Enterprise man intends to use combination of wind, solar, propane to live ...

The wind turbine blades were assembled by Doug from cedar fence posts in the shop at his home in Enterprise. - Submitted photos

Now Terry lives in a peaceful neighborhood in a small town, but he is still designing and creating. He recently built a wind turbine to generate electricity. The tower is erected in his backyard.

This was no hobby project — the Terrys own land nine miles north of Enterprise and they plan to build a house on the property. There is only one small problem: it would cost $84,000 to install electrical power to the building site, an expense Terry is unwilling to incur.

His goal is to build two wind towers, one of which is complete, install them on his property, and, in combination with solar panels, provide the electrical energy needed to run all the appliances and conveniences of a modern home. Anything that can’t be serviced by these renewable energy sources will be run with propane, eliminating the need for connecting to the power grid.

Wind turbines make electricity when wind turns its blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator, which makes electricity. The electricity is sent through transmission and distribution lines to homes and businesses.

Terry said there are wind turbine kits available to assemble for a project such as this, but he built his turbine from top to bottom following instructions from two main sources, “Homebrew Wind Power” by Dan Bartmann and Dan Fink and “How to Build a Wind Turbine,” a copyrighted plan book by Hugh Piggott.

Terry erected this wind turbine in his back yard using a three length telescoping extension tower that had been salvaged from oil pipeline construction in Alaska.

Terry said he isn’t sure that everyone could make one of these turbines. The fabrication requires specialized tools and equipment that are not usually found in the average workshop. To build the turbine without buying pre-fabricated parts, as Terry did, one would need electrical tools, wood and metalworking tools as well as tools for casting. Having the proper equipment for measuring and for safety is also extremely important.

“For instance, the plans required straight grain cedar for the blades,’’ he said. “Well, I couldn’t find any so I bought cedar fence posts, ripped them and re-glued and then shaped them to make the blades. Most people wouldn’t be able to do that. You can get the knowledge out of books, but not the tools and materials, especially if you want to modify anything.”

For the most part he did all the work himself except for some of the parts that had to be plasma cut, which he contracted out to Kni-Co Manufacturing in Wallowa.

Terry said he had a little difficulty handling the magnets used to convert the energy in the spinning shaft of the wind turbine into electrical energy. Twenty-four magnets, 2-inches by 1/2-inch, were needed and each one was strong enough to lift 70 pounds.

“I was not prepared for the strength of the magnets. One of them jerked out of my hand and attached to the others. These magnets can rip a wrench right out of your hand,” he said.

Off-grid systems are not connected to the electrical lines from the utility company. Energy that is produced by solar panels or wind turbines is stored in a battery bank that runs the household appliances. The systems that are directly tied to the power grid are said to be “grid-tied.”

Doug Terry assembled the magnet rotors for his wind turbine. Pre-assembled magnet rotors are not available for purchase. Because of the power of the magnets, they must be handled with extreme care to avoid injury.

Terry and his wife, Carol, plan to fulfill their energy needs completely off the grid. The cost of constructing this wind turbine is approximately $800, according to Terry, and he completed it in about three months. He plans to build one more wind turbine, but this one will have a 12-foot blade instead of 10, which will increase output from approximately 75 to 100 kilowatt-hours per month to 125 to 150 kwh at an average wind speed of 12 mph.

During a year of researching sites for placement of his wind tower and measuring wind speed on his property north of Enterprise, Terry recorded winds of between 5 and 25 mph on a fairly consistent basis. He is confident that the combined energy production from the wind towers, solar panels and propane will supply the energy needs for their 1,640-square-foot, single-story home.

One difficulty he encountered when he had erected the wind tower in his backyard in Enterprise involved timing. The test results for energy production were taken in early spring before the trees leafed out. Later in the season the foliage on the trees created major interference in the flow of wind, as well as with the speed of the wind.

Some people who live near wind turbines complain about the noise they produce. The smaller, faster spinning turbines emit more noise than heavier turbines. The model of turbine that Terry built is reputed to be heavy and spin slowly; it cannot be heard over the sound of the wind, he said.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, wind machines in the United States generated a total of 52 billion kwh of electricity. This is just a tiny fraction of the nation’s total electricity production, but it was enough to serve almost 5 million households, or the entire state of Colorado.

For reasons of concern for the environment to a loss of faith in the security measures taken to protect the power grids, many people are interested in exploring alternative energy sources.

Terry is willing to share what he has learned about building wind turbines and would offer a class if interest is high enough. Call Terry at 541-426-4249 for more information.