Residential Wind Power Generation?
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,385
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From: Mercer County, OH
Residential Wind Power Generation?
Reading Snowbunnys thread about wind power got me thinking about small residential wind power units. Anyone here have something along this line or know anything about it?
Fleet Owner
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 24,724
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From: Blue Hill Township
I haven't heard of any for residential. I know that some farms use wind. Depending on where you live, there might not be much wind due to other buildings blocking it. Also, I think that the city or neighbors might have a problem with a huge wind turbine.
Post Fiend
Joined: Mar 2007
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From: The Great North~West!
Last edited by Snowbunny; Oct 21, 2007 at 09:25 PM.
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,288
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From: Leamington, Ontario
A good friend of mines dad was building a new house out in the boonies and wanted to put up a residential unit. The upfront cost was insane, and he said it would take him about 55 years to break even on the cost. Something to think about.
Post Fiend
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 26,966
Likes: 50
From: Texas
I think the general consensus is that unless you have local government incentives / rebates available it tends to be cost prohibitive. I'm still waiting for rebates or the cost to come down before I get one.
You can check http://www.bergey.com/
They have a 90 sec expert section with calculators that will let you know if a turbine is right for you.
You can check http://www.bergey.com/
They have a 90 sec expert section with calculators that will let you know if a turbine is right for you.
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"Mifflin Clay"
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,177
Likes: 4
From: Mifflin, PA
There are literally hundreds of plans and articles on the internet for just this stuff. I dug into it some time back, and was most impressed with the diy'ers building their own generators using strong magnets, and winding their own coils and using truck brake drums/spindles as base to hold it all. There are plans for propellers, towers, etc. Some of the resulting generators were quite impressive. Here's a few links:
http://www.greeleynet.com/~cmorrison/WindMachine.html
http://www.off-grid-living.com/wind/how-to-build-a-wind-generator
http://www.otherpower.com/wardalt.html
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind_tips.html
http://www.bwea.com/you/byo.html
http://www.thekevdog.com/projects/wind_generator/
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http://www.greeleynet.com/~cmorrison/WindMachine.html
http://www.off-grid-living.com/wind/how-to-build-a-wind-generator
http://www.otherpower.com/wardalt.html
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind_tips.html
http://www.bwea.com/you/byo.html
http://www.thekevdog.com/projects/wind_generator/
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Joined: May 2002
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From: Fraziers Bottom, WV
What I found a few years ago
I live in a remote area and we lose power in bad weather and winter from 1 to 10 days. I looked at many forms of back-up power and came up with the fact that for every unit of power I produce it will cost about 3 to 5 times that of delivered power.
i.e. If you pay .10 cents per unit from the power company it will cost .30-.70 per unit. In the future and at the pay-off point it still would cost .20 cents to produce 1 unit.
The cheapest home produced power is water driven. But the batteries and regulating equipment can cost $1000 pulse maintenance!
The best reliable back-up is propane generators.
This information is based on what I found about 10 years ago and new technologies and equipment is on the market. I have not looked into other forms past propane generators and don't know true pricing in today’s market.
My best advice it to assess your needs and requirement and research your alternatives and base your decisions on that!
Rod
i.e. If you pay .10 cents per unit from the power company it will cost .30-.70 per unit. In the future and at the pay-off point it still would cost .20 cents to produce 1 unit.
The cheapest home produced power is water driven. But the batteries and regulating equipment can cost $1000 pulse maintenance!
The best reliable back-up is propane generators.
This information is based on what I found about 10 years ago and new technologies and equipment is on the market. I have not looked into other forms past propane generators and don't know true pricing in today’s market.
My best advice it to assess your needs and requirement and research your alternatives and base your decisions on that!
Rod
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From: Location, Location.
http://www.energyadvocate.com/fw90.htm
Question: What do you intend to do with the electricity? The most expensive thing you can do is to try to tie it in to the power line to feed them electricity during the three days a month when you get enough wind. (High cost, peanuts in return.) If you just want some heat, you can do that fairly easily, simply by matching some resistive heating elements to your generator. If you want to charge batteries, then there *must be* (and is, in commercial units designed for the purpose) some regulating circuitry to avoid destroying your batteries. (A friend destroyed batteries with a flea-power solar unit that took the voltage too high.) If you're trying to supply yourself with power to run your computer, your microwave oven, and your house lights, it will involve a lot of work and expense, a lot of which is protecting yourself and your appliances from voltage variations.
http://www.energyadvocate.com/den_post.htm
Howard C. Hayden, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Connecticut
Even without detailed knowledge of wind turbine design, the intelligent reader should be slightly suspicious about the current pro-windmill exuberance in newspaper articles such as that by Michael Booth, 1/07/01 ("Energy Solution: Blowin’ in the Wind? Xcel seems reluctant to invest in cost-competitive power"). After all, since wind energy schemes have a thousand-year head start, there must be some reason or reasons why wind makes so little contribution to our energy picture.
Similarly, it does not take a Ph.D. in economics to know that utilities have been spending enormous amounts of money for coal or natural gas to produce electricity. Any red-blooded capitalist would jump at the chance to produce "free" electricity, thereby to increase profits. But utilities haven’t fallen in love with wind turbines, so there must be some reasons.
One can hardly fail to notice that California is experiencing an energy crisis after decades of embracing, supporting, and subsidizing windmills. California has some 3200 wind turbines that, combined, produce only about 1.1% of California's electricity. Their present dilemma is rooted in the delusion that piddle-power sources could provide electricity for their burgeoning economy.
Wind has its uses, but providing steady power is not one of them.
.....
In recent years, the little country Denmark has gained a certain amount of fame with its wind turbines. No, they don’t get much electricity from them. They sell them to suckers.
Question: What do you intend to do with the electricity? The most expensive thing you can do is to try to tie it in to the power line to feed them electricity during the three days a month when you get enough wind. (High cost, peanuts in return.) If you just want some heat, you can do that fairly easily, simply by matching some resistive heating elements to your generator. If you want to charge batteries, then there *must be* (and is, in commercial units designed for the purpose) some regulating circuitry to avoid destroying your batteries. (A friend destroyed batteries with a flea-power solar unit that took the voltage too high.) If you're trying to supply yourself with power to run your computer, your microwave oven, and your house lights, it will involve a lot of work and expense, a lot of which is protecting yourself and your appliances from voltage variations.
http://www.energyadvocate.com/den_post.htm
Howard C. Hayden, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Connecticut
Even without detailed knowledge of wind turbine design, the intelligent reader should be slightly suspicious about the current pro-windmill exuberance in newspaper articles such as that by Michael Booth, 1/07/01 ("Energy Solution: Blowin’ in the Wind? Xcel seems reluctant to invest in cost-competitive power"). After all, since wind energy schemes have a thousand-year head start, there must be some reason or reasons why wind makes so little contribution to our energy picture.
Similarly, it does not take a Ph.D. in economics to know that utilities have been spending enormous amounts of money for coal or natural gas to produce electricity. Any red-blooded capitalist would jump at the chance to produce "free" electricity, thereby to increase profits. But utilities haven’t fallen in love with wind turbines, so there must be some reasons.
One can hardly fail to notice that California is experiencing an energy crisis after decades of embracing, supporting, and subsidizing windmills. California has some 3200 wind turbines that, combined, produce only about 1.1% of California's electricity. Their present dilemma is rooted in the delusion that piddle-power sources could provide electricity for their burgeoning economy.
Wind has its uses, but providing steady power is not one of them.
.....
In recent years, the little country Denmark has gained a certain amount of fame with its wind turbines. No, they don’t get much electricity from them. They sell them to suckers.
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