subject: Wind Power Generators: 3 Reasons They Might Not Work For You [print this page] The home wind power generators of today are very much like the ones we see utilities use. They are very technologically complex and rich with the latest thinking regarding wind science and the aerodynamics that supports it.
However, wind power generators don't always work for everyone in all circumstances. As a matter of fact, you need a fairly robust set of criteria in order to make them work.
These are the reasons they might not work for you...
You don't have good wind at home - Many people think that the wind around the house is great just because they see wind blowing outside of their window sometimes. This is hardly the case and you need to do some data collection to make sure that your wind around your property is sufficient to supply energy to your house.
Your neighborhood says no - In many cases there are neighborhood rules or community rules that will limit what you can do. The distance from the edge of your roof to the wind turbine can be an item that many cities get into as well as the type of wind turbine that you choose. You have to do some legwork and find out if there are restrictions that are going to impact the way that you try to take advantage of wind energy on your property.
They cost too much for the amount of energy you can derive from them - With so many manufacturers getting into the fray, you have to take advantage of the ones that are giving the best value. You can buy a wind turbine for under $1000 that will do the same thing the wind turbine kit cost $15,000 will do. The only way to find out the differences in these devices is to ignore their product literature and keep a consistent set of data to compare the 2 devices. For example, you need to understand average wind speed on your property and understand the amount of power that a particular device will generate with that much wind speed. That is by far the most important thing, along with the wind speed frequency distribution that you have gotten by a careful analysis of wind patterns on your property.
In the final analysis, wind power generators can work but their success or lack of success is very contextual, so you must take time and understand how well they fit or don't fit into your home environment.
