| By :
Roger Brown
Before we can answer that question, we need to know where you live. The wind is not the same everywhere. Some areas of the country, like Texas, are wind Nirvana - others, like Georgia, are weak. Check your area with this Department of Energy Wind Map. That being said there are a number of new products on the market that will allow the blades to turn with very low wind - I am talking 1-2 mph. That is not much wind at all. The wind is a lot wimpier down low, like if you mount the wind turbine on your roof. Up higher, like at 100 feet high, the wind is in general a lot better and a turbine will produce savings in more places. How much does a home wind turbine kit cost? The short answer to that is $10,000 - $50,000. There are 2 components to that the answer to that question: 1. Cost to purchase the kit 2. Cost to install the kit and hook it up to the electrical grid How will I save money with using residential wind turbines? At the present time there is a 30% federal Wind Tax Credit . You will save money by offsetting the kilowatt-hours you normally buy from your electricity utility. Those kilowatt-hours can cost anywhere from $.03 to over $.33 each, depending on where you live. In states with a lot of hydroelectric power the cost is very low. States where the power is generated by oil, like Hawaii, the costs are closer to the high end of that range. The prices of the turbines are the same no matter where you buy them, so if the power costs are low, justifying the investment in a home wind turbine is difficult to justify from a return on investment perspective. Paybacks can be over 10 years. On the other hand, if power costs are at the higher end of the scale, the paybacks can be less than a year. It is unlikely that you will produce enough power with your wind turbine to get your home completely off the utility-supplied electric grid but you can significantly cut down on what you buy. What are the problems with residential wind turbines? Well, not much goes wrong with them but you need to have a clear plan for how you will get repairs and order replacement parts and blades. Most blades are not universal and you will have to continue to purchase replacements from the company that you bought the kit from.
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