I modified the DC250 box slightly and added both (-) and (+) buss bars, these buss bars are made by Outback and have insulated stand-off's as well as a plastic barrier. Using the buss bars made it a lot neater and easier than if I hadn't used them.

As you can see the (-) input from the turbine/rectifier goes to a shunt, and then to the negative buss bar. I have also made up a box that contains a DC voltmeter and amp meter, the amp meter is connected across the shunt while the voltmeter goes from turbine (+) and (-) buss bar.

All of the devices are connected to their own DC breaker, this way I can selectively take any one of the devices off line in case I need to do any servicing of the devices. There is a cable that connects the (+) buss bar to the main 250amp breaker, the other side of the main breaker goes to the DC input of the inverter. Even though there is a breaker on the turbine input and diversion controller, neither of them should be shut off without having the turbine previously shut down! Unloaded a wind turbine can easily accelerate to a speed possibly making it self-destruct!

In my garage I have another box that contains a fuse block and contactor relay. Also out there is a 12v dc power supply that can power my linear actuator. The reason that I have these out in the garage is that they are used for shutting down the turbine, and I want to be able to watch it as I am shutting it down.

Here is a picture of how the DC distribution box wiring looks so far:

I also decided that I will be adding two analog gauges to monitor the turbine output, a voltmeter and an amp meter I understand that the voltmeter is basically useless when the battery bank is connected, as they will cap the voltage to their float voltage. But I want to see it anyway's. I have been told that having a battery bank connected will potentially drop the efficiency of the turbine output to only about 30%.

I have yet to run the AC lines from the garage to the inverter inside my house, but I got my AC distribution box installed and plumbed. I still have to wire this auxiliary panel to the inverter output, and divert the circuits from my main panel into this aux panel. This auxiliary panel is a Squared-D 'QO' box and contains a 100amp main breaker and has 20 spaces for breakers - lots of room! I got the 'QO' (commercial quality) box as my main panel is a 200amp Squared-D 'QO' box and I had plenty of extra breakers that I can now use in the auxiliary panel.

We popped one out from the mold and did some quick capacity tests and it easily holds over two gallons of water! This is a lot of capacity in case one (or more) batteries rupture, the idea here is containment of battery acid. The basic dimensions are 24" x 31" outside. Here are a couple of pictures of one of them:

I decided to have mine colored green (as this is a green project) but Paul can make them any color you want - even metal flake! Next on my job list is to make a simple wood chest and a Plexiglas top to contain the batteries.

The total width of my chest had to be about 64" long across the front and back and unfortunately the baltic birch sheets only come in 60" x 60" sheets. Note that oak or birch plywood does come in 4' x 8' lengths but not baltic birch they are similar but different.

The acrylic was cut so that the top consisted of two pieces, each of them could be opened up independently from each other. I found some cabinet hinges that I modified so that the top was easily removable, and pop riveted them to the acrylic and screwed them to across the top portion of the chest.

I had to make two circular cutouts into it, one for conduit to the dc distribution box, and another at the back of the left side so that I can plumb in pvc for the power vent and then to vent it to the outside.

I recently purchased a dump load from Richard Murphy, he had a classified ad on Green Power Talk discussion board, it was just what I was looking for so I snapped it up enclosure and all for $100. Here is a picture of it without the cover on and connected to my diversion controller:

The dump load essentially contains two 1 ohm 1000 watt resisters, I have them connected in series. Wind turbines should *never* be ran without a dump load, in my case if the utility grid went down and I was not drawing enough power from the turbine it would accelerate and possibly to the speed of self destruction! Solar does not need one, but wind turbines *always* have to have a suitable load available.

For my situation with a 48volt system, the max battery charging voltage is about 54volts, by putting the resisters in series I have 2 ohms, which at that voltage will draw 26 amps, and dissipate about 1400 watts of power. If I put them in parallel then I could potentially burn them out.

Post Note: I replaced the dump load with a unit that I made that has far greater capacity (and cost less). What I found out is that you have to plan for the worst event possible with the dump load!!!

