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Residential Wind Turbines are a great idea for generating your own energy. Depending where you live, there’s always wind! Generally speaking, a residential sized wind turbine will help supplement your electricity bill. While the really big ones, which we see periodically in open fields, are usually situated amongst many other of the same wind turbine and they can produce enough electricity to power hundreds of homes

The residential wind turbines are a great plan. You can use them for very light duty like keeping recreational vehicle batteries charged. If you scale it up then you are into a back-up electricity source or even a steady source which is supplementing your regular electricity source.  The net result is a drastically lower electricity bill.

The simplest explanation of how a residential wind turbine works is:  The wind spins the rotor, which is connected to a transmission (a very small wind turbineran does not need a transmission)l. The transmission matches the speed of the rotor and the alternator/generator (from hereon we’ll just call it a generator). At this point the generator is producing electricity. From here the generator is charging DC batteries which are connected to an inverter.  The inverter takes the battery’s DC power and makes it into AC for household use.

Here’s a simple diagram which shows the basics. Keep in mind that there are more components like an automatic disconnect switch to protect the rest of the service from abnormalities, like a lightning strike.

There are also bi-laws to observe from State to State and if you are up in the North, from Province to Province. Height restrictions, proximity to the neighbor’s house, decibel level etc.

If your wind turbine is set up to produce a fair bit of electricity, there may actually be days where you use less than what you produce.  Now in some areas you can be allowed to sell back  electricity to the grid which ultimately lowers your bill. This is called net-metering or net-billing. Again, this may not be available in your area. If it is available, then the  hydro company will, most likely, want to come out and check out your equipment. To make sure it’s up to their standards and that the power output and quality properly matches the power grid’s characteristics. I

There is actually much to be gained from this whole exercise, if done properly. Of course there is a sizable cash investment, which you will get back in time.  It is sizable if you purchase everything ready-made and brand new. For you do-it-yourselfers, there are blueprints and manuals which will guide you through getting the basic parts and constructing everything yourself at a fraction of the cost.