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A wind turbine generator for your home makes a lot of sense as electricity costs continue to rise. here’s some tips to make your selection easier.

Tips to Buying a Wind Turbine Generator for Your Home

By P M Johnson

Everyone is looking for savings on their monthly expenses, including on utility bills, and generating your own power at home is a perfect way to cut down on your electricity bill.

If the location of your home is suitable for a wind turbine, with a minimum wind speed of 7 mph, then a wind turbine generator may be the perfect solution for you, and there are several different models available on the market today with equally different prices. Not only can you feel good about saving on your energy bills and contributing to the local grid, but also the satisfaction from know that you are contributing to a greener world!

1. Price.

As with any project that you wish to undertake, the cost is of significant importance. In the case of power generation, you also need to add in the cost of any changes you may need to make at home to accommodate the wind turbine generator. The cost of a wind turbine designed for home use is significant and can easily set you back $15 000 for the turbine plus installation costs.

2. Location.

Some wind turbine generators are designed to be installed on the roof, whilst some are better as a stand alone unit in the back yard.

If you want to put yours on the roof, make sure that your roof is structurally strong enough to accommodate the equipment. If you would prefer back yard installation, make sure that there is room in your yard away from trees and other backyard paraphernalia.

The minimum wind speed required by most wind turbines for power generation is about 7 mph, so you will need to take this in to consideration when deciding on a location for the turbine.

Wind generating equipment also have maximum wind speeds for safe use, so if you live in an exceedingly windy area, you will need to make sure that winds do not frequently exceed the maximum for the equipment.

3. Installation.

Although most wind turbine generators are designed for the homeowner to install themselves, if you are not a do-it-yourselfer, you may feel more comfortable having a professional do the installation for you, so either get a recommendation from the manufacturer or find out who is available in your area and how much they are going to charge you for such an installation before you make your purchase as this could add significantly to the overall cost of the project.

4. Maintenance.

Although little maintenance is required after installation, make sure that either you are prepared and able to do it yourself, of find out ahead of time what a professional is going to charge for maintenance and servicing of the turbine.

5. Tax Credits.

Significant tax savings can be made, depending on where you live, to homeowners that install power generating equipment on their property, so although it may be costly to install the equipment initially, you may get all or most of it back quite quickly through tax savings.

(Since this article was written changes in Government incentives may have changed. You are strongly urged to enquire as to what rebates, if any, are now available before making any commitment)

With the above tips in hand and a bit of research, you are now well equipped to choose a wind turbine generator for your home.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/P_M_Johnson/1213040

Hopefully these tips have made it easier for you to select a wind turbine generator for your home and please visit our other pages for more tips. Note, wind turbine generator costs referred to in this article have tended to show a decrease as wind turbines become more popular so please shop around.

Residential Wind Turbine Facts

What to Know in Residential Wind Turbines

By Lucille Brandon | Co-Author: Nathaniel M Pulsifer

A Residential wind turbine is an alternative way to generate electricity to power homes. This can be used as replacement to or in conjunction with solar panels, making your home environmentally friendly and reducing your regular expenses.

When you think about residential turbines, the traditional tower with four blades reminiscent of the Dutch landscape full of tulips is the first image that may come to mind. That image of a windmill is the predecessor to today’s aerogenerator that uses the wind energy to turn kinetic energy to electricity.

The original invention was used primarily for milling grains, but today is used for electricity, and may just be our ticket out of over-dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity to power homes.

Windmills were traditionally mechanical- from the Dutch milling machines to the Aeromotors of the American West pumping water into stock tanks.

The modern residential wind turbine, however, harnesses the strength of the wind to convert energy to electricity by turning the blades. Many of these small turbines have furling blades to modulate high wind speeds and are connected to inverters and battery banks to store electricity for use in calm periods.

These wind turbines for domestic applications are not the giant towers you may see on the ridges and offshore developments.

