Use wind power in your individual home?
By now everyone has heard about the big wind farms placed on shorelines or in open fields, with their rows and rows of tall, elegant turbines. The thinking behind these is to produce electricity for an entire society, to make a large percentage of the energy used by that society into cleaner, less polluting power than that created by oil or coal.
But relatively few people bring the idea of clean wind power down to a personal level, and consider the idea that maybe they could use it themselves on a small scale in their own homes. Is it actually possible? To have a wind turbine that serves only your home, something that doesn’t stand four stories high in your back yard? According to the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CWEA), the answer is yes. But it will take some work and a lot of calculation to get you to the point of using wind power to keep your home operating.
The first step, says the CWEA, is not to look at turbines but to look at your own consumption. Reduce it as much as you can, with energy efficient appliances, proper insulation in the home, the use of compact fluorescent lights instead of incandescent bulbs, and so on. To quote the association website, “Saving a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity is more cost-effective than producing one!” Reducing the amount of energy you’d need in the first place will reduce the cost of your wind turbine.
Once you’ve taken care of your energy requirements, you’ll need to figure out how much energy you’d use in a year, and when your peak periods are. And it’s only then that you begin to look at the types (and costs!) of turbines that are available to you.
There are those for very small use, such as recharging batteries, those used on sailboats or in cottages, or others that involve providing power for one specific thing. But you move right up in range to the turbines that can power residences or even commercial buildings. Some can work alongside the power you also receive from the national electricity grid, and some options allow you to take yourself off the grid altogether.
The turbines that supply less power and are only used for a few things will of course be smaller and less expensive. They will be easier to install and take up less space. You would also have more choice about design: do you want a turbine that’s a miniature replica of the horizontal, three-bladed windmills you see on wind farms, or do you want a vertical shaft around which the “blades” spiral like the double-helix pattern of a DNA molecule?
When you get to the larger sized turbines that would supply a majority of power to your home, that’s when you must consider whether you really have enough available space for mounting them, not to mention the ability to fund them. These may not rise four stories high in your back yard, but some may still stand taller than your house. These take more thought because of the extra cost and siting issues, and would also require more maintenance. Keep in mind that the larger turbines are actually more cost efficient in the long run. Remember, too, that a combination of solar panels and wind turbine is another option.
The CWEA website provides an abundance of help with calculating power usage and choosing and running your own wind turbine. If you want to switch to wind power at home, it is absolutely essential to do this sort of consultation and calculation in great detail before you try to buy a turbine. This sort of change is a big investment for the long-term, and you’ll want to do it right the first time, so you can make the best use of your wind turbine and enjoy it worry-free for many years to come.
