Wind turbines capture kinetic energy from the wind, converting it to electricity by using a reduction gear to take the slow moving fan blades to run a fast generator in the center, which then delivers electricity to the house. If your utility uses net metering, any excess electricity you generate is credited against your bill – indeed, in some months, the local electric "bill" is a check because you gave them more electricity than you used. Most turbine companies will send a crew out to set up the turbine, and help you fill out the paperwork with your utility.

The primary benefit, from an engineering standpoint, of home wind power generators is that they eliminate the overhead caused by transmission line power losses. While an individual wind power generator isn’t as efficient as an individual coal fired burner on a BTUs to kilowatts basis, the reduction in transformer and power line losses makes up for it. In terms of carbon offsets, for a typical household use, a wind power generator offsets about 1.2 tons of sulfates and nearly 200 tons of CO2.

A typical wind power turbine costs about $12,000, with larger ones going to $20,000 and will last for 20 years. Dividing even a high end one by 240 months (20 years times 12 months) will give a per month cost of around $85; the question becomes "Will it save you more than $85/month in electricity bills?"  And the answer to that is dependant on your location and local zoning ordnances. Fortunately, wind turbines are very low maintenance, and as demand for them rises, prices are coming down. There are models for as low as $6,000 available now.

It’s an open matter as to whether or not a wind power generator increases your property’s resale value. In some markets, where green consciousness is high, it is – in others, where having a giant fan sticking out of the backyard is considered an eyesore, or blocks line of sight for the neighbors, it’s definitely not – talk to your local community advocacy groups to get the lay of local opinion before installing one.

Wind Power Facts

Modern wind power generators don’t grind grain or run pumps; they’re turbines that generate electricity that’s stored in battery units or used directly. Using modern construction techniques, modern wind power turbine blades are made of lightweight materials so they can turn freely as they catch the wind; a set of reduction gears takes the angular momentum of the turning blades and spins a small electrical generator inside the housing; the power is either stored in a battery for local use (for a home based wind generator) or put directly into the electrical grid.

At current prices, wind power is still more expensive per kilowatt-hour generated from coal, at least until the costs of pollution and CO2 remediation is factored in. Once those factors are put into place, it becomes a bit more competitive, but is still a marginal case. Most homeowners who install private wind power generators do so to have a public display of their environmental "green-ness", and to trim down their electrical bills.

Equipment And Location

The archetypal image of wind power generation is a tower with a three bladed "fan" rotating on the end of it – they’re called wind turbines. These tall towers (as tall as 50 feet high in some areas) use both active and computer guidance to have the blades of the fan facing the incoming wind; some also have solar generation plants. They’re usually painted haze gray so that they’ll blend in with the sky, though even this causes some communities to vote against them as eyesores.

The "Not In My Back Yard!" attitude has driven a lot of innovation in the wind power market, including moving them out of marked migratory paths, and into offshore locations, where they’re often tied with tidal bed generators. Moving wind power sites offshore lets them use the generally stronger ocean winds to move them, but also causes problems with wear and tear due to the effects of salt water and constant battering by waves on the pilings at the base of the tower.

Rural Use of Wind Power

The other effect of the "NIMBY" attitude mentioned above is that rural areas are the dominant users of wind power – particularly in the Great Plains and mountain west, where a lot of no longer viable ranching land is available, there’s plenty of room to put up forests of wind power turbines, and they can usually be made shorter, particularly in locales with strong wind.

Some of the older wind power generators used in rural areas actually bring to mind the windmills used to dry out the Zuider Zee in the Netherlands, and are used to draw groundwater from deep underground. Most were built to generate electricity in the Australian farm country, where getting conventionally supplied electricity to rural stations was almost impossible. These designs were then imported to the United States where they’ve made a deep impact.

As the social pressure for more "green" power sources grows, the demand for wind power generation is rising – and with it, hopes that the installation cost will drop. It’s still the costliest form of commercially viable power sold to the grid, and is something of a "boutique" power source. Even so, it’s a great way to add extra generating capacity to rural areas, and is affordable for home owners to install.