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Home Wind Power: Harnessing the Wind

By June Campbell

Increasing numbers of people are turning to alternative energy as a solution to the dwindling reserves of fossil fuels. Many are turning to home wind power.

Wind turbines for homes and outbuildings are becoming a familiar sight. Elegantly rotating wind generators are no longer an oddity, thanks in part to the availability of tax incentives and government grants that do much to sweeten the pot.

There are a number of important issues to understand when considering a windmill or wind turbine for home use.

How Does a Wind Power Generator Work?

Home wind power generators or wind turbines are no different than the windmills you are accustomed to seeing in pictures. They utilize a set of blades to transform the wind’s power into a circular or rotary motion.

In turn, a generator changes this rotary motion into electricity. In the case of wind turbines for home use, the generator is a simple machine. Essentially, it is a motor operating in reverse.

Although there are various styles of home generators, the majority are of the type known as the horizontal axis.

Can I Use a Home Wind Turbine for my Home?

The answer to this question is, “Maybe.”

Not every home’s location lends itself to a home wind turbine. Many mistakenly believe that the average wind speed in a building’s site is the deciding factor when assessing whether or not a home wind generator is appropriate. However, this is not the most important thing to take into account.

Instead, the key issue to consider is the minimum wind speed, not the average wind speed. When winds fall below a certain wind speed, they can no longer move with enough force to generate electricity.

Another consideration is the extent to which you hope to power your home with wind energy. Only seldom does any home meet all of its needs for electricity from a wind turbine. This is true even in cases where excess electricity is produced and stored in a separate system with a battery backup.

Initial Costs and Maintenance Costs of the Wind Turbine

For a commercial wind generator system for your home, you may anticipate an outlay of a few thousand dollars. This is considerably less than you would have paid in the year 2000. The costs have dropped considerably.

Even though the costs are much less than they were at the turn of the century, a few thousand dollars is still more than many people will pay. Instead, increasing numbers of individuals and families are turning to their own “DIY” solution.

To build your own wind turbine generator, you will need some tools, some PVC pipes and some additional parts. If you use second hand parts, you should be able to produce your own working turbine for a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand dollars.

Wind turbines are said to be dependable sources of energy. Maintenance is usually minimal. From time to time, a blade could break or tear away from the system. This is a simple situation to rectify, however. For the most part, your DIY wind turbine should last approximately twenty years before you need a new system.

Offset the Costs by Selling Electricity Back To the Grid

As is the case with solar panels, magnetic motion motors or any other type of alternate energy, you can often sell any excess that you make back to the grid.

This makes your investment more cost effective, as you are now generating income from your home wind turbine as well as reducing your monthly electrical bill.

For information about a DIY wind turbine design, please refer to Green Power Easy.

I think that either solar or wind power at home is a great idea, and ought to be incorporated into all new homes. Adding this when a home is built is far less intrusive and can be done far more easily than after the event.

If power companies then were more pro-active about selling power back to them, and giving rebates for the power you sold, we could cut back on emissions somewhat and reduce our reliance on the power companies to generate our power.

Just think, that after a storm, when the power lines come down in your area and the electricity is out, your neighbors will either be in the dark or using a noisy gas guzzling generator, whereas you could be sitting there running as normal with your wind turbine spinning away.

There are many advantages to generating your own power, that's for sure. I'd really like to see more new homes and multi dwelling units be built with a LEEDs rating and relying on alternate energies. Thanks for your comment.

I can see it happening in the US, but I think here in the UK there would be so many restrictions it would be almost impossible to get planning permission from the authorities for them.

It'll be different from country to country depending on governmental policies. However, governments in democratic countries ultimately bow to what the voters want. It may be kicking and screaming, but their first interest is always to be re-elected. Thanks for your comment.

I agree with you, the UK has a lot of restrictions, but the government is planning to create a lot fo wind powered farms on a large scale, so why not on a residential scale too?

There is a set of flats in Hackbridge (Surrey) that have wind turbines on the roof. The building looks a bit odd, rather like "Smurfs" on the roof, because of the shape of the turbines, but if a cheap residential solution could be created, that would provide work for installers, plus it would save resources. I don't see how that could be a bad thing. Well, unless your neighbour had a noisy fan that kept you awake at night...

Poddys Jan 26, 2010 07:39

Great intel, June.
We in the United States are surounded by regulation and local zoning laws. Each State is different and each town within each State is different. We need a Federal Law to establish at least the basic guide lines for working with the power grids.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Yes,you are so right, Frederick. It needs governmental will. Canada too needs some changes. But as I say, people elect governments .... Thanks for commenting.

A number of power companies in the USA already allow generators to be plugged into the main supply, and for residents to sell excess power back to the grid. Florida Power And Light (FPL) is one, but I suspect that many states are way behind on this.

It would be good though in the long term, expecially since it is becoming feasible for homes to generate at least some of their electrical requirement.

Poddys Jan 26, 2010 09:08

Great intel. I could definitely use a home wind turbine, as (a) power outages are common where I live, and (b) this area seems to be some kind of storm vortex. But even the cheapest turbine might end up costing more than my house.

Guess you need the do-it-yourself kit! LOl Thanks for posting.

June A Yasol Jan 26, 2010 21:19

When we lived in Billings, Montana one of the fathers of one of the kids on my son's hockey team used to tell visitors who were just passing through that when it got a little hot they would just turn those big fans on just west of town. I see you have a picture of some of those "big fans". I think some of them actually believed him. Good article.

Oh, that's too funny! Thanks for sharing your anecdote.

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