I also made up a box that contains a DC voltmeter and amp meter unit, I have the amp meter connected across the shunt and the voltmeter across the incoming turbine lines. I got the plastic box from Jameco, and the 100 volt and 75amp meters separately on eBay. The box size is approximately 6" x 9" x 2.5". While the 'at-a-glance' LED battery indicator is nice, this analog meter will let me see exactly what is coming in power-wise from the turbine.

Here is a picture of it:

Initially I had a 60amp breaker on the side towards the battery bank, so I decided to swap it out for a 125amp breaker. I got the breaker from eBay for just over $50. In switching to this breaker I can use basically the full potential of my inverter.

While at it I also purchased a 100amp breaker (eBay $50) and will be using it on the incoming side from the turbine/rectifier. The last thing that I want is this breaker kicking out - and allowing my turbine to go into self-destruct mode due to it being unloaded... The initial 60amp breaker that I was using could have become marginal during a period of high winds.

Both of these breakers mount into the sides of the DC250 distribution box, so it was a simple swap out/in.

While perusing around on eBay I also found a new 250amp main breaker for the DC250 (again just over $50), so I snapped it up thinking that since the price was about 1/2 retail that I may use it in the future if/when I added a solar array.

The distribution box already has knock-outs on the front panel, and a mounting position for the very large breaker, in addition I still have one space on the side that can also accompany another smaller breaker (up to 125amps)

My friend Jesse Sanders advised me to use conduit to house the wire as it ran from the back of the garage to the front, so I also purchased and installed more 1-1/2" conduit and a couple of 8" x 8" fiberglass junction boxes.

Not a lot has been happening to speak of, completed mundane tasks of back-end electronics and lots of small stuff. Here is a picture of the final plumbed board layout for the back-end electronics:

I added a second run of conduit from the inverter to the auxiliary power box, one conduit will carry the output from the inverter to the auxiliary power panel, while the other one will carry the connection from the inverter back to my main power panel/grid connection. I will put two breakers in my main power panel, one connecting to the inverter, with another connected as an auxiliary bypass so that if the inverter is down I can funnel grid power to my auxiliary panel.

All that has to be done is to connect the incoming wires from the turbine and a cable from the inverter to my main power panel. In addition I will be switching over a number of 'critical' circuits from my main panel over to the new auxiliary panel, as well as a bypass circuit so that I can power the auxiliary panel with grid power if necessary. Oh darn it almost forgot about having to also install the external disconnect switch out at the meter that my power company requires. Ok another weekend or two of wiring..

I have had a couple of conversations with Wade Roberts in Alaska, he has been following my progress and liked my tower so much that he purchased one from AN Wireless. Unfortunately for him, he had to pay shipping to AK - ouch I'm sure it was pricey. Anyway Wade had talked about running the cable from the turbine at the top of the tower all the way to the base. With the winter storms he did not want to have to climb the tower to un-wind the cable twist.

Working alone again, I pulled 80' of 8/3 SO cable along with some 3 conductor wire for the electrical actuator up to the top of the tower. I got it ran through the telescoping top stub, into the conduit and down to the ground.

Next I completed wiring up the SO cable to the turbine and connected the electrical actuator to the other chord. I used numerous industrial strength zip ties to secure the cables to the turbine, I probably went overboard but would rather have too many than too few - this is heavy cable...

Here is a picture of it:

After figuring out where the placement of the internal components I used my milling machine to modify the aluminum plate that goes into the electrical box. I 'hogged' out areas for the GFCI and polarized receptacles as well as removed a section along the right side so that the wiring could be passed behind the plate and connect to the receptacles. After removing all burrs and sharp edges I also used a number of layers of some vinyl electrical tape along the edge to keep from marring the wiring. I then made some 1" nylon spacers to space the plate from the back of the box, wired up the components and installed the plate into the box. I also put in some holes for wire ties to hold the alternator wiring.

I pop-riveted some 1/4" EPDM to the inside and outside of the box to help keep out insects/water. Inside the box I have the 50amp electrical plug/receptacle, polarized DC plug/receptacle as well as a GFCI for power. I also wired up a shorting receptacle in case I want to disconnect the turbine, but still short out the stator. I will also remove a 'slice' out of the fiberglass case to that I can unwind the cables easier, while still making the box seal as much as possible.

