Wind Energy Voice

If you’re thinking about the possibility of wind generators for home use, you need to make sure you properly assess your situation. Residential wind power generation isn’t something you should just jump into without fully knowing what it is you’re buying, and without deciding exactly what it is you need for your specific situation. With a little bit of research and common sense, you will be able to determine whether or not residential wind generation would be a suitable option for you, and if it is, then which type of wind turbines would be your best fit.

3 Things To Think About When Considering Wind Generators For Home Use:

How Much Will It Cost? An obvious factor you’ll need to think about is exactly what expense will be involved with owning and operating a wind turbine. Are you going to buy a fully manufactured wind turbine or build your own? Obviously, the latter will be cheaper, but don’t underestimate the cost involved. Take into account any installation fees you’ll need and ongoing maintenance to the turbine. Although using wind generators in home use are a sure way to save a lot of money over the long term, there can be a significant initial cost to get started. Take into account all possible expenses and there won’t be any nasty surprises. Luckily, many companies that sell residential wind turbines offer special payment plans to make the purchase much more affordable.

Do You Have The Right Location? Where is it you intend to install your wind turbine? Do you have a suitable position near your house? Would it be possible to install the turbine on top of your home? Proper wind generator placement is something you obviously want to pay significant attention to when planning to harness wind power, and will have to take into account before making any final decisions. The biggest concern is turbulence. Wind turbines need to be high enough off the ground in order to minimize the turbulence created by the surroundings (ie. the home, trees, other permanent structures) and therefore maximize wind speeds.

What Size do You Need? Another consideration you’ll want to take into account is the actual size of wind turbine you use. Depending on how much power you require, the size will obviously vary. Do you require a small or large turbine? Or do you need more than one? Again, take this into account before making any major decisions.

As you may have noticed, all these factors actually combine with each other to determine your choice of wind turbine. The size of wind turbine you require will depend on how much power you need and what location you have available, and ultimately everything will have to fit in your budget. Wind generators in home use are definitely growing in popularity, and for good reason. Just don’t rush your decision. By doing a little bit of research, you’ll ensure you get a wind turbine that is perfect for your needs and one you’ll be happy with.

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Wind energy generated thru ‘wind generators for home use’ is a brilliant source of clean renewable energy. Owners all over the world are discovering the advantages and savings of this much overlooked power source.

As more folk look to alternative power sources, windmills for use at home are increasingly becoming popular methods of manufacturing energy for home use. These simple home generators are straightforward to build and can help reduce your dependence on the power company.

wind power has long been employed in many alternative civilizations, but only recently has home wind power come into prominence. Harnessing the wind to produce electrical power has never been more straightforward and more obtainable.

Any house owner now has the capacity to build a wind powered generator. Straightforward windmills for home use can be built in most situations for only $100. Building a home made wind mill requires no special tools or equipment.

Most all householders already own all the tools required. The materials required for construction are readily available. Anyone with average mechanical skills can build an effective wind turbine. During the past windmills were looked on as a tool for pumping water in rural areas. Modern windmills for use at home are in truth mini power plants used to produce electricity.

House owners all around the world are discovering the advantages of manufacturing clean, clean energy. Inexpensive renewable energy from the wind is now within the reach of every home-owner. Regardless of where you live, a home made wind mill can be of benefit in reducing your electrical costs.

For less than $100 in most situations, who would not benefit from an energy manufacturing system that may seriously lower energy bills? Building a productive home wind turbine is not hard at all, but it is critical to have a real blueprint to follow.

Efficiency and sturdiness are imperative to any windmill project. With the right information, your home wind generator will help to reduce energy costs and may actually lead to living completely “off the grid”.

Get more information about having and building your own wind generator for home use.

