Category Archives: home wind generators

Home Power Generator

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Home power generators offer the chance of reducing utility bills and minimising our impact on the planet. With fuel costs continuing to increase, more and more people are interested self-generation. So what are the options?

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  1. Reduce your power consumption. For most people the single biggest impact they can have on their fuel bills and on the Earth’s limited resources is to reduce their power consumption. New domestic appliances use less energy than older ones. Switching to a lower temperature wash can dramatically reduce the energy wasted washing clothes, especially now that many washing machines and detergents are designed to wash well even at 30°C (86°F). Modern condensing boilers use much less gas to heat water than their older counterparts. Insulating your home can dramatically reduce your energy consumption.

    In many countries there are significant subsidies available for loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and double glazing, which means that the pay-back time on the investment is very much shorter than for power generation projects. For example, in cold places (e.g. the UK or USA in winter) insulating a loft with 300mm (12″) of standard insulation can save 15% on the typical winter heating bill – giving a payback time of less than 3 years – sometimes less than 1 year.

  2. Solar Power. It is often thought that you need to live in a sunny place to be able to enjoy the benefits of solar power. In fact, even the light energy available on a cloudy day can generate significant amounts of electricity using modern Photovoltaic cells. If that is too expensive for you, solar hot water systems can make a big difference to power consumption at a relatively modest cost.
  3. Home wind turbines. Wind has the advantage that it blows all day and all night. Solar systems shut down just when you are settling down to watch TV and warm up after a day at work. Not ideal! That means that Solar power is likely to require some form of power storage to gain the maximum benefits, which can be expensive.

    On the other hand solar can be used more widely. Wind power is only suitable for certain properties. Typically rural, with a bit of land around them and no tall trees or buildings in the vicinity. Nonetheless, wind power can make a huge contribution to reducing energy consumption when it is used in the right location. And with financial incentives being offered for selling excess ‘green’ energy back to the grid, those lucky enough to live in the right location can make a good income from exploiting their environmental conscience!

  4. Hydroelectric. Most people won’t be able to benefit from this at home. But if you are lucky enough to live in a converted water mill or have a stream running through your garden this could be the solution for you. Like wind power it has the advantage that it runs all of the time. Being more rare the installation costs are likely to be on the high side.
  5. Geothermal is one of my favourites at the moment. Basically you use the heat from beneath the surface of the land to heat your home. It works like a refrigerator in reverse. You bury a series of pipes under you garden, through which you pump the heat transferring fluid. Then you harvest the subterranean energy and use it for heating your home. This uses power from the grid to operate the pumping system, but the amount of free, unlimited heat which you regain greatly outweighs the electricity you use running the pumps (typically by 3 to 5 times). This system works best for those of us with large gardens (under which they can place the pipes). And installation costs are greatly reduced if the system is installed when the property is built (as you already have all of the digging equipment on site). Retrofitting will be expensive, but the underground heat source is constant – it won’t go off at night (like solar) or when there is no wind (like wind power).

By reducing consumption and using whichever home power generators you can it really is possible to reduce your impact on the planet AND cut your utility bills. Start with the easy things (like insulation, and more efficient boilers and home appliances) then move on to home power generation.

© Copyright Rob Knowles 2011

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How much power can residential wind turbines really generate?

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How much a residential wind turbine can generate depends on a number of factors – wind speed, local environment and turbine size are just three of them. Having said that, it is possible to make an estmate of what a particular turbine is likely to produce in a certain location. It’s not a precise science, but you can get an idea.

Firstly, a well sited turbine will typically generate on average around 10% of its rated output over a long period of time. This may seem low, but you need to consider how the what the power rating actually represents. The rating of a geneator gives its MAXIMUM output, at the optimum wind speed. Output increases with the cube of the wind speed, so doubling the wind speed increases output by 8 times. And obviously the wind speed varies from day to day, and from hour to hour. Manufacturers obviously want to sell their product in the best possible light, so they quote the rated output at just about the fastest useable wind speed that the turbine can handle. All turbines have a cut-out, so that if the wind speed is too high they are not damaged by spinning too fast. So the reason for the 10% average accounts for the fact that the wind is unlikely to blow at the fastest safe wind speed continuously 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

You’ll have noticed that I said ‘a well-sited turbine’ can produce around 10% of the rated power. Siting is incredibly important. It’s important to look at wind speed maps for your area to get an idea of the average you could expect over the year. Most sources think that 4.5m/sec (or 10 mph) is around the minimum average level you need to make a home wind geneartor worthwhile. Even if the wind maps look promising, you should seriously consider monitoring the actual wind on your proposed site for at least 3 months using a wind meter to make sure that the numbers really do stack up.

