Should you invest in residential wind power?
There are many factors which would influence your decision. The availability of the wind resource, your financial situation, the expected return on investment, and your neighbours all play a role.
Enough wind
Wind speed is affected by surface friction: trees, buildings, hills and such all slow the wind speed and, near the surface, make it rather turbulent.
A vertical axis wind turbine illustrating residential wind power. Photo courtesy of thingermejig.
Residential wind power, therefore, makes most sense if you have quite a lot of flat space around the wind turbine. It is still possible in suburban areas, but you would expect a greatly reduced power output. It would need to be on a high tower as well, as wind speeds at roof level are pointless.
You can check national statistics which show the average wind resource for your area. For those of you from the United States, the American Wind Energy Association gives information about residential wind power, also providing average surface wind speed maps.
For those of you in Britain, you'll want to look at the British Wind Energy Association, who also provide an equivalent map.
To sum up: if you live in an urban, or densely populated suburban area, it is unlikely that you would benefit from a wind turbine. This is just a general rule, and will have exceptions, but unfortunately this does apply to most people.
Planning Permission
Wind turbines are large. Make sure before making any plans that you'd even be allowed to erect one in your back garden.
Your neighbours may be able to complain about the noise, the impact on the view, the effect on local birds perhaps. Just something to bear in mind.
Cost of residential wind power
A house in Japan with PV cells and a wind turbine. Photo courtesy of Richard Masoner
Well, a wind turbine is no small thing, and they don't come cheaply. For example, the BWEA website gives a list of wind turbine suppliers in the UK. Let's take the first one, "Aeolus Power Ltd", and find the cost of their "Proven 2.5kW" turbine - the kind of size you would want.
A little hunting on their website tells us that it costs £12,000 (note: link opens pdf file). The list shows, though that the cost can be as high as £55,000, but that is for a particularly advanced and powerful system. Also, these prices don't even include the now 15% value added tax!
Let's do the same thing for the U.S. The AWEA site also lists wind turbine manufacturers in the U.S., and again, I'll just use the top one as our example.
"Abundant Renewable Energy" also list a 2.5kW wind turbine, which costs $12,650 for an equivalent, grid connected system.
So, they are expensive. But, there is good news. There are government grants available to encourage home owners to install energy generation capabilities, including residential wind power.
These can often be a sizable percentage off the total price. Check with your relevant government agency. Americans, take a look at the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.
Brits check out http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.
Benefits of residential wind power
Reduced energy bills
Depending on how windy your area is, you can see fairly sizable chunks taken off your energy bills, especially if you live in temperature areas which don't require air conditioning in summer.
You could even end up selling your electricity back to the energy company. You can expect to break even in about 10 years, so see it as a long term investment, or as a tool to increase your home's worth.
Energy independence
Depending on the kind of system, and the availability of other domestic energy sources like solar panels or ground heat pumps, you could effectively remove yourself from the grid (though it would be wise to stay connected in an event of an equipment failure.
Return to alternative energy sources from residential wind power