wind generators for home use

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Residential wind generators are not for everyone.  But I believe a great potential exists for much of rural America. This article will explore a different concept on wind farm potential, home wind power generators, and ownership of a portion of your energy needs. Great strides have been made in industrial wind farm construction and integration; the potential at the industrial level is being thoroughly analyzed. It’s the cheapest alternative energy solution we have to date. Even so, there are some disadvantages to industrial wind farms. <o1> <1i>They take years to build.</1i> <1i>They take up acres of ground that likely had other economic uses.</1i> <1i>They require new grid infrastructure for power distribution.</1i> <1i>They tie into a grid that is 100 years old in many locations, the longer the transmission distances the greater the energy losses.</1i> <1i>They cost millions to build and in most cases are Power Company owned.</1i> <1i>The average person has little control.</1i> <o1> Now lets examine the aspects of a different concept in wind power generators. Strides have also been made in residential wind generators. There is a full range available. You can buy a home wind power generator that will power the whole house if you have the capital and right location. If you want to build a home wind power generator, there are also options to choose from. Wind power generators can cost thousands of dollars, or you can find a home wind power generator for sale for as little as five hundred. Wind power generators in America need to be viewed from all angles and economic levels. What we feel is most significant is that the average person in the right location can start generating a portion of their energy needs. An entry point cost of five hundred dollars for residential wind generators, with state and federal incentives that can be as high as 30%, is very appealing. You can’t generate a lot of power with a five hundred-dollar investment, but it’s a good starting point. The more people participating with residential wind generators, the faster the technology will advance and the greater the impact will be. Lets look at some of the advantages of home wind power generators and the ways they can be used. <o1> <1i>They can be installed and producing power in a day, not years.</1i> <1i>They can be mounted on existing structures. Rural America has thousands upon thousands of agricultural structures in the form of silos, windmill towers and grain elevators that could be retrofit with a variety of home wind power generators.</1i> <1i>The existing power grid is capable of handling the power without modification.</1i> <1i>Because the power is generated at its point of use there is no transmission loss.</1i> <1i>An easy cost entry point allows the average person to participate.</1i> <1i>You own it the equity is yours.</1i> <1i>You now have control over a portion over a portion of your energy needs.</1i> <o1> Al Gore used the Global Warming tipping point as a tool to educate and motivate the world to take action on carbon emissions. His strategy was effective to a point, but much controversy remains about Global Warming with many skeptics. There’s another tipping point that can’t be ignored. It doesn’t matter if you’re a skeptic or not. If your energy cost rise 20% a year you will become motivated. When gas hits $4.00 a gallon we will demand better energy solutions. This is our first article on residential wind generators. In the coming months we will document the number of agricultural structures in one rural county of Illinois that could be utilized for residential wind generators. That county happens to be Carroll, which may be the new home of the Guantanamo Bay Detainees. Our location is four miles from the Thomson Prison. If you want to know what’s happening in American wind power, please visit http://awea.org/, They can help you decide if a home wind power generator is right for you. Residential wind generators must comply with all local zoning laws.

Residential wind generators are not for everyone.  But I believe a great potential exists for much of rural America. This article will explore a different concept on wind farm potential, home wind power generators, and ownership of a portion of your energy needs.

Great strides have been made in industrial wind farm construction and integration; the potential at the industrial level is being thoroughly analyzed. It’s the cheapest alternative energy solution we have to date.

Even so, there are some disadvantages to industrial wind farms.

<o1>

<1i>They take years to build.</1i>

<1i>They take up acres of ground that likely had other economic uses.</1i>

<1i>They require new grid infrastructure for power distribution.</1i>

<1i>They tie into a grid that is 100 years old in many locations, the longer the transmission distances the greater the energy losses.</1i>

<1i>They cost millions to build and in most cases are Power Company owned.</1i>

<1i>The average person has little control.</1i>

<o1>

Now lets examine the aspects of a different concept in wind power generators.

Strides have also been made in residential wind generators. There is a full range available. You can buy a home wind power generator that will power the whole house if you have the capital and right location.

If you want to build a home wind power generator, there are also options to choose from.

Wind power generators can cost thousands of dollars, or you can find a home wind power generator for sale for as little as five hundred.

Wind power generators in America need to be viewed from all angles and economic levels.

What we feel is most significant is that the average person in the right location can start generating a portion of their energy needs. An entry point cost of five hundred dollars for residential wind generators, with state and federal incentives that can be as high as 30%, is very appealing.

You can’t generate a lot of power with a five hundred-dollar investment, but it’s a good starting point. The more people participating with residential wind generators, the faster the technology will advance and the greater the impact will be.

Lets look at some of the advantages of home wind power generators and the ways they can be used.

<o1>

<1i>They can be installed and producing power in a day, not years.</1i>

<1i>They can be mounted on existing structures. Rural America has thousands upon thousands of agricultural structures in the form of silos, windmill towers and grain elevators that could be retrofit with a variety of home wind power generators.</1i>

<1i>The existing power grid is capable of handling the power without modification.</1i>

<1i>Because the power is generated at its point of use there is no transmission loss.</1i>

<1i>An easy cost entry point allows the average person to participate.</1i>

<1i>You own it the equity is yours.</1i>

<1i>You now have control over a portion over a portion of your energy needs.</1i>

<o1>

Al Gore used the Global Warming tipping point as a tool to educate and motivate the world to take action on carbon emissions. His strategy was effective to a point, but much controversy remains about Global Warming with many skeptics.

