PLEASE NOTE : This was written 10 years ago . time flies !

Setting up Self Power.
How I became interested in
alternative energy.
By David Benton.

Around 10 years ago, while on a working holiday in England, I came upon a pamphlet from the Centre of Alternative Technology in Wales. (C.A.T.). On an old quarry site in the middle of a Welsh valley, a community have developed (over 25 years) a small village of houses and workshops, all dedicated to showing alternative energy and building methods in everyday use. This seemed very appealing to me living in a crowded flat in polluted London, so the next weekend I took a train up to visit the centre

Needless to say this trip kindled an interest in all things alternative in me, and I asked about the possibility of working there. They had a volunteer scheme where you went and stayed at C.A.T. for 1 - 2 weeks, working in exchange for board.

I didn't get round to staying there for another year (the travel bug hit me again), when I got in for 2 weeks. I learnt a lot in that short time, mainly from conversations with the enthusiastic community members who ran the system. (For more information on C.A.T. see www.cat.org.uk Tel: 01654 702400) The experience of living in a community also appealed.

I returned to New Zealand full of ideas and hopes for finding or starting a similar centre here. I did an electronics course to brush up on that side of things and a remote area power supply design course. However it became apparent that while NZ is an ideal place for alternative energy, the small population and long distances meant setting up this kind of thing would be difficult. Those who already had power systems had generally set them up themselves using parts sourced from the major suppliers in Auckland or overseas. I didn't have enough money to start from scratch so I set off looking for a place already running or at least heading in that direction.

I joined the W.W.O.O.F. scheme (www.wwoof.co.nz), and went through their book looking for places that mentioned an interest in alternative power. I found a few, and while in the Coromandel I arranged to stay at Wilderland community for a week. Wilderland certainly had the community life I was looking for, organic gardening and a beautiful setting, but the thing that was most appealing to me was that one of the objectives in the trust deed was to use and promote alternative energy systems. The week stretched to months, and I made the decision to move to Wilderland. While the main focus was on gardening and keeping all the old vehicles going, there was time to experiment with alternative energy ideas, and to try and make them work in the difficult community environment. However the crunch came when it was time to decide whether to hook the main community buildings up to mains power or to run them from alternative energy. The trustees decided to hook up to the mains power in direct contradiction of the trust deed they themselves wrote.

It soon became apparent that Wilderland was not the place for a C.A.T. type of educational setup, and not long after that the whole community was disrupted by a dispute that would continue for 3 long years.

As I had contributed my life savings to the trust, I had to stay on at Wilderland (I also enjoyed living there) and so looked at ways I could run an information service etc by mail / phone. It became apparent that the best way to do this would be to start a mail order business, as well as serving the Coromandel area. And so with a cell phone, computer, credit card, and an old transit van, Self Power was born.

At first my main business was attending the numerous markets on the Coromandel, selling small panels, educational toys and of course solar fan hats by the 100's. The books and information packs were popular by mail, and I became known locally as the solar man. Business grew from there and 3 years later I found myself running quite a busy business from a shack at the end of a dirt road in a community engaged in tribal warfare. The charitable trust that supposedly promoted alternative energy was doing everything it could to get rid of me and others, (as well as becoming obsessed with making money), and I was getting tired of driving out to meet couriers etc. It was time to make a break, and I began looking for a place to set up an office / workshop / display area.

9 Puke Road, Paeroa.

A small ad in the local paper listed an office and separate workshop with living area in Paeroa. Looking at the map I realised Paeroa was well situated, within 150 km of 3 major cities, and a large rural area. I also had friends living nearby. I rang up to inquire about the workshop, but that had already gone. However I was passing through Paeroa so I arranged to see the office. It turned out to be ideal, a large lawn area on the side of state highway 2 that was ideal for displays, a tidy office that had accommodation, and plenty of parking. The only thing that was missing was a decent workshop. The landlord was easygoing and was open to the idea of displays on the front lawn (although I may have forgot to mention the wind turbine), and later ended up buying a solar hot water system for his house. So the big move was all on.

Starting From Scratch.

