Hello all. It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, but it's been a busy year and I've been a busy boy.
After recently losing power for a week after hurricane Irma, I decided that it was pretty silly to not be as self sufficient as I would be if I were living on a boat. Which I did for many years. I hate wasting food and being hot and miserable for a week with no fans was something I don't want to go through again. Neither does my wife. Which partially explains why she allowed me to erect this admittedly unusual creation in her back yard.
The pole itself is an old spinnaker pole from a large Irwin sailboat that I've had for years. For that matter almost everything I used was stuff I've had around the old rigging shop just taking up space.
I bought the Renogy 400 watt kit and was given the used wind generator but everything else was just used and scrap parts and material.
One of the best features of the system is that I can lower the entire thing in case of severe weather and remove the panels pretty easily.
Also it rotates so that if I am around the yard, I can track the sun during the day. The panels are also mounted so that they can be tilted by means of an old traveler track and a couple of cheek blocks so that I can adjust it for the changing angle of the sun through the seasons.
I have yet to see how well the wind generator works. We haven't had enough wind around here lately to find out. Plus, currently, (no pun intended), I'm not using enough of the power created from the solar panels to allow the wind generator to work. But my idea is that in a time of storms, and power outages, the wind will be blowing and the sun may not be shining.
Anyway, it was fun building and erecting it and it keeps me off the street. Hope it works as well as I imagine it and that it "sparks", (I'm incorrigible), other's imaginations.
See ya soon