There’s another tipping point that can’t be ignored. It doesn’t matter if you’re a skeptic or not. If your energy cost rise 20% a year you will become motivated. When gas hits $4.00 a gallon we will demand better energy solutions.

This is our first article on residential wind generators. In the coming months we will document the number of agricultural structures in one rural county of Illinois that could be utilized for residential wind generators.

That county happens to be Carroll, which may be the new home of the Guantanamo Bay Detainees. Our location is four miles from the Thomson Prison.

If you want to know what’s happening in American wind power, please visit http://awea.org/, They can help you decide if a home wind power generator is right for you. Residential wind generators must comply with all local zoning laws.

Technorati Tags: generators, People, power, residential, wind

Have you thought of building a windmill generator to reduce your electricity bill and supplement electricity to your home? We all know commercial windmills generators are quite expensive and they’re normally sold for $3000 or even more…

There are many things to consider even before you start to look around that will help you to decide which ones are suitable for your needs and also whether you should even install one. This article sheds some light on how to go about choosing a wind power system.

Even a homemade windmill generator can produce enough energy to power up your entire house, so instead of paying thousands on a commercial one you can spend a single weekend to create your own windmill generator. After all a windmill once built doesn’t require any more maintenance and still produce energy for years to come. (Its life usually ranges from 20 – 40 years).

The turbine is the heart of a windmill one of the most important components of the whole system so you need to choose one from a reputable manufacturer together with good track record and warranty. Most turbines offer a 5 year warranty which is decent enough. It is not easy to find one but it is well worth the effort if you do not want to have the painful experience of replacing your windmill every now and then and ending up spending more money than you can possibly save.

There are several guides online that can teach you exactly how to build your own windmill generator. You’ll need to choose a solid guide that contains step-by-step diagrams that are easy to understand even for a DIY novice, otherwise your whole project might fail.

Technorati Tags: generators, homemade, windmill

In this day and age, we provided that all be seem to be for ways to go red and preserve how is left of our precious earth. In an attempt to create a higher livlihood for ourselves or our loved sites a large amount of are looking at the good things of a wind generator. More to the rank multi may want to can make out how to craft one. That is how we are going out to discuss, real estate constructed wind generators.

There are a few items the current you may fancy in order to compose your own wind generator. A shop amongst simple electricity and hand weapons and dedication are the 3 basic components that you are ready to need to below take this project. You want to knew how size of a wind generator you are believing of making. Anything 2000 Watts and above motivate strong constructing additonally the dwindled sites something like 1000 Watts and 8 to 11 feet tall can be put up of car aspects and be executed in a week. Baby steps are the recommendation here; form a less one and then move on to a perfect one.

You will need to be able to weld steel and suffer entrance to a metal lathe. If you do not suffer these two abilities you can employ a machine shop. The size of your wind generator additionally depends on the wind. Unfortunately most residential spaces do not lend themselves adequate wind to require a wind generator practical.

Trees and structures break wind force and engender gusts this can actually be exceptionally destructive to how it is you are trying to accomplish. If you are able to set up in an open space, hilltops are ideal, but not all of us make a home on a hill, at that time setting up amid a tall tower can boost put up the wind generator a greater number of practical. Be mindful of what a wind generator performs to your neighbors.

Wind generators strive with thin air, so this moment spells the present the generator needs to be significant in comparison to the power you seek it to produce. If you reside in a prime spot as far as setting up the wind generator, a new real estate requires blades that are 5 meters of tip to tip. If you are basically fuel conserving aware at that time you may be able to create a moderated generator. A comparison to mull over is that wind generators in on blades that are 2 meters are able to a good amount of anticipated produce 500kWh of electricity every year and an conventional house consumes roughly 4500 kWh per year.

With which making said, you desire to suppose out the way of wind too prevails in your area. You can figure presently out by appearing at the trees, if properties lean and own branches mostly on one half might let you know that course the wind comes from. The point of the wind generator is furthermore important. It needs to be 30 feet above any obstruction who is over 400 feet. Be ware of the turbulence if the is not possible. Distance is an additional element to consider. The farther away your wind generator the more and more gas you loose. Use a 24v or 48v battery bank to save you finances and increase in value your power.

