Description of Wind Turbine System:

Ours is a JACOBS Wind Turbine. Jacobs was taken over by WIND TURBINE INDUSTRIES CORPORATION in mid 1980's.
It came from a wind farm in California (or so we were told), where they allegedly removed smaller turbines, replacing them with mammoth machines. Land was at a premium there, we are told and I believe that much. We actually cannot verify the history of our turbine. We bought it because we could afford this one and not a new one, running the #s as I explained above.

It consists of a 17.5 kW generator atop a 120' free-standing tower. The base was 29 yards of concrete and is four feet thick. Since we are on rock I hired a rock-boring machine from a construction company and had them drill three holes 8' deep in the rock, 18" in diameter. That was used because it was their maximum capacity. We filled the three holes with REBAR which was tied to the rebard cage of the 19' x 19' x 19' base, four feet thick. I felt that this may be overkill, but I didn't want the tower to topple over in high winds. Not being a construction person I'm told that there is over 100,000 pounds of concrete in the base.

From the top of the tower there is a run of 350' of two runs of wire to the control box in the garage. One run supplies the DC field to the generator, and is varied according to the RPMs which the control box reads out. More RPMs more DC voltage. The other run of wire sends the produced power into the control box.

The control box is in parallel with the grid. In order to run properly it needs to sync on the 60 Hz frequency from the grid. So without the grid this turbine produces no power.

Being a "grid-intertie" system, and thus always connected to the grid we can see the meter activity. If we consume more than production the meter goes ahead. If we produce exactly what we are using the meter stands still...but we are still consuming. In the wind causes production in excess of our consumption the meter ( *** HAPPILY *** runs backward, taking kWh off our electric bill.

There are months where the charge from power company is only the connection charge, and production reduces the # of kWh recorded on the bill. The power company wanted to install a second meter, one whic would only go forward, and one which would only go backward. This was unacceptable, and I talked them out of it. I would be charged for all consumption at regular tariff rates, including per kWh and delivery. Production would be at at per kWh cost. Power up here is 14 cents per kWh. This way I am essentially "selling" to them at the same price they charge me. With separate meters as above I would pay 14 cents and they would pay me 4 cents.
You do the math....not rocket science. Somehow I convinced them, and I'm not sure how or why, but it works out.

...to be contuinued.