Forget it. He pulled his site after people pointed out that his numbers
did not add up.
No, he "pulled his site" (as you put it) after he made a promise
to do so if anyone agreed with you. As a prank, someone else *did*
agree with you, and he honored his committment.
In any case, it would be awfully hard for "his numbers" to "add
up" when he HAD NO SUCH NUMBERS ON THE SITE. I cannot speak for
Wayne, but I believe the reason he did not give generation and
usage numbers is that he believed his usage would not match most
other peoples' usages in any practical way, so that any numbers he
gave would be useless. Also, his site is unique -- there are few
places anywhere else in the US, at least, that have his combination
of sun and wind patterns -- so his generation would be unlikely to
match other peoples', either. (Even being within a few miles of
his place would not do it -- he is on a ridge above a valley, near
but not at the top, with special wind and rain channeling
characteristics. This avoids the need for a deep well, too, reducing
power loads for water-pumping.)
Pity too, as he has an interesting system. The sad thing
is that he seemed to have no idea what he had done or what he ran from
the system.
I have *been* to his house. It works. He *does* monitor the state
of charge of the batteries, etc., and if the system is overproducing
power (which does happen -- it was going on when I was there, on
a bright sunny day with low wind) he will do laundry or run other
relatively energy-intensive applications "opportunistically". If
the system is a little low, he will put off such chores. Since
the weather in his area is pretty steady and predictable, he almost
never has to put off such chores more than a few days.
It is a very nice house, too, except that he believed the guys who
did the concrete for the floor base, and they were wrong about the
ground settling, so that the slab has cracks. (Not exactly
surprising, and most concrete slabs wind up with cracks eventually
anyway -- at least in areas with these kinds of soils -- but if he
had followed his instincts instead of believing the contractor, he
might have gone a few more years before the first split.)
(I also think he's a bit nuts for using an electric stove instead
of propane, but it does save on propane delivery. But cooking on
electric, ugh. It is not the extra power load that bothers me --
well, there is a reason the phrase is "now we're cooking with gas"
instead of "now we're cooking with electricity".
Yes, after
a bit of practice one can sautee on electric, but gas is just *so*
much nicer.)
