Wind Power How to do it

Family Articles | January 26, 2009

If you're interested in home wind power, there are a few basics you will need before you get started. Using a small wind turbine is an inexpensive way for people in rural, suburban, and even urban areas to slash their electricity bills and reduce their carbon footprints. Possibilities range from using a very small wind turbine to power small appliances and equipment, to generating amounts of power large enough to sell.

If you're interested in home wind power, there are a few basics you will need before you get started. Using a small wind turbine is an inexpensive way for people in rural, suburban, and even urban areas to slash their electricity bills and reduce their carbon footprints. Possibilities range from using a very small wind turbine to power small appliances and equipment, to generating amounts of power large enough to eliminate your consumption of grid electricity.

Home wind power is not only good for your bills, but also good for the environment. It is simple to implement and can be installed by non-professionals using minimal tools. Many people around the world supplement the energy they get off the grid with home wind power. Some people are even able to eliminate their monthly energy bills completely! Whether you produce a little bit of energy or a lot, you can be assured of reducing your "carbon footprint" and helping to improve the environment.

Some studies estimate that about .5 percent of a country's energy expenditure could be slashed if ten percent of homes had small, inexpensive wind turbines. If you're interested in using home wind power, you first need to know the basics of how it works. You can purchase a small off-the shelf wind turbine for a low price. Or, you can elect to purchase a turbine kit that you put together yourself.

Either way, if balanced against the electricity savings, the initial expenditure is quite modest. Many people should be able to install their home wind turbines themselves, but you will need to have a basic toolkit and have a little bit of experience assembling machines or doing home electrical work. You can also pay a professional home wind power installer to set up your system in a few hours at a modest price. Home wind power works best for people in rural or low-density suburban areas.

Of course, you will need to be in a location that gets a lot of wind predictably during most of the year. People in urban areas can still cash in on the home wind power movement, but because air flow may be partially or wholly blocked by other buildings, they can expect to net a smaller amount of power.

However, the important thing to remember that when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, any amount of energy savings is worth it. A growing idea that can be implemented in urban, rural, and suburban areas is to use a very small, inexpensive wind turbine to create a battery charge that is used to run low power appliances. Although these small turbines don't produce a large amount of electricity, they still diminish the carbon footprint.