Self Sufficient & Wind Turbines How much??
2) What is the best make of wind turbine for Home use
3) What roughly would the outlay cost be and how often would maintenance have to be carried out? Ie what would the running cost be?
Thanks for help folk!
Answer:
It depends on how much wind you get, but doing the job with one turbine would probably be most economical. Even better would be to share with one or a few neighbors. You will need a battery storage system to be completely self sufficient.
http://www.homepower.com/ has a buyer's guide
Initial cost and maintenance will be high. Unless you are facing a large bill to run a line to the nearest utility connection point, it will probably cost less to buy from the utilty even in the long run. I can't think of any running cost. Look at the above link.
What is the electrical load of your home?
What is the average wind speed in your area?
There are a number of factors. Each turbine has a specific power curve which details how much electricity it will produce in a given amount of wind.
Alternative energy resources tend to cost more than purchasing from the electrical company, so first you want to do everything you can to minimize your electrical use to keep the costs down.
Actually, a lot of issues the electrical companies are experiencing (including a lot of what customers complain about) would be solved if everyone did that even if they weren't looking into alternative resources!
Commercial wind farms gather wind data including direction, speed, gusts (turbines have to shut down in extreme winds to prevent mechanical damage), etc. in 5 minute (or less) increments for a year or more to match the best power curve to the wind conditions in the area.
Purchase and construction costs will probably be in the range of $2,000-$3,000 (USD) per kilowatt of installed capacity, operating cost will probably be in the range of $0.10 to $0.15 (USD) *IF* you have fairly decent average wind speeds. Maintenance will vary depending on the specific turbine and your local conditions (IE near a coast will probably require more maintenance because of the salt air).
Here is US data: http://www.awea.org/
Similar organizations exist in most other countries as well.
I get the wind regularly so I've installed a mini- turbine and generator in my underpants to power my hearing aid. The big jobs are far too expensive and unreliable for the average indivifual.
Your main problem is not how many wind turbines you need, because even if you had a thousand, and there was no wind, you would be without electricity.
You need to overcome the storage problem, how will you store electricity for use in times of little wind.
The greater this storage capacity, the less you are relying on the wind, hence you can reduce the number and size of turbines.
You can see how much electricity you use (see your bill), and so you need this amount over each month (or quarter).
To minimise the your turbines, you should ensure that you can store the energy generated during high winds to supplement the energy in wind-less periods.
If you can do this, then you need sufficient turbines which generates the amount of electricity you use per month (or quarter) under your normal wind conditions.
I beleive that trial and error is required, as nobody can forecast how much wind you will get.
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