Wind Turbine Needs

Submitted by bpo on Fri, 04/17/2009 - 10:39

For my second research blog I decide to find out what was actually required to be able to have a wind turbine for domestic use. I found all of this information from two different websites.
http://greennav.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/understanding-domestic-wind-power/
http://windpowergeneratorshome.com/

I felt that all of this information should be a main section of the white paper. Some of the smaller things could also be used to supplement the main section of the white paper. The first web page also had some graphics that I thought were informative and could also be used to supplement the information.

The first thing that you should do is calculate the amount of power that you use on a daily or yearly basis. This information can be obtained from you power company. After you have this information you can figure out what type of wind turbine you need as well as if wind power is a feasible solution for your power needs. The first thing that you will need to consider is batteries. If your turbine is going to produce more than enough energy for your home than you may want to have batteries to store the extra energy. If you have batteries you will then need to have an inverter. An inverter is used to convert the DC energy stored in the batteries to AC energy needed for your home. You will also need a yaw. A yaw is used to tilt the turbine in the direction of the wind. Depending on the size of your turbine you might need a gearbox. Most smaller turbines do not use gearboxes because they do not really provide any benefits to the smaller turbines.