I may put a cover onto the cables from the conduit to the box for additional UV protection.

Our new born goats and lambs seemed to like playing on the inside of the tower, kinda like kids playing inside a fort - so I also had to put up some fencing around the base of the tower to keep them out and their mess to a minimum. After all I don't want to climb the tower with 'slippery' boots...

The plan is to have two people on top of the tower, with a third person on the ground. The ground person will have a lanyard connected to the blade assembly and they will put some tension on the line, the reason is so that when (not if) the wind blows it will not bang the blade assembly against the tower as it is being hoisted to the top.

The goal is to short the stator and keep the rotor from rotating, this does not truly completely stop the stator rotation but makes it very difficult to turn. But when installing the blade assembly, allowing some rotation of the stator is actually desirable to help get the studs on the turbine to align with the mounting holes in the blade hubs. Once the blades are installed I can also engage the mechanical brake to truly stop the rotor from *any* rotation.

Bring up the blade assembly first and and connect it to the turbine, then bring up the tail assembly and install it onto the yaw bearing, and finally hoist up the (currently retracted) telescoping top stub mast so the turbine is at operational height. If there is some time (and energy) left over then I will start removing the 'old' tower wiring, but this is not high on my immediate priority list.

I still have to pull the wires from the garage into the house where the electronics/batteries are, but I could get the turbine working to power some of my house-hold loads until I can get it grid-tied. I will also need to move some of the house wiring over from the main power panel to the auxiliary power panel. This would give me a nice small scale test bed so that I can start logging data and see what sort of output I can expect from the turbine (a big unknown!).

Noon - Mark Sutyak shows up right on time, however Paul Schreiner (my ground crew) has a situation and can not show up until almost 2:30. Bring blades, tail and all items needed out to the tower in preparation.

First climb up Mark and I decide to put in another 1/2" eye-bolt on tower top to make it easier/better for allowing both of us to clip in safely. After drilling a hole using two smaller drills, the 1/2" drill bit is not sharp, we currently have a 3/8" electric drill and it turns out that this is the only 1/2" drill bit that I have which has a 3/8" shank. Paul gets my 1/2" battery powered drill along with two more drill bits and we haul it up to the tower top. Almost get all the way through the 3/8" steel plate when the battery runs out, ugggh, Paul sends up another battery pack and we finally complete the hole and install the eye-bolt.

Mark uses the hand winch to extend the crane and we realized 1/2 way up that our rope that we use for hauling things up/down is still tied onto the crane, the rope is tied off at the base - Paul unties it. There is a small guide on a pulley that keeps the winch cable from coming off the pulley has rotated and is binding the cable. Send up a couple of 9/16" wrenches and fix the problem.

Get the crane all the way extended and realize that the weight of the electric winch is causing a hole misalignment keeping us from installing the lower locking pin. We lifted the blades off the ground and find that we might not need to install the lower pin after all.

Wind is starting to kick up, up till now minimal wind.

The wind pushing on the blades causes yet another unforeseen problem, because of the angle of the winch cable, the cable rubs against the small cage near the spool causing the winch to shut off. (This is a small rectangular piece of steel that is normally there to keep the hook from getting pulled into the spool).

We decide to climb down off tower and talk about situation and remedies, and grab some snacks and fluids. During this time we come up with a number of alternatives, pull together the items needed and go back out to tower.

Now it appears that a weather front is headed our way, wind is kicking up even more. Lots of swaying of the tree tops, so we decide to wait out next 15 minutes and see what happens. After that time I called it off, too windy for bringing up blades and tail. I decide to get a couple of garbage bags and duct-tape and 'bag' the winch and leave it on the crane. And after climbing up removing all tools/etc, retracting the crane and tying it up to the tower, climb down.

Ok - time for our bbq - ran out of propane and the spare tank is empty - so ended up using the broiler on the stove. Frustrating day...

Here is picture with the blades 15' off the ground - that is as far up as they got:

Also at the tower top we can use a snap hook connected to a lanyard to help control the winch cable as it is winding onto the spool, as the winch cable seemed to not want to wind evenly across the spool.

