A few month's ago, we had some people tell us about a turbine that we
should check out in Kintore, Ontario. A few weeks went by, and we finally
had time to take a drive there on a Sunday afternoon. We were amazed when
we drove up to Charlie's house! There was a very large turbine turbine on
an 80 foot tower in his backyard, which is right on the edge of the small
village of Kintore!
We stopped at the side of the road to take a few pictures, and Charlie
came out of his house to talk to us. We asked him if he minded if we took
a few pictures, and he said to go ahead and take as many as we wanted. He
was on his way out, but he told us to go ahead and go into his back yard
and have a closer look if we wanted, so we took him up on his offer!
We made arrangements to go back to visit Charlie the next week when he
had more time to spend with us.
Charlie is an exceptional man! He has
many talents! We learned on our next visit that Charlie designed and built
the entire 30 kilowatt turbine himself! That's right, a 30 kilowatt
turbine! He also designed and built the entire tower by himself as well!
Charlie
sourced many of the various parts for the turbine from a variety of
places, and those parts that he couldn't locate, he fabricated himself.
The 16 foot blades for the turbine came from a company in Denmark. Once he
had all of the parts together, he assembled the entire turbine,
affectionately known as the "Wind Mouse" at this house. He had a
little help in the form of a crane and a crew of people from South Dakota
to help install this monster!
The 80 foot tower for the turbine was
built by Charlie from high pressure tanks that he got at a local scrap
yard. It's a really neat design with an elevator, which Charlie designed
and built himself, running part way up the inside of the tower to the
first crow's nest and then up to the second crow's nest on the outside of
the tower. From there you have to climb the rest of the way by ladder.
Charlie says that he designed it with three crow's nests so that you could
stop and rest at each one and have a beer! He says that by the time you
get to the top and have had three beers, the height of the tower doesn't
bother you any more!
