Wind Energy Voice

There has recently been a huge abundance of information flooding the internet with regards to  the great benefits of solar and wind energy and how we should all be looking at ways to cut our energy bills and look for green energy alternatives at home.

It would appear that many more of us every day are actively searching for cheaper ways to produce electricity for our homes and this can only be a good thing. What is driving our search for cleaner cheaper, renewable energy sources could be down to any number of factors. High utility prices maybe one thing and the need for a greener environment may be another.

One thing is quite certain however – residential wind turbines can provide for both of these needs and they are cheap, quick and easy to build.

A recent survey has shown that almost 38% of people are willing to pay between $100 and $500 for residential wind turbines. However, even $100 is still too much to pay when you consider that I can show you a quick, easy and cheap way to build your very own energy producing Residential Wind Turbines right from your own home or garage.

You will require some good quality tools to work with. This is important as you are far more likely to produce a high quality wind turbine if the build tools are also of a high quality. You will also require the materials for your turbine, which, if you shop about for the best prices, you should be able to pick up fairly cheaply from your local hardware store. You can also consider using second hand parts although you could potentially be compromising on quality and efficiency of your wind turbine so think carefully if you are doing this.

Now for the single most important part – a high quality, detailed insresidential wind turbinesbsolutely essential to your success in building your very own residential wind turbines and without it, your project will inevitably fail. Your guide should be structured, easy to follow and provide reference diagrams. Ideally you should have access to support and help should you require it. All of these factors will ensure that your project will go smoothly and should lessen the chance of you becoming confused and frustrated.

Residential wind turbines are great fun to build, provide your home with a clean, natural source of free sustainable electrical energy and they can literally slash your electric bills in half. They genuinely are cheap, quick and easy to build and they can be made by absolutely anyone regardless of DIY experience.

Technorati Tags: build, cheap, Easy, Quick, residential, turbines, wind

This article focuses on planning and installing a residential home wind power generation system, not as much on how a wind energy system works.

wind power generation, an alternative and renewable energy source, has seen a dramatic increase in the last few years. Technological advances make it more and more feasible to install wind power generators for individual homes. The newer systems are more efficient and quieter.

Not every geographical location however, is suited for installing a wind power generator. A consistent wind, with average speeds of approximately 11 miles per hour is required to make a wind energy system feasible. Lower wind speeds can be suitable for battery charging and water pumping in your remote weekend cottage.

Wind availability maps are published by the US National Renewable Energy Lab. You can get a general idea from these maps if you are living in a state and county with sufficiently high winds.

Once you confirm this, you will need to also check if your exact location experiences the required, consistent average wind speeds. If your home, your property is located on the side of a hill, your sheltered location might not provide the required wind speeds. Maybe you can install the wind turbine high enough, to just extend it over the ridge. You will then possibly be able to pick up sufficient wind.

Local wind maps, can also be found at the National Renewable Energy Lab. These maps howver, are not very easy to read and understand. Fortunately though, you can simply contact a wind power manufacturer, such as those listed in the American Wind Energy Association website. They can tell you if it is feasible to install a wind power generator for your home.

At this point, just get some general information about the feasibility of installing a wind power system for your home. You have some more checking to do, before you spend a lot of your and the manufacturer’s time on details.

Next step is to check the local codes and requirements. Your town might have some bylaws, or if you live in a subdivision, there might be restrictions in place, that will not allow you to install a wind power generator for your home. Don’t let that deter you! Get a petition going in your town or city to change the bylaws.

Talk to the neighbor hood association. Who knows, maybe the whole subdivision will end up supporting a wind power generator for all the homes!

Don’t forget to also talk to your neighbors. Unfortunately, some people still believe that all wind energy generators are noisy and kill birds. Inform the neighbors as you investigate and learn more.

Once you know that no local laws, regulations, neighbors or neighbor hood associations will stop you, it is time to talk to the manufacturers again.

I recommend talking to at least two different wind power manufacturers with different types of rotors, such as horizontal propeller blades, or vertical ‘egg beater’ blades. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages. You want to make sure that the type of system you end up installing is the best for your particular application.

Ask the manufacturer a lot of questions, such as:

- How much clearance is required around the tower and rotor blades?

- How tall will the wind tower be?

- What are the noise emissions? Do they have certified sound data?

- How many installations have they done? Can you go see one?

- What output can you expect from their system?

- What is the installed cost per kilowatt-hour?

- What kind of warranties do they provide?

- What will they need from you to do to make it happen? (besides money)

- Will they apply for the required permits?

- Will they make the connection to the electric grid?

- Will you have to hire a general contractor?

Compare all the answers between the different models and manufacturers and then you can make an educated decision.