You can seek an anemometer to issue true wind speed, a generator, rotor, furling and shut diminished system, regulation system, slip rings and do your homework. Make absolute you was reading all this you can on property put up wind generators and building wind generators.

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Silent Wind Turbine . The Vertical Axis Wind-Power Turbine ( VAWT ) is a new product designed . We started the research on VAWT 15 years ago. Now many of the famous experts the world wide have accepted such new technology and this technology will definitely lead the development of the small and middle size wind-power turbines. Following are the detail features of such VAWT: Safe in operation: Due to the usage of the vertical blade and the force support is of triangle form, the wind force will mainly press on the wheel. So the blades will not be able to fall down, to be broken or to be thrown far away. Noise: The way of the turning of the blades is of horizontal and the design of the blade is of the scheme of the wing of the air-plane, so in operation the VAWT will not make any noise. Capacity of wind resistance: Due to the advantage of the design of the VAWT, the press force the turbine suffered is minimized and as the result such VAWT can stand on the extra strong typhoon of 45 m/s. Space requirement: It needs much smaller working space than other kinds of wind-power turbines. Thus not only saves the space, but also aises the working efficiency. Power curve: It needs lower wind speed for its starting and the increasing of the power is slow and stable. So its production capacity is 10-30% higher than other kindwind powernes. Scope of the wind power needed: Due to the adoption of the new control system, this VAWT is suitable to be used in the wind speed scope from 2.0 25 m …

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Nowadays, many people are converting to renewable energy resources in order to alleviate the dependency on the nearly depleting fuel sources. Several innovative solutions have been developed by researchers in order to provide alternative ways on how to utilize these free sources of energy. One of the most efficient techniques is the use of wind turbines to capture the kinetic energy produced by the wind and convert this to highly usable electric energy. These wind generators are widely used today as an alternative source for home energy use. Since wind energy is safe and convenient to use, environmentally aware organizations highly recommended these installations on homes.

For years, people have been discouraged to use these excellent sources of energy on their homes because of the high cost and maintenance of the energy-producing devices. However, due to the advancement of technology in the use of wind energy, the cost of having this device on your home is truly a wise investment. You can easily find several prototypes of wind generators on the market that are affordable and easy to use. If you have enough funds to build one for your home, this would definitely worth a try.

There are alternative ways you can do in order to take advantage of the free and cost effective energy solutions on the environment. You can build a cheap wind generator of your own with the use of low cost construction materials. If you have difficulty on starting the project, you can try to look for instructional materials from the Internet. Several guides found on the Internet can be used as reference in minimizing the cost of building your own wind generator device. The number of references you can use for your project may confuse you. However, you may want to select only those that have been provided by reliable companies as well as those that offers money back guarantee. These may not be the cheapest deals but may ensure you that the instructions you will follow are accurate.

Once you have properly chosen the guide, the preparation for the installation is to be considered. You may not have to worry about the materials since most of them are available on your local hardware store. To make sure that your wind generator would be effective in generating energy for your home, following the indicated instructions is critical. Most of these are comprehensive enough for anyone to use.

The most crucial parts of the construction procedures involve the setup for the blades and tower. Although it can be easily done with the building procedures on the guide, you can have the option to order a pre-made part from manufacturing companies. Even though it may cost you some amount, the quality it can provide is worth the price. This is also advisable for technical novices who also want to have their own wind generator device.

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Have you ever heard about the cheap personal wind power for residential use? If not yet, don’t worry; here I will discuss some easy steps before you so that you can make your own personal wind power generators and that too within a mere $200. Millions of people are saving huge money per month on their electricity bills by installing their own cheap personal wind power generators for residential use and are producing electricity up to 80 percent of their electricity requirement.

If you are one of the person who live near sea shore or an area where wind flow is above five to seven miles per hour, you are one among the lucky people who can utilize the wind energy for making electricity by the use of personal wind power generators, which can be used for running your electrical or electronic home appliances. Although personal wind power generators are available in the market, however the cost of these readymade equipments is few thousand dollars. This is not beneficial and you need to search the alternate resources so that you can make cheap personal wind power generators.

You can fabricate and assemble your own cheap personal wind power generators by using a do it yourself guide available at Internet. This guide provides you all the instructions in details including the raw materials required for making your cheap personal wind power generator and the cost of the raw material. So, search a suitable guide at Internet and make your own cheap personal wind power generators within $200 and start saving money on electricity bills from right now.

