Renewable power at the field

[belouder]

Hey,
As you know, 60 Acres in Seattle will now become 6 more soccer fields. Oh well. We are working on an alternative site and need to figure out how to get winch charging power to the field from nearby buildings (1500 feet away). Somoeone suggested some sort of stand alone renewable source (solar panels, wind, treadmills) rather than trenching power cable that far.

Has anyone tried something like this to maintain winch batteries? If so, what worked, what didn't.

Ideas please.

Thanks,
Brian K

[Hossfly72]

Hey Brian,

Why not just a little Honda generator? They're supposed to be the quietest and you wouldn't need them except to top off a battery, right? Everybody down here on the coast has a generator so we're used to draggin 'em out for everything from a hurricane to a graduation party.

John

[Halfbrit42]

Brian...Here at SVSS in Sacramento, we have a field with water from a well...and power to our winches and Shade structure. We are using a solar panel to charge the batteries for the winches and during the daytime , when not in use. The solar panel also generates electricity to run the sprinkling system on our field. Check out our site...www.svss.org.

You will see our goodies. For more info email Jonathan Heritage at jpherit@pacbell.net

[Mr. Kite]

If you do the generator USE only the Honda ...you will find that the sound from it is very low ....if you use one of the less costly ones you will have every one ready to make the power go away .....I use a 2000 watt Honda all the time for my sound sys and most don't know it is even runing ...Just my 4cents Mr. Kite

[jpherit]

We keep 4 pair of 6V batteries on charge from a single ~120W solar panel using charge controllers. Two additional pair are cycled onto the charging bench at irregular intervals. Be aware that we have a LOT of sun here; we rarely see clouds in summer. Your situation would likely require an additional solar panel for the same load. Our arrangement easily keeps batteries well charged for active Friday and Saturday fun flying. On contest days, and especially at our two-day Soaring Challenge (AKA Spring Fling), we charge the batteries in real time during the contest with car battery chargers run off of a Honda generator. The generator also powers a PA system and keeps the scorekeepers laptop going all day.

If you need more details, send me a PM and I'll be happy to share more detailed info.