By Ian Woofenden and Mick Sagrillo
There’s a lot of preparatory work to do before you get to see your wind turbine’s blades spin. It includes understanding how much energy you need (or want), how to use energy efficiently, how much wind energy you have available at your site, and how to match your needs with your resource. After you’ve covered this ground, you can start to consider which wind turbine and what balance of system components to buy, and how to install them.
Energy Analysis First
If you want to install a wind-electric system, the first step is to determine how much electricity you use. Electrical energy is measured in kilowatt-hours (KWH), and one way or another, you need to discover how many of them you use per month.
You could learn to read your utility meter and check it multiple times over the year. But it’s easier to simply contact your utility, which will usually supply a summary of the past year’s electrical usage. If you’re planning a new home, you’ll need to estimate your electrical use. Reviewing utility bills from your current home may give you a good estimate if you’re going to use a similar range of appliances. But in the end, this will only be a guess, since your actual usage may vary considerably. The goal of the analysis is to come up with the number of KWH per year that you want your wind system to generate.
Without this number, you’re guessing, and may end up being unhappy with your investment in wind power. If you say you want to make “a lot” of electricity, wind energy experts will tell you that the system will cost “a lot” of money. If you say you want to make 150 KWH per month, your renewable energy installer will be able to suggest a few turbine options and give you a cost in dollars, or at least an informed estimate.
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