I have a 35 acre lot in WY. It is planned to be my retirement home so I can get away from the crowds as soon as I don’t have to be near work. In the meantime I’d like to put in a travel trailer –easy to remove when I’m ready to build, septic, well, power, fence some pasture so I could bring some of my 4 horses and camp there.
Well I had the power company out and was dismayed by the estimate. $3300 to start, 5 year contract, $26 monthly fee + however much electricity I would use. It seems quite a lot just to spend a several days a year there; plus politically I’d just as soon stay off the grid if I can. I am reasonably capable to set things up; but I cannot build any kind of system from scratch.
So I have a ridge near where I would site my living quarters with great wind. Hmm maybe I can just buy a small-scale wind generator? There are 600 watt systems are quite reasonable in price. I need to be able to power a well and the depth is likely to be 300-350 foot. I’m not sure how much head draw that will be. I was thinking it would be most of the well depth which is putting me into $$$ DC pumps; and now I am reading that car batteries will not hold up for much usage and one needs higher end deep cycle batteries, its not clear to me if I can set up a wind turbine and just leave it run while I am 200 miles away working, but I think I would want to power the well at least minimally to keep the pump components from freezing when it gets to -20C in the winter and so on.
So what is the reality? Is a wind turbine robust enough to be left spinning while I am 200 miles away for weeks at a time –possibly with every other day checking from the neighbor? Am I going to have battery life issues if they are charged most of the time and excess power being dumped and then under draw for 3-4 days when I’m there?
Thanks for all advise,
Teresa