :wink:
