New Project: Wind Power

For Christmas I was gifted a 50 Watt Wind Turbine from Sundance Solar. Wind Power is something I have wanted to experiment with for awhile. Twice a year I have to drive out to Fort Wayne, Indiana for work and I am fascinated with the fields of turbines. I do not find them to be an eyesore at all.

For what I want to do with the turbine, I needed some accessories. I purchased a 12 volt battery and an inverter off of Amazon. I chose these:

• ExpertPower EXP12180 12 Volt 18 Ah Rechargeable Battery with Nuts and Bolts

• Power Bright PW400-12 Power Inverter 400 Watt 12 Volt DC To 110 Volt AC

(Those are both affiliate links.)

My plan is to set up the turbine near the chicken coop then run the turbine wires to either inside the chicken coop or under the roof of the run. The latter might be the better idea as there wouldn’t be the large amounts of dust found inside the coop.

In my head something exists like a breaker box that would hold the inverter and the battery, but made of plastic–like the boxes Time Warner and the phone company puts on your house? Just bigger. So far I cannot find what I know must exist. Either I don’t know the right search term, or…something.

Once it is all hooked up I plan to hook the “heated” chicken drinker and a porch light to it. Right now there’s a really, really long extension cord leading from the back porch to the coop. That can’t be safe and quite frankly it’s tacky. Chickens need water though.

I’m really sketchy on my electrical knowledge. I know how to run wires and replace plugs and breakers. I can hook up a switch with some thought and a diagram. How much energy something draws is a bit of a mystery to me though. This experiment might not do what I want it to, but I hope it will.

These are my goals:

1. Assemble the turbine.
2. Install the turbine in the ground on a pipe (per the directions).
3. Attach the battery and inverter to the chicken coop in a safe, stable manner.
4. Plug in the drinker.
5. Install porch light as you would a regular light with a box, but instead of hard wiring, attach a plug.
6. [Need to order parts] Attach voltage meter to battery to see what kind of charge is being produced.
7. [Summer] Build wooden garden obelisk to hold turbine to give appearance of a country windmill. I’d like to paint the turbine the orange Rusty Fox Farm color, but I need to email the company to see if that will affect the energy production of the turbine.

I’m excited to venture into this new territory and I hope you’ll check back on the progress!