A handful of States provide some incentives for installing small wind power systems. Check with your state and local governments. Another option could be to get a reduced-rate mortgage for adding the wind power system. Check with your mortgage company or mortgage broker.

If you find after doing all this research, that wind power is not the solution for you, then maybe a solar photovoltaic system is your solution.

I do hope that you will be able to install either a solar energy system or a wind power generator for your home.

Technorati Tags: Determine, Home, power, wind, work

We hear so much about energy efficiency nowadays. Energy efficiency is about saving our environment and saving our money. How we got about practicing energy efficiency isnt always as clear, though. Here, there, are the most frequently asked questions about energy efficiency, and their answers.

The question most often asked is if buying products such as appliances that are specifically designed for energy efficiency cost more than others? The answer is yes and no.

While their initial purchase price is usually higher their energy efficiency reduces the bill to use them, which, over time, generally saves money. Energy efficient products often perform better than their less efficient competition, which means they may also last longer.

Another popular question is where to find products that are designed for energy efficiency and how to recognize them. Recognition is easy. In the U.S. especially those appliances and other products that have been assessed by government professionals and determined to be energy efficient earn what is called an Energy Star, and that Energy Star is displayed on their packaging and on the product itself.

To find products that have proven themselves worthy of the energy-efficiency Energy Star is not difficult at all. In fact most retailers will carry them and most major manufacturers design them. You can also call a hotline that is toll free to find where they can be purchased near you or visit the U.S. governments Energy Star Web site.

Many people ask about energy-efficiency products ability to keep their home comfortable. In other words, will an energy-efficient air conditioner keep them as cool as those not rated for energy efficiency, and will the Energy Star branded heating system actually keep them warm?

The answer is a resounding yes. In fact, in many cases, they improve the comfort level for you and your family by maintaining a constant temperature.

People often ask if, since energy-efficiency helps others, if there is assistance with the extra up-front expense of installing energy efficient appliances and products. The answer is that yes, there certainly is.

Private financial firms offer loans for Energy Star products that have favorable interest rates and longer terms than those for standard cooling and heating equipment. Again, the Energy Star hotline or site will help find these loan providers. You may find as well that your local utility company just might offer you a rebate when you decide to purchase equipment that offers energy efficiency.

Another common question about energy efficiency is about finding the right contractor to install the equipment. There are several things you can do, which hold true for any contractor you seek.

The first is to ask for references and recommendations of those you trust – friends, family, business acquaintances, and coworkers. Search the business directory of your local newspaper or you local Yellow Pages carrier. Eliminate those that arent licensed, bonded and insured.

Once youve narrowed down your search to a few choices ask for, and check, references. Check with your Better Business Bureau or the consumer protection agency for your state or county to make sure consumers have not lodged complaints against any of the contractors on your short list. As you inquire of each, ask about their experience and expertise in energy efficiency, and then compare price, service, reputation and warranty.

Technorati Tags: efficient, energy, More

Wind power, or wind energy, is a renewable resource; it is from the sun. The advantages of wind power are many, including practical, environmental as well as economic. There are also disadvantages to using windpower, such as the natural variability of wind, the competition for other land uses, and bird deaths.

wind power, or wind energy, is a renewable resource; it is from the sun. The intensity of solar radiation differs across the globe. Some areas receive intense amounts of sunlight, while others receive much less. The result is a temperature gradient; a gradient which is mediated by the flow of air to and from areas of dissimilar temperatures and pressure systems in our atmosphere. Uneven heating of the earth’s atmosphere,

in addition to irregularities on the earth’s surface and the rotation of the earth create wind. Terrain, water bodies, and vegetation then shape flow patterns.

The recent history of wind power in the United States has a similar impetus to that of alternative fuel sources in general – it was an idea borne from the 1970′s Oil Crisis. It does, however, have a more extensive history reaching back into to late 19th century in the colonization of the American West; millions of windmills were erected for irrigation and cattle purposes to facilitate the growing number of farms and ranches. Many soon feel into disrepair as inexpensive energy sources became more widespread and grid power extended its reach into rural areas used small electric wind systems.

Outside of the US, however, wind power has a broader history. In fact, there was evidence that boats were propelled along the Nile as early as 5000BC via wind energy. China used wind for pumping water several millennium ago.

Wind is harnessed to make mechanical power or electricity. The kinetic energy from the wind is converted through various different processes to create mechanical energy that can be used in lieu of fossil fuels. There are two types of modern turbines – horizontal and vertical axis, both of which work similar to one another and as decried above. Between the two types, they come in an array of sizes from small 100 watt units for single homes to much larger or ones (with a blade diameter greater than 50m). These larger turbines can generate 1 MW of electricity.

The most common used today are horizontal axis turbines with three blades (15-30m in diameter) and produce approximately 50-350 kW of electricity. Often wind turbines are grouped together; the arrangement in called a wind farm that provides energy to an electrical grid.