When you are standing at the top of the tower you do not have a lot of leverage so to help 'pull' the blade assembly onto the turbine rotor we will be using webbing with a ratchet mechanism.

I think that one of the problems that we experienced was that since bottom pin could not be put into place onto the lower collar (due to the weight of the electric winch) that the horizontal bar of the crane that holds the winch was angled downward slightly. This downward angle aggravated the winch cable situation.

This link is essentially just a very heavy duty turn-buckle and when the center portion is turned in one direction or another the length of it is shortened/ lengthened to get the horizontal bar of the crane leveled off. Initially it is about 14" long (before modification). This will be welded onto the diagonal support of the crane, not sure yet if I will put it in some where in the middle or on the bottom end of the diagonal but either way it has to be reachable by me to adjust it when the crane is fully extended.

While up there I took a series of digital photographs and then stitched them together to make a panoramic view looking towards the south. Here is a thumbnail image, click on it to see a larger one.

That is my garage in the lower portion of the picture, you can see my chimney on my house just past the garage which is located in the trees.

Then I simply welded the flat portion into the square tubing, on the top-most portion I left some gaps so that any water will not accumulate inside the tubing, while the lower one is completely welded. Here is picture after repainting:

Next I started doing some work in the basement, cutting some conduit to plumb the incoming wires from the garage over to where the rectifier is.

The purpose of this device is to support the cable as it goes through the yaw bearing, I have about 75' of 6/3 SO cable which weighs about 150 lbs and needs some sort of support at the top of the tower. It basically acts like the chinese finger torture toys you played with as a kid, where the more you pull the tighter it gets on the cable inside.

I looked around quite a bit until I found the best deal on this unit, prices vary a *lot* so be sure to shop around!

Recently I changed my mind about the Xantrex C40 diversion controller, it only handles up to 40 amps continuous and I believe that it might be a bit undersized for my alternator, so I decided to replace it with the Tristar TS60, this unit as it has %50 more capacity, 60amps. I was afraid that with my application that the C40 was just a bit undersized.

For slightly more money than the C40 the Tristar is a lot more controller. In addition it includes an RS232 communication port so that you can perform data logging and remote monitoring from your PC. In reading the manual closely I discovered that to use the RS232 port you also have to run an additional (20 gauge) wires from the battery bank to the battery sense connections inside the controller.

The bypass connection will only be used when my inverter (and turbine) are off so that grid power will energize any circuits on the auxiliary panel. In 'normal' operation with the turbine/inverter running the breakers for the bypass are opened so as to not cause a power loop.

After double checking everything (at least 2x) I opened up the Xantrex installation manual and followed their procedures for turning on and testing the inverter. I stepped through all of their procedures and everything appeared to be operating properly and no 'magic smoke' appeared. I then turned on the breaker for the grid connection and charged the batteries for a short while. Finally after I stood around being very pleased with myself (and my work) I turned off the power after this successful test and configuration of settings for my system.

I have to say that the external control panel for the Xantrex inverter is *very* valuable as there is *tons* of information available that you would not otherwise be able to access, everything from the incoming grid voltage, load information, battery and charging information. So far I am very happy with the Xantrex inverter and glad that I spent the little extra money right up front to purchase it.

I finished up the vent for the battery bank, at Lowes I found a drain cap that fit into the end of the 2" PVC, so it was a simple matter of using a hole saw bit and drilling through the wood plates for the house to run the pipe directly to the outside underneath a side deck, so that it is not visible.

Morning started out at 17mph gusts to 25mph, by 2:00 solid 40mph with gusts over 50mph.

First climbed tower to disconnect the existing power and actuator connections and lower the cable back through the 14' retractable stub. Next slide on the Kellem grip over the SO cable and wire that goes to the actuator, this took a while as I was clipped to the side of the tower and it is difficult to get leverage but after a while got the grip installed leaving about 18" sticking out past the end of the grip.

It turns out that the ends of the Kellem grip are too large to fit through the hole in the top of the yaw bearing, so instead I decided to use some steel cable attached to the ends of the grip, go through the yaw bearing and tie off onto one of the stator supports.

