I am thinking of trying to build a wind mill to produce energy. I would like to know if it realy works.?

Question

I live in Ky and looking to buikd a wind mill and would like to know if anyone has one or knows anyone with one. And if so are they easy to build and maintaine and if they pay for themselves.

Answer 1

Solar energy is better. After it's set up all you really have to do is wash it off 4 or 5 times a year. Solar has no moving parts as well and generally requires less maintenance . Wind energy is really only good in extremely windy areas. See if you live in one of those areas.

Answer 2

What kind of windmill?

The ones you see in old rustic farm opicture do not produce energy, their usually run a water pump.  The big Dutch windmills are used to grind grain.

The big power vanes that are becoming popular (The ones that look like a huge aircraft engine) are quite complicated and expensive.  It is VERY difficult to get them to  synchronize, and you need some sort of fixed-frequency alternator system to product 60-cycle AC current for your home.

Gnerally speaking, they do not pay off in a single-dwelling situation.  

You would be betetr off to consider solar energy, including both storage batteris and solar powered water heating.  The investment is much less expensive than wind power.

Answer 3

To answer your question Yes, it absolutely works.

I built a windmill myself just a couple weeks ago to try and save money on electricity.

It was pretty easy to build, I did it on a Saturday afternoon, and I got everything I needed from the hardware store. Total cost was less than $150.

I have it powering a couple of lamps and a TV and so far it has worked perfectly. I am expecting good savings on my energy bill in the months to come.

Here are the plans I used:

http://energyfromhome.com/link.html

Best of luck

Answer 4

Depending on your energy costs it may or may not pay for itself. Generally, they're quite expensive to set up and usually take a long time to pay for themselves. Not only do you need the turbine but also some form of energy storage and also a converter to switch it from DC to AC. The situation in which they're generally useful is things like cottages where the cost of running power lines out to the cottage would be prohibitive.

That being said, I don't want to discourage you. It's definitely a cool project and something I would like to try. I just warn against doing it for economic reasons.