You also need to consider the very local environment. If there are large trees or buildings nearby, they can make the airflow turbulent at up to twice the height of the obstruction. And turbulent air greatly reduces the power generated. In this were the case you would need to have the turbine at twice the height of the obstrustion to stand a chance of generating what you anticipate. This is why some oranisations suggest that the best place for a residential wind turbine is in open country – ideally on a plot of land around 1 acre with no obvious obstucions nearby. This may going too far, but you need to be aware that a more enclosed environment will increase the required height of the turbine.

The height above the ground of the turbine also need to be thought about. Increasing the height by just 5 metres (16 feet) can increase the output by around 30%. But obviously this would need to be offset against the increased cost for a taller mast, whether local building codes allow such high masts, and the likely increased impact upon your neighbours.

If you can find a suitable site it is possible to generate decent amounts of electricity from a residential wind turbine. And many countries have utility tariffs which make it financially attractive to sell excess electricity back to the grid. Even with expensive, fully installed systems consumers can expect to achieve a payback of investment in under 10 years, and some people have reported payback times of 5 – 7 years. The key is to research your site properly before buying a system to make sure it will achieve what you want it to. The tales of home wind turbines not generating any where near the amount of electrcity which was expected are nearly all caused by ignoring the important details about the correct siting of the turbine. Some basic research at the beginning can save a lot of heartbreak in the following years!

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The three most important things to know when planning a residential wind turbine….

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…are location, location and location.

I’ve seen a lot of negative article in the press about the effectiveness of residential wind turbines. In particular there was a large study in the UK about the amount of energy small wind turbines produced compared to what was promised when the buyers paid thousands for them. In many cases the amount of electricity produced was not remotely justified by the expense of installing the system

The main reasons were location, location and location. If you want to generate useful amounts of electricity you need to take care with the following:

  1. Location – Look at the wind maps for your area to make sure that there is enough wind, frequently enough, to generate reasonable amounts of electricity regularly.
  2. Location – Examine the surroundings of your proposed home wind turbine. You can have a great average wind figure from the maps, but if you are in the lee of a hill, especially if the prevalent wind direction comes from the direction of the hill, you will always be disappointed by the level of self-generation you can achieve.
  3. Location – Think about the immediate surroundings of the turbine. If there are trees or buildings nearby, the wind tends to be quite turbulent. And that may cool you off quickly after a run, but it doesn’t generate much electricity. Wind turbines need steady, regular wind that doesn’t change direction too often to make them worthwhile.

Residential wind turbines are great for helping the environment, and for cutting power bills. But if they are not properly positioned they can end up being little more than a symbol of your environmental credentials. When what you really want is a return on your investment and the security of supply which the utility companies can’t always offer.

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Home wind generators

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Home wind generators have the potential to greatly reduce or even eliminate electricity bills. So why don’t more people use them? The perception of high installation costs and poor payback misleads too many into doing nothing.

At a time of soaring electricity prices, you’d think that everyone would be interested in generating their own electricity. Saving money whilst helping the planet is a powerful incentive. However, a lot of people seem to be put off the idea by some common misconceptions. Here are some of the worst:

  • Home wind turbines are expensive to install.

    This used to be the case. A few years ago a home wind turbine could cost well over $10,000, which put the payback period well towards the 20 year mark. Now, with electricity prices increasing, and the cost of systems decreasing, payback periods can be significantly reduced. If you don’t mind doing some of the work yourself, you can make and install your own wind generator for less than $200.

  • Wind generators don’t generate as much electricity as you expect.

