subject: Home Windmill: What Are Your Choices? [print this page] With the home windmill you are for the most part talking about two broad categories of designs that make up the majority of the market. While this technology is rapidly advancing, the science behind the wind turbine has more evolved than innovated from scratch.
The need for a robust wind energy segment has never been greater.
The rapid reduction in traditional sources of power creation are forcing us all to examine alternatives or face the consequences. Those consequences range from very expensive power in the future to having no power at all. The fact that advancement of our society is largely driven by improvements in electronics is essential to this debate. The thought of not having power for my computer gives me chills and gives me insomnia.
A little paranoia never hurts.
We may have enough fossil fuel to power our lives for decades to come or we might not. It is better to cover our bets though and that's what taking part in renewable energy with a home windmill allows us to do. When you get down to choosing a specific product, the choices are either a HAWT, or a horizontal-axis wind turbine, or a VAWT, or vertical-axis wind turbine. These 2 options make up the majority of the options out there.
Which one you pick will make a lot of difference in the amount of power you can produce at home. The horizontal device is way more efficient and the vertical product operates better in turbulent winds. So, they each have their advantages.
First, you must do some investigation and get a feel for the character of the wind on your land and around your house. You do that with an anemometer. There is no getting around taking readings of the wind speed and direction at various points around your property.
Once you have that data, you can make a much more informed decision about which type of home wind turbine to select. If your wind is strongest up high and your local community will allow you to mount it on a tower, then a horizontal wind turbine will be your best choice. If however, your only location with sufficient wind resources is your roof, you will need to focus on a vertical wind turbine.
With a home windmill you need to consider all your options but the 2 strongest ones are the horizontal wind turbine and the vertical wind turbine. You also need to really understand what you both can and cannot install where you live.
