My husband wants to build a wind turbine and buy a couple of solar panels.?
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at
4:08 pm
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Filed under: Home Wind Turbines
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I would check out a solar panel forum to get advice from actual people who are already using solar and installed it themselves. Sounds like you are on the right path though, so good luck!
Before you spend money, check with your local zoning department on their regulations.
You are better off purchasing the equipment. It’ll take a high capacity system to do you any good. Geothermal would be a better bet.
You are wasting your time, at best wind turbines are no more than 22% efficient at best and solar panels unless you live in california or arizona I would think are next to useless.
Get in touch with a company called Daiken they manufacture an outdoor condenser unit which using hot water is far more efficient and therefore cheaper to run than gas fired central heating and you can use most of your exisiting central system with it.
I’d really look into the prices. Solar panels are still quite expensive and when you calculate how much you’re spending on electricity vs the cost of the panels, sometimes it can can as long as 15 to 20 years before you can recoup your costs.
What I have done because I live in an older home. I made roman shades that I backed with a thin quilt batting material, a metallic barrier (looks like foil) and lined them. There’s also a product called Warm Windows that make this project really easy because all you have to do is sew whatever decorator fabric you want to it and it’s pretty much done. You’d also be amazed at how much air comes in from light switches, electric sockets that are on exterior walls.
I would like to "get off the grid" someday, but right now being this technology tends to be for only the very rich that can afford to spend the bucks and not worry about saving money.
First you need to contact your local municipality to find out if you can have one installed..then you need to contact your local hydro company and find out about net metering. What this does is …your hydro meter will turn backwards with the power produced by your wind turbine but still allow you to be on the grid in case you don’t produce enough…they will also install a safety mechanism in case of a power outage so what you produce will not be fed back into the system when they are working on it..you will need to have a minimum of 8mph to start the turbine (average home sized) so take that in consideration…here, your meter will only go back to zero, and any extra will not be bought from hydro, but will be used as a credit and kept for up to one year…your district might be different..if getting off grid, you might get into more problems..stoves cannot be run by solar, nor dryers, so they would have to use gas or propane..if using solar, you will need to buy batteries for storage and an inverter to use the power and a place to store all this….you should purchase one as many codes and dealing with your hydro company you will find they might not want a homemade one being used..will have to check that one out.
look up
how to build a chispito wind generator
velacreations.com/makechispito.html
http://www.asolutleyfreeplans.com
solar panels
harbor freight.com
the Green thing is a farce, i cut back on my elect bill by turning my hot water heater off at night, unplugging all appliances, [not being used] wash cloths once a wk,
dry out side if poss-able, turn lights off when not using them
leave thermostat at one setting , not up and down
I agree with the other answers in that you should contact your local authorities and get the proper permits before installing anything. A wind turbine can be mounted on a tower or on the peak of your roof….a tower would probably require a permit. Also, anything tied into the public power grid would need the ok from the local power authority and there are safety concerns that need to be addressed such as a cutoff in case the power company disconnects the power to do line work…power flowing in the opposite direction could injure a line worker.
You can still do pretty much whatever you wish if you are NOT connected to the power grid. A solar panel or small wind turbine that saves power in a battery that feeds to a small inverter and to some household appliances sounds like a fun project and depending upon how much power you can generate it could be a viable way of offsetting some of your electric bill to start and there are ways that are not cost prohibitive. Just to cover you butt you can always check with your local authorities but don’t be afraid to think outside the box…you might be surprised by the help you get and these folks are usually very helpful. I personally think that if every home had a small wind turbine or a couple of solar panels this world would be heading in a better direction.