Home Built Wind Power: Eco-nomical Energy
Micro wind or roof prime wind, as they’re alternately described, usually get a dangerous rap; and deservedly so. As far as come back on investment goes, roof prime wind is in all probability one in all the worst renewable energy investments you could make. Unfairly lumped in with this unproductive class of wind power is the house designed wind generator.
To illustrate now I am going to match the cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity produced by the Swift small wind turbine to a typical home engineered generator about half the scale of the Swift. Relating to wind turbines, size is determined by the length of the propeller. The length of the propeller determines the “swept area” that is comparable to the collector area of a solar panel. The larger the swept space, the additional energy is produced.
Once you recognize the common wind speed at a given location and therefore the propeller length, you can estimate monthly kWh production. Multiply that by the amount of months the turbine is expected to last, and divide the result into the cost of the turbine. The number you end up with is the cost per kWh over the lifetime of the turbine.
Determining wind speed
The height of a mean one story home is around fifteen feet, or 4.five meters. Using this information I looked through the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States for average annual wind speeds at that altitude in Massachusetts. The average wind speed I came up with was 8.2 mph.
Determining monthly kWh output
The Swift turbine: Based mostly on wind speed of 8.two mph and also the 7′ prop of the Swift turbine, its monthly output would be around 32 kWh or seven,680 kWh over the course of its estimated twenty year life. The projected life of this turbine comes from the manufacturer. Personally I suppose it’s a very little optimistic, except for the sake of simplicity I will not quibble.
(A quick note on how I came up with the thirty two kWh figure. Hugh Piggot, a well-known wind power professional, developed a formula using wind speed and prop length to estimate the monthly kWh production for ANY size turbine. However instead of place you to sleep with his formula, I’ve created a straightforward monthly kWh production calculator anyone can use. You’ll be able to access the calculator from the link at the end of this article.)
Currently, on to the home designed turbine. In 8.2 mph winds with a smaller four’ prop the home made turbine would generate around 10.half dozen kWh per month or 2,544 kWh over twenty years. Since there aren’t any statistics for the estimated life of a home made turbine, I am going to alter for the discrepancy in the subsequent step.
Cost of the turbine
The price basis for this comparison is for the turbine only. The Swift turbine lists for $10,000 to $twelve,000 thus I am going to choose $eleven,000. Subtracting for the thirty% energy tax credit leaves a web value of $seven,700.
The example wind turbine used for this text costs around $one hundred to build. As I simply mentioned, there are not any life projections for home engineered, so I will assume replacement every six or seven years for a complete cost of $350.
The ultimate answer
With a little straightforward division we tend to can notice out the price per kWh over the life of the turbine.
Swift turbine: $7,700/seven,680 (kWh) = $1.00 per kWh.
Home built turbine: $350/2,544 (kWh) = $0.14 per kWh.
Keep in mind, the house engineered model is equipped with a 4′ prop. If you increase the prop length from 4′ to five’, the magic of physics increases lifetime kWh production to 3960 kWh and reduces the price per kWh to $0.09. Currently that is eco-nomical.
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