All of a sudden I had an office and a 1000 m2 lawn to play with, and I tried to figure out how to turn my plans into reality. First priority was a demonstration power system set-up. The following weekend there was an environmental field day in Auckland, so I set about building a display unit. This consisted of a Dr 2424e 24 volt 2400 watt inverter, being fed by 4 * Trojan 215 amp / hour 6 volt batteries, wired in series to give 24 volts. These were enclosed in a plywood case, the batteries having a clear perspex cover over them so they could be seen but not touched, with a computer fan installed for ventilation. (As well as hydro caps). All the correct fuses and cables were used and made as tidy as possible while still making it possible to see where each cable went to and what it connected to. 2 * 64 watt solar panels were installed on the correct angle as a roof. The top of them was at head height, so you could view the setup from the back without having to bend down. An Air 303 wind turbine was erected on a short aluminium pole, more for display than any serious power production, and then the whole lot was dismantled to put in the van. The night before the big day we went to load it into the van, and it was a couple of inches too long!! Whoops, luckily a trailer did the job.

The day went well, the usual mad rush of trying to answer 100's of questions, not much sun around and no wind in the display area, several people pointed out that it was quite windy further up the hill, which was a good opportunity to show the importance of correct tower height and placement

Solar Hot Water System.

The landlord had a shower installed for me, however as the hot water cylinder was only a 22 litre under sink unit, showers were either very quick or very cold. Obviously a solar hot water system was needed so I had to figure out how best to have a system on display that would also provide my hot water. The north-facing roof of the office is not that visible from the road so it seemed the best answer was to build a separate roof about 10 metres from the office. I had the luxury of designing the roof to fit the solar system rather than the other way around for a change. I decided on a thermosiphon system, with a 180 litre horizontal cylinder in the roof space above the solar panel. A 2.2 m2 solar panel was ordered from Sola 60, because of a production hiccup I ended up getting a 3.3 m2 panel at the same price, which was a bonus. The panel is at ground level, which make it easily viewable, the cylinder is at eye level, and is enclosed in a clear perspex box, so all the piping etc can be clearly seen. A thermometer shows the temperature of the water and a tap lets you feel how hot the water is, (the water is restricted to 45 degrees Celsius for safety). The panel faces true north, in hindsight it could have been skewed around to face north west, without comprising performance. This would have made it a lot more visible from the road. The system has provided plenty of hot water, reaching over 70 degrees centigrade on most summer days, and 55 - 60 degrees centigrade on good winter days. There has only been 15 - 20 days of the year that there is not enough hot water to have a shower. A 24 volt 500 watt element was installed to heat the tank on these days, which is powered by the battery bank inside. The hot water pipe runs about 10 metres underground to the house and this causes a noticeable cold spot in the water. I am looking at better ways of insulating this pipe. The tank also cools down noticeably at night in winter, again better insulation will help here.

Wind Turbines.

The site is not that suitable for a wind turbine, with tall trees across the road , and the office itself having a high roof . The local council had already hassled me over some roadside signs, so I was not keen to push my luck putting up a high wind turbine tower. The first wind turbine to go up was a small Rutland 903, 70 watt unit that I used to loan to customers to try out wind sites. That will be nice and quiet, and shouldn't attract too much of the wrong sort of attention I thought. This was mounted on a 6 metre long pipe attached to the roadside sign, which is about 4 metres high itself (the wind turbine was about 3 metres from the top of the sign). The power was used to charge a 12 volt 70 amp / hour battery (along with a 22 watt solar panel) which runs the 4 * 10 watt flashing halogen spotlights that light the sign at night. All was well in light winds, however the last customer must have dropped the turbine, because all the ceramic magnets were cracked, and had shifted, causing the turbine to be highly unbalanced. In a strong wind it sounded like a helicopter landing, audible from 100 metres away. I guess being next to a main road helps , as no one complained. Then one night it was very windy, the mounting bolts had stripped out of the aluminium mount (Rutland have since changed this to a lot more sturdy arrangement) . The whole turbine was tipping back and forward on the top of the pipe. Of course this sought of thing always happens in the middle of a wet windy night. I shorted the wires out which slowed the turbine down, but still had the problem of getting the turbine down without it dropping off the end, as the pipe was tilted down. Luckily a big gust came along and solved that problem by tearing the turbine off the top of the pipe, leaving it dangling by the wires down the side of the pipe. The whole lot could then be easily lowered.

