Personal Wind Power 101 by Brian Bradley
If you're thinking about joining the green revolution utilizing wind power to power your house you're not alone. These days many people who several years ago wouldn't have dreamed of going "off the grid" are considering the option.
Getting started is cinch if you buy a prefabricated wind turbine one that is pre made.
To totally power your house you are looking at an investment of anywhere from $5000 to $20,000. Assuming you have average electricity usage this investment pays for itself within about 10 to 15 years.
That might not be to bad but if you want a better return your the handy type you should consider building a wind power generator yourself.
If you build carefully you will see that you can produce the same results as the pre made wind turbine for an investment as low as $200.
The following materials are need to successfully make a wind turbine to power your house:
* 1 DC Power Motor
* Sheets of metal to assemble the body tail
* ABS or PVC pipe for turbine blades
* Hub to connect your blades to the motor
* Tower to hold up your blades
* Deep Cycle Battery energy storage
* A charge controlled to prevent battery overload
* A dump load to absorb excess power
* An AC Inverter to power you AC appliances
* Hardware to connect the pieces together
* Tools socket set screwdrivers a grinder a jigsaw sandpaper
Youll see that building your own wind turbine isnt as easy as putting together your own solar panel. Youll notice that this is due to the fact that the wind turbine is more mechanically complex.
Though youre putting in more work youll find that a wind turbine produces far more power than a solar panel. The power generation is about 300 to 500 watts from your own windmill if everything is assembled correctly. With that kind of power generation those electricity bills wont be high for long.
Before you start any of this be sure that your home is in an area where there is sufficient wind to justify a wind turbine. For best results the wind should be about 10mph. If your house is near the ocean in a mountainous region or on open plains youll have plenty of wind. If you are in an area with lots of trees at low elevation you may find less success.
If it the case that your home isnt ideal for the use of a wind turbine consider solar panels the next best option
Brian Bradley is the Associate Editor of DIY Clean Energy the web's top guide on personal wind power diycleanenergy. com personal wind power how to build wind power diycleanenergy. com . He writes about his own experiences going green removing himself form grid. Personal Wind Power 101
