Saturday December 20, 2008, 11:14 am
from the article:

Before putting up a wind turbine, consider this:

How big a turbine should you get? It depends on how much electricity you use and what you want to accomplish. The average PG&E customer uses between 6,000 and 12,000 kilowatt (kW) hours annually in San Francisco. A turbine rated at 2.5 kilowatts with winds of 12 mph should produce about 500 kilowatt hours per month (6,000 kilowatts a year) or close to 100 percent of an average household's needs.

Your wind resource. The ideal wind speed for a home turbine is 10 to 12 mph. You can test this yourself by putting an anemometer on your roof.

Guarantees. While no one can guarantee exactly the amount of wind your home will experience, turbine manufacturers will guarantee that your turbine will produce a certain amount of electricity given the proper amount of wind. They can make this claim because wind turbines have censors that track the amount of wind they're taking in.

Height. With wind turbines, the higher they're placed the better. Since most communities have building height restrictions, it's important to check what is allowed in your community.

Rebates. The California Energy Commission's Emerging Renewables Program offers a rebate of $2.50 a watt for turbines that are rated to produce less than 7.5 kilowatts. There is also a federal tax rebate on qualified turbines installed until the end of 2016.

Costs. The Blue Green Pacific vertical-access turbine, designed to offset 20 percent of the typical household's electric needs, will sell for less than $5,000. Systems sold by Whirligig that will produce 1.5 to 50 kilowatts range from $15,000 to $135,000.

- Paul Kilduff
Resources

For more information on home wind turbines, go to the American Wind Energy Association's Web site at www.awea.org.

Whirligig Inc., www.whirligig-inc.com.

Blue Green Pacific, bluegreenpacific.com.

Monday December 22, 2008, 6:34 pm
Noted .