Vertical axis turbines are more efficient in areas with vast amount of lands and moderate wind speeds. Current technology is looking to develop different turbine types for different areas of wind speed given the amount of land available for farms.

The advantages of wind power are many, including practical, environmental as well as economic. Worldwide, the total kinetic energy contained in wind is more than 80 times that of human energy consumption. While only a fraction of this can be used for electricity purposes, the potential-given future technological developments is great.

Environmental advantages include the fact that a renewable source of clean, nonpolluting energy curbs the demand and use of fossil fuels and emit no air pollution of greenhouse gases, In the US, wind plants have offset the emission of than 2.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, and 15 million pounds of other pollutants. Also, wind energy is free: the cost of installation and maintenance has dramatically decreased in recent years and future technology ensures only a continual decrease in the prices. As a result, the lifetime investment is much lower than most fossil-fuel systems.

One of the primary disadvantages to wind power is the natural variability of wind in any given locale. Indeed there are certain areas with extremely high average wind speeds, but in most places, wind exposure is quite variable. Wind energy can only be stored with a battery, otherwise it is not. In the latter case, not all energy demands can be met through the natural timing of winds. For these reasons, it may not be a viable option for some. One other disadvantage is the competition for other – more highly valued and profit generating – land uses.

Economic disadvantages include the fact that the initial investment is often higher than fossil fuel systems. The higher costs is mostly due to the machinery which is involves. Other costs include site preparation and installation. The primary environmental drawbacks to wind power are as follows: Noise pollution via the rotor blades Aesthetic impacts (“visual pollution”), and bird deaths.

It is important to keep in mind that many of these problems have been resolved with increasing technology. Avian mortality, however, is still being studied.

Technorati Tags: advantages, Disadvantages, power, wind

Most people assume that homemade wind generators are very difficult to build. A couple years ago I would have agreed with you. I mean they look very hard to build with those fancy blades spinning atop of their tower. After seeing the price of the commercially available models we quickly decided that no matter what it took we would find a way to have one of those homemade wind generators.

I went online looking for some plans after a friend told me that he had purchased some plans online. It really sucked. I spent $94 on four sets of plans which had me no closer to learning how to build homemade wind generators. So I decided to do it myself. I mean how hard could it be?

I set out collecting all the parts that I needed to construct our homemade wind generator. I bought an Ametek motor from eBay. I got the tower from a friend who had an old TV tower he wasn’t using any more. The blades would be made from a leftover piece of sewer pipe which I got for free from a local construction site. I got the odds and ends that would hold everything together from our local hardware store.

I used the template that my friend gave me to cut out the blades which took about an hour to complete. This included a coat of UV paint to protect them from the damaging effects of the sun. I used a piece of pipe to mount the motor inside to protect it from the rain (wouldn’t want to fry it) and mounted this to a flange. The tail was mounted to the other end of the pipe that the motor was in.

The tail consisted of a piece of steel rod from the hardware store and a piece of plastic I had cut into a triangle. The flange was attached to a 2 inch piece of pipe so that it could rotate. Why 2 inches you ask? Well, TV towers have a nice fitting on the top which fits a 2 inch pipe quite nicely.

In total I spent $194… most of which was spent on the motor. In 16MPH winds our generator produces roughly 1000 watts. It doesn’t get much windier than that here, but in storms I’ve seen it peak at 1400 watts. In total I saved well over $2300 over buying a new wind generator. Homemade wind generators certainly can perform and look like commercial ones, and we can prove it!

Technorati Tags: Building, generators, guide, homemade, wind

The cost to set up a renewable energy source from the sun or wind can be very expensive if you get the installation from a company. You may have to spend more than $3,000 just to draw enough energy from a solar or wind power system. If you are interested in using alternative energy generated from wind power, then making a DIY home residential wind turbine is something worth consideration.

Building the wind turbine by your own may sound complicated, but it is not. In fact, once you understand the basic structure of a home residential wind turbine. You can build the system successfully with minimum cost.

When you start to search for information on internet for a homemade wind turbine, it returns thousands of search results with a lot of them in an amazing variety of designs and complexities. But, if you narrow down all the requirements to build a home residential wind turbine, they consist of five common things:

A generator Blades A tower to get it up into the wind A mounting to keep it turning An electronic control system

If you divide the DIY home residential win turbine project into these 5 little systems and work on them one at a time, you will find that building a wind turbine is not that complicated as you think initially.

