This is an archival version of the original KnowledgePoint website.

Interactive features have been disabled and some pages and links have been removed.

Visit the new KnowledgePoint website at https://www.knowledgepoint.org.

 

Revision history [back]

click to hide/show revision 1
initial version
louiswoof gravatar image
EWB USA Experts

Very small wind is a challenge. To take advantage of your wind resource, a wind turbine should really be about 9m above any obstacle within about 150m (see https://www.homepower.com/articles/wind-power/design-installation/wind-matters?v=print, for example). With a very small turbine, the cost of the tower to get a turbine up this high can dwarf the cost of the turbine itself. If turbines are installed at lower heights, they are likely to fail prematurely from turbulent air, and will usually not perform well. Often solar electric systems are more cost effective, even in areas with a marginal solar resource.

But that wasn't exactly your question. For a good rundown of a number of home-scale wind turbines, check out https://www.homepower.com/articles/wind-power/equipment-products/2014-wind-turbine-buyers-guide. These are probably bigger than you would need, but will give you a good sense of what quality equipment is in this market, and their cost.

Some other potentially useful links:

Hugh Piggott, a very knowledgable small wind expert, particularly for home-built turbines: https://www.scoraigwind.com or https://scoraigwind.co.uk.

Wind Empowerment: https://windempowerment.org

Best, Louis

click to hide/show revision 2
No.2 Revision
KnowledgePointAdmin gravatar image
RedR CCDRR

Very small wind is a challenge. To take advantage of your wind resource, a wind turbine should really be about 9m above any obstacle within about 150m (see https://www.homepower.com/articles/wind-power/design-installation/wind-matters?v=print, for example). With a very small turbine, the cost of the tower to get a turbine up this high can dwarf the cost of the turbine itself. If turbines are installed at lower heights, they are likely to fail prematurely from turbulent air, and will usually not perform well. Often solar electric systems are more cost effective, even in areas with a marginal solar resource.

But that wasn't exactly your question. For a good rundown of a number of home-scale wind turbines, check out https://www.homepower.com/articles/wind-power/equipment-products/2014-wind-turbine-buyers-guide. These are probably bigger than you would need, but will give you a good sense of what quality equipment is in this market, and their cost.

Some other potentially useful links:

Hugh Piggott, a very knowledgable small wind expert, particularly for home-built turbines: https://www.scoraigwind.com or https://scoraigwind.co.uk.

Wind Empowerment: https://windempowerment.org

Best, Best,

Louis