Solar and Wind

Read about our solar and wind powered workshop

The new weather dome

New weather dome for solar tracker!

Apr 28th

Posted by Mark in Other News

All good things come to those who wait…….

Carol found this glass dome in our local Charity shop (I knew one would turn up eventually!). It used to be the cover for an ornament – but I nabbed it for my weather dome. I’m just hoping that the same item doesn’t come up on antiques roadshow worth thousands. ‘If only you still had the glass dome madam…………………’

The panels have been connected for about a year now and have produced 1180kwh – we had some problems with the tracker so next year should be even better.


One more panel to go

Solar Tracker

Apr 27th

Posted by Mark in Other News

Nearly there……

This is our dual axis solar tracker. We made it ourselves in the Bailey workshop. Billy has a mig welder so he took care of sticking it all together. It should enable our panels to generate 30-50% more than a fixed system so it is well worth the considerable effort it took to build.

The electronics came from Red Rok Energy. It works by using LED’s as light sensors to tell the ‘satelite dish’ motors which way to turn. The electronics also feature a parking facility so that the tracker parks to the east at night ready for the sunrise. It is all powered by a 12v battery which of course is charged by a small solar panel.

The LED’s and circuitry is housed in a weather dome – I used a jam jar for this because it was all I could find but it could really do with something a bit better……..I have asked Carol to keep an eye out for a glass dome in the charity shops……..


Barry Vyse and the Byo Amper's with their babies.

Sept – BYO Amp course and New Windmill

Sep 15th

Posted by Mark in Build Your Own

Our New turbine goes up and the new Panels Arrive. The Story Continues….

About twice a year Barry Vyse from Torres Amps comes to run his BYO Amp course in our workshop. It’s a great way to get started. Even with an expert on hand to give you the right guidance it is still a tricky business and Barry is great at helping people to achieve their dream of building their own.

As if they hadn’t got enough to do we roped them into helping us to erect the new windmill tower. Very exciting. More on this to follow……
There it is up and flying.  It should put out about 1kw in a good wind. The plan is to get the whole workshop working on only power we have generated ourselves.

We just took delivery of 6 new solar panels. That will give us another 1.3kw on a sunny day. The plan is to build a solar tracker to mount them onto. More to follow……..


Our Tent Before the Chaos

Wickerman Fest July 08 – Solar and Wind Powered Guitar building.

Jul 10th

Posted by Mark in Custom guitars

Mark was invited to build a guitar as a live demo over the weekend. Not to make things too easy he decided to use only power generated by solar and wind. The guitar was signed by most of the main stage acts including KT Tunstall!

Our Tent Before the Chaos

Yup. Building a guitar in a tent using a 4ft windmill, a 150w solar panel and 440ah of batteries (for the techies). All in a days work. The big windmill in the background is an 8 footer which will go up at the workshop as soon as we can get to it. It should produce 1kw in a good wind.

During

During

You can see the interest we attracted. People are fascinated to see the guitar emerge from raw wood into a guitar before their eyes. That’s Bills Mill in the background helping to keep the batteries charged up. Thanks Bill for lending it to us and doing such a great job of PR on our behalf. Also Thanks Jamie for helping out. Not forgetting Billy and Fionna for everything.

Mark Routing the Body

‘I used normal tools and techniques – the only difference was the power source (and the view!)

I wanted to to build the guitar totally using wind and sun power just to find out if it was possible. I had done some calculations and was fairly confident but you never know…..As it turned out I hardly put a dent in the batteries! This experience is really what convinced me it was possible to run the whole workshop this way.

The Finished Result with Signed Scratchplate.

The Finished Result with Signed Scratchplate

Thanks to the organisers of the famous Wickerman Festival for inviting us to their fantastic festival.
Also special thanks to KT Tunstall and all the other acts for signing the guitar.

The highlight of the whole event was when they raffled the guitar on the mainstage and Mark and Carol were invited up to pick the winning ticket. ‘It was the biggest stage i’ve ever held a guitar on and maybe next time they’ll let me plug it in!