Residential Wind Turbines

[buckeyefarmer]

I looked at the skystream last year. Dealer around me installs them for around $12K last I checked. I think you can buy it for $8k or so if you want to install yourself. It has protection so that if you lose commercial power, it shuts down to prevent backfeed to avoid the situation others have been discussing. I've yet to find any system, wind or solor that has an adequate payback to bother installing.

 

[Eagleview]

Ok , ive done some Googleing and now know what Ron was saying . But it seems that the only real reason that utility companies do'nt want you to have batteries as well is because they do'nt want you to be self sufficient . There are many companies selling Grid Tied Solar systems with battery backup like the one ive supplied the link too below . What a crummy setup it would be to have Solar power without the capability of having power of your own to use at night or in emergencies or blackouts . I think the people that have no batteries have been lied to and are being ripped off . .Grid Tie With Battery Back-Up

 

[RonMar]

I'm still a little confused , if what you say above is correct . How then is a usefull amount of power fed back into the grid from the solar panels on a residential house without doing damage to itself ? And that same power not leathal to linesmen ?

When the grid is powered, and all the consumers attached to it are drawing power, your PV and inverter or wind plant and inverter can add to this power on the grid and lessen the load on the power company. But unless you have invested a fortune in a large size system, It is a drop in the grand canyon compared to what the power company is providing. But if the KW hours coming into your home have value, then any you can send back out also have value...

When the grid is not powered, say during a power failure or blackout, all those consumers and their electrical loads are still connected to it. The wires feeding your home are connected to all the other homes in your power company sub station zone. That could be hundreds or even thousands of homes. I am on the low end of the power consumption scale, but my average evening electrical load is around 2KW depending on what is running. It can peak as high as 15KW. The average US home probably has a 200A electric service for a peak capability of 48KW. If you take my low 2KW load and multiply it by a hundred or a thousand, you get a pretty large electric load in your grid zone.

If your little system, or a backup generator should get connected to this black hole of grid electrical load, it will attempt to power it. Your small power system will of course see this monster electric load like a dead short and immediately trip breakers, blow fuses, stall the engine powering the generator or let the magic smoke out of inverter components... That is why sometimes the lights go on and off a few times when power is restored after a failure. All the connected startup loads are too much for the power company to power all at once after a power failure, so they turn on zones slowly and allow the loads to stabelize before switching on another zone. If an added zone is too much load, they quickly shut it off till the other loads lessen enough to add that next consumer zone.

 

[RonMar]

Ok , ive done some Googleing and now know what Ron was saying . But it seems that the only real reason that utility companies do'nt want you to have batteries as well is because they do'nt want you to be self sufficient . There are many companies selling Grid Tied Solar systems with battery backup like the one ive supplied the link too below . What a crummy setup it would be to have Solar power without the capability of having power of your own to use at night or in emergencies or blackouts . I think the people that have no batteries have been lied to and are being ripped off . .Grid Tie With Battery Back-Up

I don't think they care if you have batteries. I think this has been a case of the market sorting out the situation. Most consumers vote with their wallet(which is why it is getting harder to find made in USA items these days) and batteries are not the most economic option for most consumers. A backup generator is more cost effective to deal with occasional power outtages.

 

[scesnick]

I've yet to find any system, wind or solor that has an adequate payback to bother installing.

There is a third option to alternate power. If you are lucky enough to have a stream on your property micro hydro is the cheapest alternate power out there. The payback time, depending on how much power you can make, is WAY lower than solar and wind. But the amount of power produced is site specific and can not be expanded on.
In my case I can make a minimum of 900kwH per month which is more than enough to power my whole house. The cost would depend on how much pipe your site would need but when I looked into it the price for my site, which would be a grid tie ( no batteries) would be right around $7,000 complete..
My electric bill right now is right around $150 a month so the whole system would pay for itself in 4 years..
Home Power - Micro Hydro and Solar Electric Systems

 

[ihookem]

A wind turbine doesn't generate enough electricty to pay the interest on the money spent for the project. I looked into a 1000 watt turbine @ 28 mph. wind speed , figuring i the wind blows enough to make 1/3 of 1000 watts, it would pay me back 3.5 cents per hour or 84 cents a day or 306 dollars a year. A 10k investment brings me back 400 dollars a year @ 4% interest. If the cost of solar would go down it would be a better deal, especially the 1 dollar a watt they have been talking about. I would have to get a wind turbine for about 4 or 5 k to make it worth it, and where I live the wind blows an awfull lot. Ten mi. north of here they put up 88 turbines. Twenty mi. west they want to put up another 103, so the wind must blow enough here.

 

[shvl73]

There is a good size wind farm up in northeast Maine, Mars Hill. I'd be curious if it was/is profitable on its own or due to subsidies. I've never been by when they weren't turning.