The Truth About Small Wind Turbines
The Truth About Small Wind Turbines
Thinking about installing a small wind turbine? This page is for you: Here is the information that the less scrupulous manufacturers, dealers, and installers of small wind turbines would rather you do not know.
By now you are probably thinking “why would these guys tell me the truth? They sell small wind turbines!”. Yup, guilty as charged. We also want happy customers, and the two are not reconcilable unless we are upfront with you, our customer. Truth is, wind turbine sales are a tiny part of our revenue, and while we would regret losing you, we will still be able to put food on our kids’ plates.
You should know that we at Solacity love wind turbines! Can’t get enough of ’em. Where the neighbours see life-threatening, blade-shedding, bat-and-bird killing, noise-making contraptions, we see poetry in motion. Kinetic art at its finest; combining form, movement, and function all in one. We could stare at them for hours, while contemplating the meaning of life, the universe, and everything… and have… until the beer ran out. Despite all the information presented here, we are big fans of small wind turbines. This page is about informing you, so you can make a decision based on fact and not marketing hype.
This discussion is mainly about factory-made grid-tie wind turbines. The off-grid crowd has an entirely different set of decisions and goals. The main ones are that for off-grid use economic viability in comparison with the electrical grid is not an issue, and a wind turbine can make up for the loss of sunlight (and PV electricity) in the winter months. For the DIY group there are several good turbine designs available; Hugh Piggott and the two Dans have written books that outline this step-by-step. Building your own turbine can be a great hobby, and some of the topics touched below apply (such as proper site selection), but this discussion is not about those. The decisions involved in making your own turbine, and the cost basis, have little overlap with a the process of having an installer put a factory-made turbine in your backyard.
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