    This is often the case, but the fault usually lies with expecting too much, rather than the turbines delivering too little. Home wind turbines are usually rated at peak output – that is when they are producing the maximum possible amount of electricity. Unfortunately, the wind doesn’t always blow that hard. So you need to specify the output to be significantly higher than you think you need.One respected authority estimates that the actual power you normally get out of a wind generator is about 30% of the rated output, on average. But this obviously depends of how the turbine is sited (are there trees or buildings nearby which create turbulence in the air, reducing output?) and the actual wind speed.

    The wind speed specified for the rated output is also very important. The electrical output of a wind turbine is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. Put another way, an increase in wind speed of 10% increases output by about 33% – and vice versa. You need to carefully consider the wind speed given for maximum output of your turbine, and weigh it against the average wind speed you can expect for your location (based on wind speed maps).

  • The lights go out when the wind drops.

    If you had a very basic set up, and did not have a connection to the power grid, this would be the case. However, most systems retain a connection to the grid to cover them for windless days. This also enables them to sell back any excess electricity to the electricity company, so none of your precious wind generated power goes to waste. Even those that go totally ‘off grid’ tend to have batteries to store the excess power generated when you don’t need it for the times when you do.

  • It’s difficult to get approval to install a wind turbine.

    It certainly used to be difficult to get approval to install a home wind turbine. But now most governments are more enthusiastic than they were to encourage home owners to generate their own power. Even the US government is putting a lot of effort into helping small scale power generation. Whether this change of heart is connected with their genuine conversion to the green energy cause, or whether it’s more related to a desire to minimise the stress on an ageing grid is a matter of opinion!

  • Wind turbines kill too many birds.

    There certainly was a lot of concern about this in the past. However, recent studies have shown that far fewer birds are actually killed by wind turbines than previous predictions had suggested. Birds, it seems, are smart enough to avoid big things which move in predictable, consistent paths. On the other hand, they have much more trouble avoiding cars and trucks as they move so fast and in unpredictable paths. That’s why road transport is a much greater threat to our feathered friends!

Installing a home wind turbine is certainly not as difficult as many people believe. There are certain issues that you need to think about before you start your home generation project. But most people who can hold a screwdriver could build their own wind power system for a few hundred dollars given the right information.

Find out more about building your own home power generation system

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Residential Wind Turbines

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Residential wind turbines offer everyone the chance of generating useful quantities of free electricity. In the past they were seen as expensive ways of making sure everyone knew how ‘green’ you were. Now you can build your own wind turbine for a fraction of the retail costs, and cut your electricity bill by 80% or more.

To find out how to build your own residential wind turbine, click here

The idea of generating your own electricity is becoming more and more attractive:

  • Electricity bills seem to be increasing all of the time, regardless of what is happening on the global markets.
  • There is more and more concern about environmental issues. Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity uses up precious resources, and pours unnecessary CO2 into the atmosphere.
  • The west is increasingly dependant upon imports of fuels – often from sources which are not entirely friendly towards the west.
  • Decades of under-investment in infrastructure mean that the electricity networks are more prone to failure. Significant blackouts have already occurred in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK.

Given these problems, who would not want to generate their own electricity? It may seem impractical or outrageously expensive to go ‘off grid’, but it need not be. So what are the options?

  • Solar power. Solar panels are improving every day, but a solar set-up still tends to be quite expensive for the amount for electricity which it can produce. The main disadvantage is that the sun doesn’t shine when you need it most – at night, or in winter.
  • Wind turbines. Many places around the world have sufficient average wind speed to make wind power a viable option. Relatively small residential wind turbines can generate a significant amount of electricity – savings of 80% or more are possible.

The keys to making a residential wind turbine work are:

  • Position. The average wind speed needs to be enough to make the project worthwhile. Fortunately there are average wind speed maps available to help you decide on your own location.
  • Rules. We live in a more and more regulated world, so you will need to comply with local laws on siting a wind turbine. Chances are that you will need to get permission from the local government wherever you live. Most authorities are more sympathetic towards ‘green energy’ now, but you will still need to check.
  • Cost. Typically, having a domestic wind turbine installed can cost $10,000 or more. Then all you have to look forward to is a 15 year or more payback time. If you are prepared to do some of the work yourself though, you can dramatically cut down on the initial investment – often below $200.

If you are interested in generating your own electricity, without spending $1000s the best way is to buy an expert guide.

Find out more about how to build residential wind turbines by clicking here

 

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