Windmills, power or problem

[Robroy]

I was reading the power, power, power thread a while back and recently took a trip where I passed a wind farm. I got to thinking, won’t zombies be attracted to the movement, or come to realize food (humans) will be near by?

Maybe a number of the smaller/ shorter turbines in conjunction with solar panels would be a better bet for a safe haven. Something just to run a refrigerator in the summer and a heater in the winter as opposed to a hole house.

[oger333]

it's ppe not movement

[Thinyser]

it's ppe not movement

They are also drawn to sounds and lights that could indicate human prey... not a streatch to assume that they might at least investigate the motion of a large windmill. Besides the large steady woosh woosh woosh as the blades swing would bring them in too.

Thats why I'm planning a hydroelectric dam take over.

Unlimited (near silent) power and a ready made concrete bunker.

[oger333]

where are the windmills ? if out in the middle of no where run a power line under ground .

[Robroy]

I was thinking the movement also, as the book used a car as a distraction. The bigger windmills are generally in rural areas, but running a power line could pose its own problems. There is a green energy info center a couple counties over and they have the smaller home models. You can still see them a mile or two away.

I don’t know about the dam/ bunker thing. You could get trapped.

[Thinyser]

I was thinking the movement also, as the book used a car as a distraction. The bigger windmills are generally in rural areas, but running a power line could pose its own problems. There is a green energy info center a couple counties over and they have the smaller home models. You can still see them a mile or two away.

I don’t know about the dam/ bunker thing. You could get trapped.

Nah, never get trapped in there, its a building thats pretty freestanding and the roof is high enough to run a zipline from down to the far bank, and if worse comes to worse you jump in the river and head down stream. The current would carry you faster than most zed can move and if they get in the water its likely they would be swept away as IIRC they cannot swim.

Plus if we have it set up right we could hydroponically grow our food with electric lights even in the winter and have rabbit hutches and chicken coops on the roof for (non-fish) protine. So even if we do get trapped there is infinite electicity for heat and light and food growth.

[oger333]

you can use transformers to make up the drop in power ..? another thought on power . use dead zombies as a base in a bioful .the same way you would corn .

[azazel1024]

The power loss on a 500-1,000kw windmill over several miles isn't significant, though you WILL need transformers to step down the voltage to something usable by devices. I don't know what windmills crank out and if it is stepped up to transmision lines or if it is natively high, but transmission line voltage is on the order of 22,000v 6 phase power and you need 220/240v 2 phase power for residential electronics etc, you alternately strip that out to single phase 110/120v for your 110/120v goodies and 2 phase 220/240v for all of the higher power requirement devices like electric ranges, electric heat, etc.

So my guess is at the least you are going to have to transform the 6 phase power to 2 phase, which isn't overly difficult, but you may also need to step down the voltage, which with the kind of power your talking from even a single windmill requires a significant transformer. It can certainly be done, heck it could be home wound if you know what you are doing.

At any rate, I would suspect that zombies wouldn't be drawn to the sound of a windmill at least. It is too regular and too 'back ground noise like' I'd suspect. The sound also doesn't carry that far, maybe a mile on the outside. They may be drawn to the movement, but possibly not, nothing screams "there are people there" about a windmill. Many are in rural enough areas that there are likely to be no zombies around for dozens of miles and as the books say zombies tend not to randomly wander the 'wilderness', to unlikely to find prey there.

Just find a secluded windmill or doze and setup base. If you have an honest to goodness safe haven community going with dozens to hundreds of people and the work years that those people could put in to improving an area, especially if they have some vehicles and the ability to scavange from any relatively nearby towns (within an hour or two's drive). You could easily have perimeter berms, pallisades, towers, etc up in a matter of a couple of weeks that would prevent zombies from getting in and then log cabin homes, etc, etc. When you get in to the dozens, let alone hundreds, it is easy to organize civic defense with watch shifts, etc + guard dogs since they are pretty good at sniffing zombies from a distance. That will pretty much keep the place safe from anything up through several dozen zombies at once and possibly even several hundred as a good 10+ft high wood log pallisade is likely to stop or severly slow any zombies from getting over allowing the defenders to deal with them at liesure.
-Matt