Building a Home made Windmill?

Question

Is building a home made windmill worth it?

Answer 1

Sorry, I call BS!

Assuming his bill has a $20 or so base charge and $0.10/kWh, his claimed reduction would be on the order of 3,500 kWh/month, or 42,000 kWh/year.

At 8,760 hours per year, this would require a 4.8 kW wind generator operating 100% of the time. Good commercial wind sites only operate roughly 30% of the time, which would require a 160 kW generator to produce that much energy. Google Altamont Pass and look at the pictures. Those are 600 kW machines.

The picture of the generator on the site referenced is probably 600W max (0.6kW) and unless you live in a REALLY windy area (IE, they have already built commercial wind turbines near your house) you will be lucky to see a 10% capacity factor, which means you would be lucky to generate about 525 kWh/year, saving you maybe $52/year, way, way less than he is claiming per month.

Build one if you want to play around, but don't do it figuring you're going to see this kind of reduction in your bill.

Answer 2

Yes, building a home made windbill is worth it! I built My Windmill With The Plans From This Site: http://instantproducts.info . It only took me 1 afternoon to do the entire thing. My electric bill went from 400 dollars a month to 50 dollars a month. I save 350 Dollars every month now! Give it a Try!