Harnessing Wind Energy To Power Your Home

Whether it’s to save money, strengthen your independence or to save the planet, plenty of homeowners are looking to the promise of wind energy, to provide them with power. In addition, taming that most fickle of elements is something that is well within the reach of homesteaders. The technology has leaped ahead, on the back of a wave of innovation and investment from the green energy industry. So what are the basic components of a residential wind power system?

First and foremost wind. You will need live in an area that is subject to average wind speeds in excess of 10mph in order to have a chance at meeting a reasonable proportion of your energy needs. This can be checked on publicly available wind maps. If it looks promising, confirm these using anemometers – a wind monitoring device to make sure your locale matches the general area’s wind flow.

Next you will need a wind turbine, perched on top of as large a tower as you can manage. The higher the tower, the stronger the wind- but bear in mind that a tower lower than 10m will really suffer. Therefore, you will need perhaps an acre of land, and good relations with neighbors, to loft a turbine high enough to make a serious difference. In addition, go for a turbine with the longest rotor length possible- that makes the biggest difference to wind energy output.

Finally, you will need a battery array, and a system for managing their charge and discharge cycles. The most commonly used batteries are lead-acid, and they are needed to provide a back up for a minimum of 3 days. That is because not every day is a windy day, and it’s best to store energy from windy days to use when the breeze drops.

Above all, you must have a realistic expectation of what wind power can provide. The proportion of your energy needs that wind energy can meet is unlikely to get close to 100%, except for those with the land and resource to install turbines up to 50m. For the rest, it is more realistic to aim for 20% to 60%, depending on your situation. However, it will be worth it – that is still a big chunk of your energy that is clean, green and free. Other green energies include geothermal power and solar power.