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Uses of self made power
Wind Power Generators and solar technology offers a way to produce an endless fountain of electricity for the home or for any other uses around the house like to power a work shop area or perhaps to run pool equipment, or saunas, whirlpools, central heat and air, washers and dryers, hot water heaters. Athough units can be built to supply entire homes with electricity the home owner can be very versatile with design in size, capacities, and whether they would like the electricity to just operate certain pieces of home equipment and appliances or if they would prefer to have enough of a supply to run the entire home.

Use conventional electricity to run smaller appliances:
You may just want to build a system that would supply electricity to all of the units in your home that run on 220 and stay hooked up to the grid and use smaller amounts of electrical power from the electric company to run things like televisions, toasters, refridgerators, lights etc. Just this would still probably easily cut a power bill in half.  Lots of people are hopping aboard as they find out how wind power generators and  solar kits can be very valuable home improvement additions. Many come to realize that not only could it save them large amounts  of money in one respect  but also that the added benefits of increased property value made it a worth while improvement as well as being eco-logically beneficial too!

Clean energy resource
Not only is wind power generators up and coming for their versatility, cost effectiveness, and ease of installation but they address the present global warming issues (environmental) in a very big way, that being that the technology uses the wind and the sun which are both excellent renewable energy resources that dosen’t harm the environment in any way. The mining of Fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, are all non-renewable sources of energy and are not only being drastically depleted but are heavily dependent upon in our society to produce electricity by being burnt which harms our atmosphere with the by product that is let over.

For those who don’t understand how the wind power generator and solar system works, a wind turbine or windmill is constructed which harnesses the wind and turns a generator, mounted in the prop area of the windmill, a car generator, which produces electricity that travels through a stator that in turn runs down through wires that take it to various other pieces of equipment that is incorporated in the system to register and transform the energy both coming in and going out to be stored and or be used in desired increments of various watts or volts. The solar part of the system comes into play moreso when the wind dies down and their isn’t sufficient wind to turn the propeller. The solar panels, which are strategically placed, catch the sunlight through special cells and store energy (electricity) that way.

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Wind power is an excellent weapon for fighting climate change because wind generation produces no carbon emissions at all. When you consider that every unit of energy generated by wind, is a unit of energy free of carbon pollution, wind makes sense. Producing just 10 per cent of electricity from renewables could cut carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes a year.

Small wind-electric systems can provide electricity to remote sites, or to houses that are also connected to the utility grid. But the prices! A small turbine can cost $US 2,000! A medium turbine $3,000! A large one can cost $8,500 – and that’s without the rest of the equipment you will need, and installation costs! Although wind systems require some attention, if you build a strong system, following a proven design, wind-electric systems make great economic and environmental sense.

How much FREE electricity will I get? There seems to be a myth that wind power produces little power. Strange, when a 1.8-megawatt turbine produces enough power for 1,000 homes.

More realistically for the DIY wind turbine maker, a small wind turbine, with a rotor diameter of 7 feet (2.1 m), and a swept area of 38.5 square feet (3.6 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 80 KWH! This is enough power for a low-energy home, yacht, or business. A medium sized wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 10 feet (3 m) and a swept area of 79 square feet (7.3 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 130 KWH! This would be suitable for a medium-energy home, business, or school. A large wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 12.5 feet (3.8 m), and a swept area of 120 square feet (11.2 m2), will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 230 KWH! This is for big energy consumers. A huge wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 56 feet (17 m), and a swept area of 2,462 square feet (229 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 5,060 KWH! These power large farms, very high-energy businesses, villages, islands, and massive heating projects.

Smaller turbines can be built for boats, caravans, cabins, or where only a small amount of electricity is needed. But for significant amounts of energy, you need a large enough rotor, as this is the wind turbine’s ‘energy collector’. When sizing a wind-electric system, you don’t add windmills in as you need them, as you can with solar panels. Because wind is more cost effective as you increase in system size, most people put up only one wind turbine, big enough to significantly slash their electric bills, or to fulfill all of their energy requirements for the foreseeable future.

System Components: The turbine is only one component of a wind-electric system, and very often is not even the most expensive component. You need all of the necessary components to have a functional system. Plan ahead to buy quality components properly matched to each other and to your energy use.

