Wind Turbine Ordinance Bismarck

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Exactly. City ordinances in most cases aren't designed to make a residents life miserable. They are designed to keep everything orderly. Imagine living next door to a wind turbine with 120 foot blades. It's not common but blades have fallen off. Might put a dent in your house. You will also have to put up with the flicker.

It might seem that you should be allowed to do what you want with your property but in my opinion when you cause a problem for your neighbor you are also infringing on their rights. Besides wind turbines another common issue is the draining of water. "Why can't I drain a slough on my property, I own it?" Because eventually that water drains onto someone else's property that creates a problem for them.

For me, good neighbors are priceless.
 




pluckem

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I see your guys' point but frankly, I don't care.

Find some acreage in the county so you can do what you want. Or a city and development with no covenants. Then you can put up your wind turbines and your neighbor can run his Doggie Day Care out of his backyard.
 

Allen

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Reading through the ordinance, its not that they are illegal, it is that by law they must be designed in such a way that they won't fit on a residential lot. They have it wrapped up in a tight little bow I guess. Land of the free indeed.

While I am a big proponent of doing as one wishes with their own property, I always put the even bigger caveat on it of "so long as it's neighbor friendly". I can't imagine a wind turbine in city limits ever being well received by one's neighbors. You have the constant whine which the ordinance limits to 55 decibels during the day. That's a pretty steady hum to the neighborhood. Then the "flicker" and hazard of it getting blown over on one of our finer kite-flying days. Seems to me like they are pretty deadest against making it easy on a person with the whole "engineering" requirement.

I've thought about doing it in the future, but I'm also not living in the city and can easily place it farther away from my house than what a person could do in town.
 

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Yes. 300 per month. Propane heat. Electric hot water heater. However, until this month we had an old hot water heater that had about 10 years of well water build up in it. Got rural water couple years ago. Replaced hot water heater last month. They couldn't even get it to drain it was so full of shit. this months bill was 240 and the ac ran a lot. So, I think I am making head way.
 


Ristorapper

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Early '80's to '99 lived out in NW Mandan off Old Red Trail. IN a trailer park off Crown Point Road (Lasalle drive) there was a trailer home owner that had a small wind generator there. Lotsa complaints from what I had heard. Especially noise. I lived far enough away to not hear the steady 'chop, chop, chop it made when the wind blew. I think he was eventually forced to give it up. This was in city limits even back then. Haven't seen another one in the City since then however.
 

dean nelson

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Are you in the city of Bismarck? If so, I assume your provider is MDU?

Bismarck north Dakota - Wind Energy Ordinance - Section 14-03-08-v
http://www.bismarcknd.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/1962

- - - Updated - - -

If you want to look into curbing your bill, you might look into the option of getting an off peak meter and battery bank to start out. Charge your battery bank at night during low rates and then avoid peak rates during the day.

However, I am almost positive the economics won't work out to much. Batteries are expensive and have short life's.
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Capital electric has a fair amount in town as well.

As for the tower is wouldn't want one running next door either so can't blame the city on this one to much. Well in CO worked on a house that had two of them inside these tubes in the garage. He didn't have them for normal use but instead they were to be cranked up out of there tubes in the event of a prolonged power outage which were somewhat common in that area. He also had a battery bank that he could charge and solar panels as well. Never saw it in action but hear it worked very well for him.
 
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Bacon

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Obviously none of you have had a wind generator. When I had one 10 years ago, KEM would not pay for any power over your bill. It was a two meter setup. One for the wind turbine, the other for your power usage. Maybe that has changed but I doubt it. Believe me when I say, don't bother. They are a money pit and not feasible or cost effective. They are also noisy and if you want to piss off your neighbors, put one up.
 

Duckslayer100

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Do you have a good south-facing roof? Why not solar? Probably cheaper, quieter, and a lot less maintenance/hassle than wind power.
 

Account Deleted

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I was considering solar too but they are in fact, not cheaper and not at all reliable in ND if you look up the zones.
 


johnr

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fossil fuels is the cheapest and most reliable source out there.

No huge start up costs, no pissed off neighbors, no eyesores, readily available, and pretty neat.
 

Allen

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I see your guys' point but frankly, I don't care.

Just remember, if you can do anything, so can your neighbors. Quite frankly, I have found neighbors to be more creative when it comes to annoying shit than I. ;:;banghead
 

svnmag

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Do any of you know or did anyone listen to the Skynrd I posted? Man, that's a good one!...I love that song.
 

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fossil fuels is the cheapest and most reliable source out there.

No huge start up costs, no pissed off neighbors, no eyesores, readily available, and pretty neat.
That won't always be so.
 


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