If it is your first effort to build a home residential wind turbine, then building a generator from scratch can be a bit too complicated. A better option would be using surplus permanent magnet DC motors as generator in your project. Try searching for a suitable DC motor at your local store or you should be able to find one at online store like eBay. I would recommend the 99 volt DC motor made by Ametek, among the best motor I have found and it works great as a generator. However, other brands can also meet the purpose as long as you look for a motor that is rated as high DC voltage, low RPMs and high current. The key reason of finding this type of DC motor is that you want to set a generator to generate 12 volts at a fairly low rpm with a useful level of current. For example, a motor that is rated with 325 rpm at 30 volts when using as a generator, could expect to generate 12 volts at fairly low RPMs. Whereas, if you use a motor rated at 7200 rpm at 24 volts, it won’t be able to produce the required 12v output until it is spinning a few thousands of RPMs. Therefore, you should be careful when shopping for a right DC motor to be used as a generator in your wind turbine project.

Next, for the blades, you have option to make it from wood or PVC pipes. It is not difficult to make the blades, many DIY Wind Turbine guides do involve step-by-step guide on how to build them easily. Once you have gotten started on motor and blades, then getting the rest of little systems up to running are not difficult. Find a DIY wind turbine guide to help you in building the system can save your time by avoiding the common mistakes and ensure the project can be completed within the budget.

Summary

DIY a home residential wind turbine is not as complicated as it sounds. You can build it successfully to generate electric from wind to power your home.

Technorati Tags: build, Home, residential, turbine, wind

Home Wind Power: No More Energy Bills to Pay! Read on to Learn More

Over the past years, most people never considered wind power as a serious source of generating energy and electricity, that too, for domestic purposes. In fact, wind was perceived as just another natural phenomenon with very limited usage in life. People generally reveled when the weather was pleasant, and tried to protect themselves when storms or blizzards attacked an area.

However, the situation grew more serious over time, as the oil crisis hit the world. The prices of oil rose rapidly, and the need for an alternative, less expensive source of energy was felt acutely. Such an energy source would indeed be required pretty soon. Now, wind power fitted the bill perfectly. In addition, the supply of wind power was plentiful as well. Thus, many experts tried to combine automobile alternators to radiator cooling fans. This was expected to produce 12 volts of DC current, and was quickly stored away on automotive storage 12 volt batteries. However stretching whatever little power that was produced to 120 volts of AC current, proved to be an unpractical task for most people. And thus, these trials on wind energy harnessing came to an end.

Business houses however, remained extremely active during this period. By the latter parts of 2007, wind power driven devices, like mini generators and turbines arrived in the markets, in large quantities too. Provided that enough quantities of wind power were available, these devices, coupled with utility grids, could substantially bring down the costs incurred on electricity by people. Experts decided to experiment a bit more with these equipments, in keeping with their mental make-ups. The wind turbines were used to try to generate electricity for one’s home requirements. The potential benefits of such an experiment were huge.

It was not that all these attempts met with immediate success. Many people found the continuous roaring sound emitted by the wind turbines to be eminently disagreeable. Hence, they complained of mechanical nuisance to the local authorities, against their neighbors, demanding the turbines to be stopped. In such cases, the authorities were in fact bound to put a stop on the working of any win d turbine. The wind power generated by the turbines lacked in reliability as well. Often, the power could not even spin the turbine blades. The impact of these failed experiments was profound. People were saddled with debt, and attempted to resell their electrical equipments, including the turbines, related accessories, and the inverters that were meant to generate 12 volt usable AC current from the obtained DC power. However, not many were interested in buying these products then.

However, it was not all a story of failure and gloom. Several valuable lessons could be gleaned from these failed attempts to harness wind power. Some of these lessons were:

a) Never use wind turbines in congested city areas. The high rises and sky scrapers hamper the smooth flow of wind at these places.

b) Do not try to tap wind energy by using turbines in the urban regions. The noises affect the ecological balance of the area.

c) For best results, combine a solar electricity generator with the home wind power turbines. The former can work smoothly during daytime. As night arrives, the blades of the wind turbine can start to rotate

d) Erect home wind turbines at areas of high elevation and/or at remote places. The former would get smooth, unhampered flow of wind at such places.

e) Opt for home wind turbines if you cannot access utility power, and

f) Note the similarities between a small home wind turbine and a large scale energy firms. The structure, and hence, the complexities of the two are thus the same too, albeit in different degrees. The different components of the home turbines and larger wind energy firms, including the batteries (for smooth flow of power), the torque controller, the inverter (for conversion of DC output to 120 volt AC current) were all the same too.

Thus, you can learn from these lessons and set up your wind power system – all you need to do is refer to an instruction manual. The manual would help you know how to install the system, the ideal place to do so, as well as how to acquire different parts at an affordable price. Free availability of the batteries is also discussed in the manual. The wires of the wind power system, and the safety features related therein should also be given due importance in such a manual. So go ahead and read such a manual and get ready to benefit from wind power. This information would considerably ease the process of installation of the system and using it to your advantage.