A complete wind-electric system includes: • Turbine—blades + hub = “rotor,” which is the “collector” of the system. • Tower—supports the turbine, getting it up out of the turbulent zone created by trees and buildings, and exposes the turbine to more wind • Wiring and conduit—carries the electricity down the tower and to power-conditioning equipment • Controller/Electronics—controls charging of battery or input to inverter • Batteries—used for storage in off-grid systems or grid-tied systems with battery backup • Inverter—converts direct current (DC) electricity from batteries or rectifier to alternating current (AC) for home use or “storage” on the utility grid • Metering—allows user to understand and manage system operation.
Small wind turbine: needs a controller or inverter, and is suitable for battery less grid-tie or 12, 24, 48 VDC battery charging
Medium sized: needs a controller or inverter, and is used for charging 12, 24, 48 VDC batteries Large: needs controller, dump load, and inverter. Suitable for battery less grid-tie or charging 48 VDC battery.
Huge: suitable for battery less grid-tie

How does a wind turbine actually produce electricity? The rotating blades convert the wind’s kinetic energy into rotation in a shaft. The rotating shaft turns an alternator, which makes electricity. The electricity is transmitted through wiring, down the tower, to batteries, or an inverter. The blades are designed to intercept wind and capture its energy. Most modern wind generators have three blades, to compromise between the highest efficiency possible (one blade) and balance (multiple blades). The blades must turn to face the wind, so a yaw bearing allows the wind turbine to track the winds as they shift direction. A tail directs the rotor into the wind. In small-scale designs, the rotor is connected directly to the shaft of a permanent magnet alternator, which creates Alternating Current. This wild, three-phase electricity means that the voltage and frequency vary continuously with the wind speed. The AC output is used to either charge batteries or feed a grid-synchronous inverter, which turns it to steady, usable Direct Current. In small designs, the rotor is connected to the alternator, eliminating the need for gears. In larger systems, a gearbox is used to increase alternator speed from a slower turning rotor. A governing system limits the rotor rpm and generator output to protect the turbine from high winds. A shutdown mechanism is also useful to stop the machine during an extreme storm, or when you want to service the system. Understanding the Ratings Wind turbine rating is difficult because rated output is pegged to a particular wind speed, and different manufacturers compare different wind speeds to better promote their particular model. To understand the real power of wind, cube its speed. For example, 10 kph of wind, gives 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 watts. Or, a 10% increase in speed gives a 33% increase in power. This means that very small increases in wind speed create huge increases in power. This also means that a turbine that produces 1,000 watts at a wind speed of 28 mph, might produce only 125 watts at a wind speed of 14 mph – so half the wind produces 1/8 of the power. So ignore the rated peak output of a turbine, and look for the monthly (or annual) energy production you require (from your energy audit), estimated for the average wind speed at your site. After all, long-term energy is what you’re after, not peak output! If, for example, you know your home has 10 mph winds, and you need 400 KWH per month, you know what turbine to build. Knowing a turbine’s swept area may also help you calculate the annual energy output for the wind turbine. Jim Green at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) developed a formula: annual energy output (AEO) in KWH = 0.01328 x rotor diameter (ft.) squared x average wind speed (mph) cubed. Easy!

Getting Started: Consider: Is it your aim to slash your bills, or to be completely independent? Are you going to be stand-alone, or will you still be connected to (and adding into/taking from) the grid? If you’re staying connected to the grid, will your local power company pay you for the electricity you generate?

First you need an energy audit of your home. Go to www.njcleanenergy.com for an accurate home energy audit, and great ideas on saving electricity and money. Sit down with your family, work out how many kilowatt-hours you all use, and find out where the waste is. But be realistic, reasonable, and think laterally. Just because you are now horrified at how much electricity your plasma TV uses, doesn’t mean the kids are never allowed to watch it. You may consider a smaller, more efficient TV for weekly use, and save the plasma for the weekend family movie.

Next, work out your location’s average wind speed, at a website like www.awea.org for the USA. When you know how much energy you need, and how much your wind will provide, you will be able to see the size of turbine you will need.

Now that you have a good idea of what you’re after, check out the DIY Wind Power Kits at EarthEnergyPlus.Com These kits have been selected with the DIY novice in mind, and include all the information you will need to build your own electricity-producing wind powerDetailed lists of the tools, parts, and where to get them. Video instructions you can play over and over. Great back-up from dedicated designers! Build your own wind power system this weekend, then sit back and watch your home-built wind generator turn a summer breeze into FREE electricity!

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