The State of California leads the method in renewable energy initiatives and offers generous rebates of 50% for choose wind power systems.
The wind power systems described in this article are connected to the utility company, or grid tied, and don’t incorporate storage batteries. In California excess power generated by a wind power system will be sold back to the utilitiy (web metering).
The 5 basic necessities for a wind power system:
1. You own your own home.
2. Your property is a minimum of one half acre.
3. Your owners association or city/county will not restrict towers.
4. The average wind speed in your area exceeds 9 mph.
5. Your utility allows web metering.
Wind Speed Requirements
Most wind turbines have a start up speed of 8 MPH however need a minimum average wind speed of 12 MPH to come up with an appreciable quantity of electricity for your home.
Not surprisingly, the highest average wind speeds in California are registered inside 25 miles of the Pacific Coast.
The minimum height at that wind speed is measured on these wind maps is 30 meters, or a hundred feet. Since most residential wind turbine towers are forty-eighty feet in height, your actual wind speed will be but what is shown on the maps. As tower heights increase, the wind becomes faster and fewer turbulent. A twenty foot increase in tower height, from 60 to eighty feet, can increase the output of your wind turbine by as much as thirty six%.
Heap Size Requirements
A wind turbine needs at least [*fr1] an acre of land to make sure it will be located way enough removed from wind impeding obstructions like trees, your house and alternative out-buildings. The tower should additionally extend twenty feet higher than these obstructions. Usually speaking, the upper the tower, the more land is needed by local zoning laws.
February 7th, 2010 | Posted in Do-it-Yourself, Energy Use, Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine, Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine | Comments Off
In a case of thinking outside of the box an entry by TAK studio in the this years Greener Gadgets competition has put a fresh spin on the traditional street lighting.
Incorporating a vertical axis wind turbine the team has come up with the brilliant idea to power highway lighting with the wind generated by passing cars and also the kinetic energy from the natural winds.
Dubbed the Turbine Light this new take on the age old street light could dramatically reduce energy consumption around the world.
When new ideas utilizing the power of wind are brought to the table it makes one think what else around the home could be modified to incorporate a wind turbine?
February 7th, 2010 | Posted in General, Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine | Comments Off
So we all know that the world is coming to an end in 2012, well that is what Hollywood would have us believe but I am sorry to say that it is not! Instead of living it up and not caring about the environment start giving a damn about the environment and look at ways in which you can reduce your carbon footprint.
A few weeks back we showed you home wind turbines that are super cheap and really easy to build. I also had another post about how I haven’t paid for electricity since 2007 which is not an easy feat, but completely achievable with this wind turbine plan. Now this wind turbine plan has allowed me to live on renewable energy for the past few years and what I don’t use I sell back to the utility company, it is an amazing site to see the electricity company send you a check every quarter let me tell you!
The main element in helping me achieve these goals was the wind turbine plans that I stumbled across in 2007. These plans were dirt cheap to buy and allowed me to produce my own energy producing vertical wind turbine for $100. Normally you would have to spend in the thousands of dollars to purchase a vertical wind turbine that would give you anywhere near this result, but not anymore thanks to these wind turbine plans, and this is where the money making plan comes into place.
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November 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Do-it-Yourself, Energy Use, Homemade, Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine | No Comments
