[Cialug]voip

[murraymckee at wellsfargo.com]

No, I just went to the wind energy meeting in Nevada, IA last Friday.
It was very informative.  There's another one in Eagle Grove coming up
shortly.  Contact the Write County ISU Extension office in Clarion for
registration information.  ($15 if you register more than a day before
the conference and that includes your lunch, so it's a good deal.)

I live on a hilltop, and I was hoping that someone would want to put up
a 2 MW turbine on any of my land.   As it turns out I'm far enough south
in Iowa that it's not likely to happen, average wind speed decreases
from NW to SE Iowa, so it's more economical to put them up in NW Iowa.

It is however still windy enough in south central Iowa to put up a
'small' system for your own use.

Consider the following system.

                    Windmill
                        !
                        V
House / Load  <--  Interconnect <--> grid
                        ^
                        !
                        V
                     Batteries

The windmill powers the house and other loads as much as it can.

The batteries are OPTIONAL

When there isn't enough wind to carry the load the batteries make it up.
(Can you say GIANT UPS?)

When the batteries are discharged, or not present, then the power needed
beyond what the windmill is supplying comes from the grid.

The technology all exists.  It's not hard to get approval if you're
using off the shelf parts at the junction to your side of the meter,
I.E. the interconnect.  The basic concern is that if there is no power
on the grid that you don't push power onto the grid and kill a lineman.
That transformer in your yard that steps the power down from 5000 or so
to 110 / 220 also works backwards.  

I've never seen an electron, but I've felt a few while doing some home
wiring projects.  I definitely don't want to feel any at 5000 volts.
110 was a great plenty to get my attention.  And the lineman doesn't
want to feel any either.

Anyway, if you had an ordinary standby generator you'd need a double
pole, double throw switch to isolate the generator from the grid.
(Power comes from either the generator or the grid, but not both.)  You
need something a bit more complicated for net metering since the
alternative power source (wind / solar / etc.) might be supplying only
part of the load and the line is supplying the rest of the load.

Alliant spoke at our meeting, but others their said Mid American was in
the ballgame too.  You could split the load as you suggested, but with
net metering you don't need to.  Just let the hardware do the work for
you.  Just be up front with them and let them know what is going on.
They will work with you.  It will take some time to set up, but they
know the ropes.  In fact, if you need help, ask them and they should
give you good information.  7 years ago or more, that would not have
been the same story, but the game, and legislation, have changed.

The windmills & batteries generate DC current, or at least it's
rectified to DC and reinverted to exactly 60 hertz in sync with the
grid.  (You don't want to be supplying power to the grid out of phase
with the grid.)  I have no idea if it's square or sine wave.  If you
have sensitive equipment a small power conditioning UPS in front of it
would eliminate the worry.

Murray McKee 
Data Analyst
LI Data Modeling, Mapping, and Analysis
Wells Fargo Lending Information Systems - TIG (Technology Information
Group)
Mail: 1 Home Campus
MAC X2301-03G
Des Moines, IA 50328 
WORK (515)324-4689  Cell (515) 559-4390  FAX (515) 324-4452
Location: 800 S. Jordan Creek Parkway
West Des Moines, IA 50266
MurrayMcKee at WellsFargo.com 
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-----Original Message-----
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On
Behalf Of Nathan C. Smith
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 1:46 PM
To: 'Central Iowa Linux Users Group'
Subject: RE: [Cialug]voip

 
> 
> For a typical home / acreage owner the best deal is "net metering".
> 

Are you doing this now?  I got interested in setting up a "solar system"
and
wondered how bad MidAmerican was to work with to do something like this.

Really what I wondered was if anyone else had gone through all the red
tape
and figured out the best route to take.

If it ever happens I may end up just doing a separate circuit and
running my
computers, or some frequently used household appliance off the grid.

Any thoughts on "square" wave versus true sine-wave inverters?

-Nate
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