New Home Wind Generator Developments
For decades now, wind power technology has been improving. In the past ten years or so, it has seen vast improvements and has been used more and more for home generation of electricity. Since they produce more power than ever while being smaller and quieter, modern wind generators can be a great source of alternative energy for many homeowners. There are now even DIY guides to teach homeowners how to build a wind turbine..
The most significant problem with early versions of wind generators was that they were big and required a very strong and consistent wind to get them turning. While they were spinning they produced a considerable quantity of power, but because of their height and size requirements, they were not a good fit for many homeowners. Because these wind turbines were being used in residential environments, they needed to be mounted very high in the air to catch a consistent wind. They had to be higher than other buildings and trees so that they would be exposed to as strong of a wind as possible to allow them to generate their maximum power. In order to accomplish this, the wind generator had to be mounted at the top of a heavy duty, and often ugly, tower which was expensive and could cause complaints from neighbors. To make matters worse, there are restrictions on tower height or wind turbine installation in many towns. Large, open areas, free from tall buildings and trees were a better fit for these old, large units.
People with homes on smaller lots, or in areas with buildings or trees have been helped by these modern wind turbine designs. The smaller, newer wind generators need much less wind to turn. Because of innovative construction materials, more recent wind generators are also much lighter than older models. Because of this, even though they aren’t mounted at high up, they can still generate a lot of energy. Another improvement in these more modern wind generators is their blade design which allows them to be more efficient with the wind they receive and quieter as well. These more modern wind turbines are also much quieter and more efficient thanks to their blade design. This can be a big advantage in smaller neighborhoods and will allow many homeowners to install these newer turbines without disturbing their neighbors.
Another advantage to these more recent wind generators is that because they are lighter, they can orient themselves more quickly and actually generate power sooner than their larger counterparts. For a wind turbine to work, it needs to be able to rotate into the wind for proper blade orientation. Generally, this is done with a rudder on the tail. With the larger wind turbines it took a strong wind to orient them before they could start spinning to generate power. In a light wind, they might not even spin up and never generate power. Because of the much lower wind requirement for spinning up, the newer, lighter wind generators can spin up and start producing power more quickly. So, the older, larger wind generators were spinning less often even though they would generator more power when they were actually spinning. Because of this, these newer smaller wind generators can produce almost as much power over the course of a year as these larger versions since they are spinning more consistently. Installation costs can be considerably less with these more receint wind generators because they can be mounted directly to roofs. For any homeowner looking to produce renewable power from a passing breeze, a homemade wind turbine can be the perfect alternative.
