The Newest Developments in Home Wind Turbines
Wind generator technology has been available for decades and has been steadily improving. The vast improvements in the past decade have allowed it to be increasingly used for home production of electricity Since they generate more power than ever while being smaller and quieter, modern wind turbines can be a very good source of alternative energy for many homeowners.
Size and the requirement of a consistent, very strong wind were the larges problems with early types of wind generators. Early versions of windturbines required very strong and consistent wind to get them turning. Even though they generated large amounts of electricity when they were turning, they were not good fits for many homeowners due to their size and height requirements. Because of the residential areas in which these wind turbines were being used, they needed to be mounted quite high up in the air. They had to be higher than other buildings and trees so that they would be exposed to as strong of a wind as possible to allow them to produce their maximum electricity. Because of this, an expensive, heavy duty, and often ugly tower had to be erected on which the wind turbine was mounted. Many towns also have restrictions on tower heights and wind turbine installations. These older, larger units were better suited for locations that had larger lots with areas that were open and not impacted by tall trees and building.
Modern wind generator designs have reduced the size of the turbine and helped homeowners with smaller lots or in areas with trees or buildings. The smaller, more modern wind turbines need much less wind to spin. Because of innovative construction materials, newer wind generators are also much lighter than older models. Because of this, even though they aren’t mounted at high up, they can still produce a lot of power. The blade design of these more modern wind generators is more efficient which allows them to be more efficient and also much quieter. This can be a big advantage in smaller neighborhoods and will allow many homeowners to install these newer turbines without disturbing their neighbors.
The more recent wind turbines can turn more quickly and generator energy sooner than the bigger ones because they are much lighter. For a wind generator to work, it needs to be able to rotate into the wind for proper blade orientation. A rudder on the tail is usually used to accomplish this. With the larger wind turbines it took a strong wind to orient them before they could start spinning to generate power. In many cases they could miss a smaller wind completely and never generate energy. The newer, less heavy wind turbines can start spinning and thus producing electricity more quickly because of the lower requirement for wind to orient them. This means that even though these older and larger wind turbines could generate more power when they were spinning than the newer versions, they were actually spinning less often. Because of this, these newer smaller wind generators can generate almost as much energy over the course of a year as these larger versions since they are spinning more consistently. Many of the more recent wind generators can be mounted directly to a roof and significantly reduce installation costs because of their much smaller size.