Gusty in your 'hood?
Home wind turbines may be a way for you to use renewable energy...and teach your kids about Don Quixote at the same time. But before bragging about going off-grid (or breaking out that paperback from ninth grade), check your local codes and give the neighbors a heads up. Sharing your interest in wind with them can help
wind turbine planning and installation go smoothly. Then evaluate how much wind your area really gets (sometimes called your "wind resource").
To evaluate whether home wind turbines will be viable, use microclimate or site-specific data. Data from local airports or nearby wind systems can help too. You can check it out yourself by setting up a temporary pole or tower with an anemometer on top. Instead of eating anemones (as one might suspect), it will record and store wind speeds for you. You might need to collect data for a year to ensure your spot gets enough wind. (Some people, while collecting data for a larger wind system, also put up a smaller wind turbine and sell electricity back to the grid.) A wind professional will be able to help you determine whether you should proceed with wind turbines.
How tall should your wind turbines be? The taller the tower, the faster the wind speed, but they should be at least 30 feet higher than anything within 300 feet. Figure out who'll service your wind turbines and how they'll get up there—some wind turbines can tilt down (if you live in tornado country) or are climbable. Wind turbines also come in a variety of sizes and styles that can produce different amounts of power. Figure out how much power you want to generate, and then you can explore your turbine options based on your area’s wind speeds.
Speaking of wind speeds, you may need more than a gentle twirl to get some wind-juice. The threshold for power is roughly between 2 to 7 miles per hour, depending on your wind turbines. What happens once the blades are spinning? You can use batteries (or a bank of them) to store the energy for in-home use (off-grid). To pour some wind energy back into the grid's swirly melting pot, make sure your utility will connect your system to the grid. Or you can combine both approaches. With spotty wind, you can even incorporate
solar panels. Just make sure you have an inverter to convert the DC power your wind turbine generates into usable, magical AC power.