Is wind power a reasonable option for a house with a constant wind?
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at
4:46 pm
I have land on a hill over looking the sea and I was wondering if when I build on this land, would a modern wind mill would be practical.
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It might be practical in combination with a solar system if the wind is steady enough both day and night and not just seasonal. Remember that you can charge batteries during the night when you are not using much power if you have sufficient capacity. I would use a traditional solar water heater in any case and some solar panels to supplement your water heating needs for less windy days. I would also have a backup diesel or propane powered generator, because you can’t depend on nature to be there for you all the time.
If you have a water source across your land and emptying into the sea, you may have enough pressure head for some generation that way.
There is a lot of info on the web you might peruse for estimates of required capacities. Lots of people do this sort of thing, but you usually have to be willing to deal with lower load capacity and possibly low voltage appliances. RV appliances can help to take care of this problem. Also, cheap inverters have been available for a number of years now that will work for some purposes.
Small-scale wind turbine systems can be purchased for individual usage, reducing or eliminating one’s dependence on the electric grid. If your location has nearly constant wind, it might be an ideal location to use one.
I don’t think you can depend only upon wind power for the total needs requiered by domestic use energy, You can do so for lighting, radio and TV, and some low consumption gadgets but may need larger amounts for cooking (+/- 40.000 BTUH) , heating and water heating(+/- 5Kw).
As the storage of energy for wind powered systems is done in battery banks, is neither cheap nor efficient to maintain a large bank of batteries to produce enough power as to satisfy the total load.
If you have cold winters, I recommend to combine the wind powered system with gas power.
Also, see that your Architect, provide good insulation for walls and roof, end locate the house such as to receive solar radiation to reduce heating loads.
Is good idea to complement your system with solar panels for water heating purposes.