What Should You Know Before Investing In Home Wind Power Kit?
If you are in the market for a home wind power kit, there are a few things that you should familiarize yourself with before investing. Not that the investment is a bad idea! Quite the opposite. But a bit of knowled
ge never hurt anybody. Except for Copernicus.
As far as a home wind power kit is concerned, it is a relatively long-term investment to generate renewable energy that depends fairly heavily on your local conditions. Wind speeds of at least 10 Mph are suggested, and if energy costs less than 10 cents/kWh where you live, you may not profit much any time soon from one.
Small turbines run from $5,000 to $20,000, create about as much noise as a washing machine, and take up enough space that you don’t really want one in the suburbs. If your local wind speeds are high enough, you will be covering your home energy costs by 50 to 90% and helping the environment to boot.
If you’re curious about what size home wind power kit would suit your residence, keep in mind that most homes use about 9,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Taking into account how much wind you can provide your home wind power kit, this means you would need a turbine in the range of 5 to 15 kW to provide power for your home.
And, oh! The environment will love you for your home wind power kit. Over its lifetime, your turbine will offset over a ton of air pollution and hundreds of tons of greenhouse gases.
Check the U.S.
Department of Energy to determine what sort of winds you are dealing with in your area. Contact the manufacturer of your desired home wind power kit to determine what utility company approvals you may need. Your install will involve a tower from 80-120ft tall to raise the turbine above wind obstacles on the ground, but no rewiring of your house will be necessary.
The utility company will usually install another meter to measure how much power you are generating at no expense to you; they have to connect and purchase power from such systems according to Federal regulations.
A home wind power kit will last over 20 years without any maintenance, and depending on wind, will sometimes pay itself off in as little as 6 years!
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