What is the best wind turbine (windmill) for private use, such as powering your home?
There are several quality ones depending on how much of your energy you want to get from the turbine. Check your energy bill or call your power company to find out what your monthly use is. (mine is about 800kw hours/month)
The Skystream 3.7 will probably cost about $ 15 - 20,000 installed and will make about 400kw hours/ month in 12 mph winds. www.skystreamenergy.com
The Bergey 10kw will be about $45 -50,000 installed and will produce about 1000kw hours /month. www.bergey.com
The Jacobs 31-20 will be about $60,000 installed and would be about 2000kw hours/month. www.windturbine.net
the Skystream and the Bergey are low maintenance, the Jacobs needs oil changes and greasing once or twice a year which you do need to climb the tower to do. It only takes about an hour and it is nice to get a different perspective on the surrounding area once in a while. These are all grid tied systems that work with the power company so you do not have to have batteries to store the energy for calm days.
I see all the wind energy pontificaters are silent on this one. Gosh, wonder why.
References :
Comment by trollazoid — January 1, 2009 @ 1:48 am
Hi Sparky,
A cheaper wind turbine for residential use can be found at http://www.pacwind.net. The SeaHawk model was featured on the hit tv show "Living with Ed".
The SeaHawk retails at $3,000 not including installation. The rated output is an average 500W, however this is all determined by wind speed and to get the 500W you need a wind speed of 25mph… On the website there is a Adobe reader document that has a graph which shows the output you will receive for each mph for wind. Where I live the average wind speed is about 5-7 mph which would give a very very small wattage output and it would take forever to recoup the expense. So make sure you know your average wind speed and compare it to the graph to see if it is really cost effective for you.
Good Luck.
References :
http://www.pacwind.net
Comment by Exodus — January 1, 2009 @ 2:20 am
There are several quality ones depending on how much of your energy you want to get from the turbine. Check your energy bill or call your power company to find out what your monthly use is. (mine is about 800kw hours/month)
The Skystream 3.7 will probably cost about $ 15 - 20,000 installed and will make about 400kw hours/ month in 12 mph winds. http://www.skystreamenergy.com
The Bergey 10kw will be about $45 -50,000 installed and will produce about 1000kw hours /month. http://www.bergey.com
The Jacobs 31-20 will be about $60,000 installed and would be about 2000kw hours/month. http://www.windturbine.net
the Skystream and the Bergey are low maintenance, the Jacobs needs oil changes and greasing once or twice a year which you do need to climb the tower to do. It only takes about an hour and it is nice to get a different perspective on the surrounding area once in a while. These are all grid tied systems that work with the power company so you do not have to have batteries to store the energy for calm days.
References :
I have a Jacobs 31-20 wind turbine and did a lot of research before I bought it.
Comment by Aviator1013 — January 1, 2009 @ 2:54 am