Residential turbines are unobtrusive, generally quiet, on a tower like a flagpole, these small systems have appropriate capacity for use in homes.

There are some things to learn about residential wind turbine. The cut-in speed for home use is generally 7-10 mph. Below that speed is not sufficient to power a home, so it is better to have another power source- grid-tie or battery/ solar backup are the most common. In conjunction with solar panels, this is a great way to make your home environmentally friendly.

Next, be sure to check out some residential wind turbine [http://www.greenpowerguide.net/] options for small wind turbines

[http://www.greenpowerguide.net/388/small-wind-turbine.html/]

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lucille_Brandon/680441

How much does a wind turbine cost, is the first question people tend to ask? The answer will depend on how much you want to save on your electricity bill…

The following article outlines the considerations involved in selecting the best residential wind turbine to meet your needs and how to best ask questions about cost.

Just How Much Does a Wind Turbine Cost?

By Ray Kari

Wind experts quickly distinguish customers well-schooled from novices by listening to their questions.

Naturally, everybody wants to know how much a wind turbine will cost, how much it will cost to generate a kilowatt hour of electricity from a wind turbine, how that cost compares with fuel-burning generators, and how long it will take for a wind turbine to pay for itself in reduced utility bills.

But only a beginner comes right out and asks the question. Well-schooled shoppers have learned that the simple question about cost, like most things wind-powered, defies a simple answer.

“So, How Much Will That Wind Turbine Cost?”

“How much does a wind turbine cost?” our wind smith repeats the question. “How much do you have?” our wind smith smiles when his prospective clients look quizzically into his poker face. For a wind turbine novice, the question seems somewhere between nonsensical and funny. For our wind smith, the question seems perfectly reasonable, because the first rule of wind energy stipulates, “Bigger is better.”

“How much does a wind turbine cost?” our wind smith repeats the question once more for emphasis, “Well, with wind energy,” our wind smith explains, reassuring his novice clients, “you can make your towers and generators mighty big and mighty powerful, running your wind turbine cost into the millions of dollars.

I’m guessing that’s not exactly what you have in mind, but I must tell you, with wind energy you get what you pay for, and you are not saving any money by trying to do it on the cheap.” Sensing our wind smith has given-up joking and is working toward the bottom line; his clients give him their full attention.

“With wind energy, you achieve tremendous economies of scale,” our wind smith rephrases the idea of “bigger is better.” “Take it as a hard-and-fast rule: Wind energy grows increasingly cost-effective as your tower-size increases and your sweep expands.”

Our wind smith gives examples.

Double the height of your tower, and you increase your generation between ten and twenty percent; triple your tower’s height and you increase your production between fifty and sixty percent. Production grows geometrically with each height increase.

Similarly, every increase in sweep geometrically increases your production, driving down your cost per kilowatt-hour. Increasing each turbine blade by a foot adds very little to the cost of construction, and it radically lowers the cost of generating electricity.

Considering the wind turbine’s maintenance costs over the course of its working life, wind-power planners easily can balance minor increases in construction costs against substantial savings in repair and replacement.

Upgrading the units blades from stainless steel alloys to carbon-ceramic composites, for example, adds several thousand dollars to the cost of each blade-set, but composite blades will outperform steel blades by ten to twenty per cent, and they will remain in service for twice as long as steel blades, because they do not fatigue.

Subsidizing Wind Turbine Cost

The United States and Canadian governments have offered tremendous tax incentives and other financial “considerations” for people and corporations serious about constructing wind turbines.

Capitalizing on subsidies, tax breaks, and record-low interest rates, would-be builders probably can erect a community-sized wind farm for forty percent of what it would have cost just a couple of years ago.

The supply and demand curves have gone out of whack, benefitting builders ready to break ground right away-“shovel ready” as they say.
Ray Kari is an alternative energy enthusiast. For more on excellent information on Wind Turbines for Sale [http://windturbinesforsale.net/] please visit

[http://windturbinesforsale.net/]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ray_Kari/376679