I had some 1/4" steel cable and cut off a section about 40" long, installed a thimble and used a cable clamp to hold the end together. On this end I will use a carabineer to attach to the ends of the Kellem grip. The grip and carabineer have to remain inside the tower stub as their diameter is too large to fit through the thrust bearing.

I fished the cables back through the tower stub and out the top, I ran the steel cable through a hole that was in one of the stator supports, doubled it back on itself and installed another cable clamp, then finished up making the connections to the turbine and actuator.

I am very happy with this cable support system and think that it is *much* better than I had previously done. Hind sight being what it is, I should have done this from the start.

I have been thinking that I may have been obsessing over having two people at the top of the tower for the blade and tail installation, so with the help of my good friend Paul Schreiner as ground crew we decided to perform this task.

Things actually went pretty smoothly, the modification that I made to the diagonal support worked flawlessly and allowed me to adjust the horizontal bar of the crane so that it was actually horizontal. I still had to use a guide on the hoist cable to get the cable to wind onto the spool as evenly as possible.

First up were the blades, as either luck or good design would have it they actually slid onto the turbine fairly easily. Drilling the holes in the hub 1/16" oversized made the installation very easy. Paul used a rope to keep the blades from moving around while they were being lifted, while also allowing him to be clear of the drop zone.

The stator was shorted so that the rotors could be turned but would inhibit the blades from rotating. With the stator shorted you can turn the rotors, it does not turn easily but this gave me the ability to align the rotor to the holes on the hub.

Here is a picture with me threading the nuts onto the threaded rod that holds the blades onto the turbine. I used lock washers, lock tite, and double nutted each stud:

Once the blades were on the brake actuator was engaged to positively keep the blades from rotating, and the guide rope was removed.

Next up was the tail section, this was a little more difficult as the lift point was not positioned properly and was a bit off. The lift point should be slightly off center and away from the tail vane so that it can be put onto the yaw bearing easily, my lift point was on the side towards the tail vane making it slightly difficult to maneuver. But eventually I was able to man-handle it and get it onto the pivot point.

The next picture shows that the lift point was too far out and was also a reach for the winch as well:

Once the crane was lowered the gentle wind rotated the turbine to point into the wind, I was cautious and made sure that I did not get in the way of it swinging. The crane worked *very* well and I am quite happy with how it performed.

Next comes Murphy's law again - the telescoping tower stub. When we connected the winch and attempted to lift the stub it would not move. As it started to lift I could see resistance from the lower mounting plate.

Last fall prior to having the crane lift the tower into position the stub was checked out to ensure that it could rotate in the mounting collars, if it can rotate, the it can be telescoped. I suspect that since the tower was lifted by the top mounting plate that the alignment of the collars got 'tweaked' a bit. I put a long bar through the pin hole and tried to rotate the stub, but it would not move.

Hind site being what it is I believe that I should have made the lower mounting plate with the collar separated - instead of welding them together. And then using some L's on the collar and bolted them through the top of the plate would have been the best solution. The mounting bolt holes could be slotted to allow the collar to be shifted and easier to get/keep aligned. Experience really does make a difference in these small design and construction details. While I really like the aesthetics of the free standing tower, it provides me with challenges that those who have tilting towers never have.

At this point I had been on the tower easily 4 hrs and was getting tired so decided to call it a day.

I believe that what I need to do is loosen up the bolts that hold the mounting plate to the tower and align the collars. A job for another day!

Here are a couple of pictures of the tower with the completed turbine, click on them for a larger image:

In climbing the tower early this morning I realized that the lower mounting plate could not be removed for modification since 1/2 the lattice braces are located on the inside of the tower structure. So instead I loosened the bolts that held the lower mounting plate in position and when I got the winch mounted into place and gave it a try, this time it worked!

In my working with the design that I have made, I found one thing that repeatedly came back around - forgetting to design in allowances for things like hooks. The hooks (and other sundries) are typically 2-3" long and detract from the 'built in' height capababilites of my design. It has been a close call on a couple of occasions (sometimes by inches) and I barely squeaked by with enough room or height.

But it all finally came together for me today and I got the wind turbine raised and into operating position.

In the next week or so I can finally get the turbine operational and get some electricity generated and data accumulated.