I had decided that I would put up a Windseeker 503, 500 watt turbine as the main wind turbine. I knew these were quiet, reliable, and looked good. I wanted to have a tower that would be unobtrusive, and didn't want guy wires through the display area. A hinged pipe arrangement seemed to be the way to go. 2 * 3 meter long 50 mm pipes were cemented about 1 meter into the ground. A 70 mm gap was left between the pipes to allow a 6 meter long 50 mm pipe to be bolted between them, the bottom bolt also acting as a hinge. The turbine was bolted on the top and the pipe swung up into position using the van to pull it up. This was a strong enough arrangement, although the top of the pipe would sway in strong winds because of the lack of guy wires.

The 503 has performed faultlessly, charging the batteries situated in the office 30 meters away. You cannot hear the turbine at all unless you stand next to the tower, which was ideal. It attracts a lot of attention, and most people who come into the office off the street do so to ask about the wind turbine. It is visible from the main road into Paeroa, above the advertising signs. It does not produce anything like its potential full output because of the low tower and obstructed site. I plan to increase the height to 12 metres shortly.

We had a week of rain last winter, in which the ground became totally soaked. This was followed by the windiest weekend for years, in which roofing was ripped off houses. As I spent the night looking out the window watching the wind turbine anxiously, I noticed it seemed to be leaning on more and more of an angle away from me. Venturing outside I saw that the whole concrete base was slowly tipping out of the ground under the force of the wind. By around 3 am in the morning the pole was at a 4 5 degree angle from the ground. The 503 was still spinning merrily away, producing around 15 amps. I couldn't get to sleep so I went out, put the brake on, and pushed on the wind tower, making it drop slowly to the ground. The hole where the base had been was full of water, the ground being totally saturated. I took the turbine inside, and finally got some sleep. When I put the tower back up it had 4 guy wires attached, just like it should have had in the first place.

Solar Panels.

As mentioned earlier the north facing roof of the office is not that visible from the road. I wanted any solar panels to attract attention, yet they also had to be protected from vandalism and theft. I haven't figured out how to achieve this yet, so at the moment I just have 2 Unisolar 64 watt panels mounted on the north facing roof. These have performed well, producing up to 6 amps (at 24 volts) in the period when the ozone hole is at its biggest. This is better than a 80 watt panel, it will be interesting to see if they produce the same power this year when they will be 30 months old. The Unisolar panels are estimated to get around 15% more power in the first year, it then stabilises at the rated 64 watts. The power is fed down through a Self Power 15 amp regulator into the battery bank. There is also a 22 watt panels charging the sign lighting system, and a couple of solar powered sensor lights.

The Office Power System.

The office was hooked to the grid power system when I moved here. I share a meter with the workshop down the back so only pay 1/2 the line charge. ($10 per month). Even so my original intention was to go totally self sufficient. However with the wind site not being so good, this would be expensive. A couple of other problems arose, the biggest one been the photocopier and the modified sinewave inverter not getting along at all, and the standard fridge guzzling power. Everything else works fine off the inverter. Been a rented office, I cannot change the wiring, so I have ended up using the power that is produced by solar / wind to boil the jug, run the lights, and whatever else I can easily plug into the inverter. Not your normal solar setup but at least it is using solar / wind for most of my requirements. I recharge the batteries at night through the inverter / charger if need be. This means that I am using power that is probably coming from hydro stations .The power used from the grid averages around 2 kWh per day.

Future Developments.

The display area is still fairly empty, and I would like to have a lot more working displays. Ideas include a solar powered water fountain, solar street lights, more windmills, and things for kids (of all ages) to play with. At the moment there are no signs around telling people how things work, and more information in general. As mentioned earlier I would like to raise the height of the wind turbine to 12 meters.

However it all takes time and money, both of which are usually in short supply, but I look forward to the next few years.