Wind Turbines

Wind Turbines are fast becoming more and more popular in both the commercial and private sectors resulting in better designs and more efficient turbines.

The improvement in wind turbine design has now made it possible for the handy person to make their own Residential Windmill, and not just for the home, they can be made for RV's and even Boats similar to the one seen to the right.

The design of Wind Turbines have tended to evolve into a three blade propeller and has generally been adopted by the majority of DIY Wind Turbine Kits. However, there are several suppliers who prefer 5 blades in a residential setting and this has proven to be very successful by being more efficient, quieter and even attractive for the neighbours as well as yourself.

The type of Wind Power used for the home or farm is commonly known as 'Small-scale wind power' because the principles, even on a much smaller scale, are exactly the same as the larger commercial wind farms.

The maximum output of Residential Wind Turbines can vary tremendously depending on many variables such as blade number and size, location, generator size etc with 100kilowatts being generated easily with these systems when the conditions are right.

Individual home owners build Wind Power Turbines to reduce or even eliminate their dependence on grid electricity for both economic and environmental reasons apart from the thrill of putting one together.

Wind Turbines have been used for household electricity generation in conjunction with battery Power Backup over many years in remote areas so this is not new technology. The only difference is that the technology is more efficient today than it has been in the past making it more practical and more cost effective for every home.

For people who wish to install a Residential Windmill there is a system available called 'grid energy storage' which in effect is replacing the electricity you use back into the grid, with electricity you produce. This in turn reduces your power bill and can in certain circumstances actually make you money which has the effect of turning your meter backwards.

People in rural locations using Small Wind Turbines and not connected to the grid system will need to store their own electricity which is usually done using a battery backup for Power Storage. Without this they would need to rely on such as diesel generators to make up the shortfall but to remain environmentally friendly and save money they would need to use Bio diesel.

In urban locations, where it's difficult to obtain predictable or large amounts of wind energy (little is known about the actual wind resource of towns and cities), smaller systems can still be used to run low-power equipment or subsidise power bills.

Useful (Technical) Stat's concerning

Wind Generators

A recent Carbon Trust study into the potential of small-scale wind energy has found that small wind turbines could provide up to 1.5 terawatt hours (TW·h) per year of electricity (0.4% of total UK electricity consumption), saving 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2) emission savings. This is based on the assumption that 10% of households would install turbines at costs competitive with grid electricity, around 12 pence (US 19 cents) a kWh. (Stat's Produced in 2000)

Building Residential Wind Turbines for your home is clearly a good solution for both saving money on electricity and helping reduce greenhouse gasses as well as being a satisfying project for the hands on person.