Wind Power Part 1

           Wind power is one thing that a lot of people know very little about and what they think they know is that it cost too much.

The reason that most think it cost too much is they see where these big turbines go up and they cost millions of dollars each. Another reason they think it cost so much is they know someone or have heard of someone that got suckered into a medium sized turbine and it cost them a ton to setup and the upkeep is very high. A lot of people are also under the impression that all wind turbines are the same, and that’s not even close. Most just think when you say the word wind turbine it’s always some big tall standing giant tower. Here I will talk only about the ones that normal people can afford and some that you can build yourself that if done right start out around 100w to 500w. These smaller easy to place micro turbines are very cheap and if you have a 4+mph wind speed a good chunk of the year can make more power than just a solar panel.

  Yes I know you say how easy? Well let me tell you about a friend i know that lives in an area that it rains 70% of the time he got suckered into getting a bunch of solar panels well with all the rain he don’t make much power some but not a lot. I asked him when it’s raining is it windy he said “Yea most times it is I think” I said want to find out just how much and at what level or how high the wind is at. I had him get a wind speed gauges one that had a simple digital read out with like a 7 day or more memory. He found one that had a simple pole mount cup sensor for outside with 100ft of wire and had a 1 month memory recall with average wind speed for $120. Nowadays you can find wireless home weather stations starting at $50 and going up to $200 they have a lot more to them like wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, temperature and humidity (inside and outside), barometric pressure, dew point and wind chill. I tell everyone the best way to know if you have enough wind in your area to even consider putting up any kind of wind turbine first see how much wind you have in the area you live. I say this due to people will say it’s always windy here or in this state there isn’t enough wind for a turbine. Over the years I have found out even if you live where they say there is not enough wind some people live in the right area due to valleys, hills, mountains, that direct what little wind is there right in there area. If you live in an area with mild winds I would leave up the unit for a minimum 1year here is why if you get an average wind speed of 5 or 10mph wind speeds than you know to look for a lower startup speed when you go looking and also to look for one with more blades. The reason is more blades mean the small winds have a lot more surface area to spin it faster. That will make more power in slower winds and in turn make getting one worth doing.

  Before I get to deep into this all I want to say one thing that is you can get these micro wind turbines in 12v or 24v and some can be 48volt set ups so b4 you get too quick to buy plan out what setup of DC voltage you want to use. Most don’t understand a few things one is that the higher voltage ones make more amps over all but it’s not like its double or anything but there are some nice things about the higher voltage. There are also some nice things about the 12v setups that the 48v don’t have. Because of this I like to tell people start with a simple 12v setup you have more options to directly use the power here are some examples. If you like music you can put in a car radio into your house with some car speakers and have endless music. You can also charge up a lot of those portable things you have that you charge in your car but with a 12v setup you can do it in your house and say it’s powered by wind power. With 12v setup you also have local stuff that works on it a few feet away like Wal-Mart carries some things like 12v lights and some 12v camping stuff and 12v boating stuff. Yes I know I said Wal-Mart but go to a true value or a radio shack they all have stuff that works with 12v. So now that you can see that there really is a lot that works with 12v here are some more great places to get a lot more other stuff that they don’t carry like 12v cooking items and a lot more go to a big truck stop. Also check with some of the local solar or wind places in your area some of them have or can get a lot of stuff that you never thought of also stop in at an RV dealer they have a lot too.