Thursday, October 11, 2007

Huff and Puff - Power Your Home with the Wind

Rick Chapo


The fastest growing alternative energy platform in the
United States is the wind. No, I’m not blowing hot air.

Cheap and Productive
Manipulating the wind to generate electricity for your
home is cheap, easy and very misunderstood. First, you
don’t have to live in the middle of tornado alley to
generate electricity from the wind. Second, you don’t
need tulips and windmill like you’ve seen in pictures of
Holland. Third, smaller wind systems are so simply, you
can do it yourself.
Okay, let’s generate some enthusiasm on your part for
improving your home with wind power:

1. Small wind platforms can cut your utility bill by
more than half.
2. Wind systems can work with barely any wind at all.
3. Most wind systems are so small, nobody will even
notice them.
4. You can install a small wind system yourself.
5. A small wind system will run you around $1,000 and
pay for itself in a year depending on your current
utility bill.
6. Wind power is the fastest growing energy producer in
the world.
7. You can get financial incentives for improving your
home with wind power.

When talking about wind power, understand that
technological advances have dramatically changed the
systems. Forget windmills, turbines and large
structures. Unless you own a city, you will not be
dealing with those. Instead, modern residential wind
systems essentially look like weathervanes on top of 30
foot poles. They are no bigger than a couple of feet
long, have three blades and are very thin. It is no
different than having a flag pole in your backyard,
except this one saves you a ton of money.
The wind system works in a very compact an efficient
manner. The wind hits the blades and turns them.
Directly behind the blades is a small generator, which
converts the turning blades into power. The power is
then transferred to the ground through basic wiring
where you can either store it in a battery or feed it
directly back into the utility grid if allowed. If the
utility option is available, I recommend you take it
since batteries can be the most expensive part of the
system.

That’s it. The world’s simplest energy producing system
is wind. As long as it exists, you will always be able
to tap it for power.


Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of
solar energy companies.
Visit us to read more articles
on renewable energy and wind power.

No comments: