| By :
Roger Brown
Studying home wind turbine kits, like Windtura and Windspot, provides a great way to understand a whole lot of science about how the earth interacts with the sun. A deeper dive into local wind patterns and speeds will then tell you if you can make home wind work for you. A simple explanation of the process of creating winds goes like this… The sun heats the earth The warm earth then heats the air above it and it risesAs the warm air rises, it is replaced by colder airThis resulting flow of air is our "wind" In-depth explanation goes like this… 1. The sun heats the earth: The surface of the earth is not consistent. Areas around the equator get a lot more sun. Rocks, water, and soil all absorb heat differently and all radiate heat differently. Also, because of the earth's rotation, the sun doesn't heat the earth at all at night. 2. The warm earth then heats the air above it: Since heat expands, as the air rises, it takes up more space. Also, as it expands and fills a larger volume, it weighs less per unit of area. 3. As the warm air rises it is replaced by colder air: As the warm air rises and expands, the area it occupied has to get replaced by something. That something is colder air. This is what creates differences in pressure. "Low" pressure areas that create many of our weather patterns is created when warm air rises. That is why we see wind preceding severe summer weather. 4. This resulting flow of air is "wind": The actual pattern of the wind is made more complicated by the fact that air wants to "stick" to the surface of the earth. Furthermore, the rotation of the earth causes Corriolis Effect, which results in air that is moving northward try to turn in an easterly direction and air that is originally flowing southward wants to make a turn toward the west. It is important to understand your local patterns of wind in order to maximize the performance of your home wind turbine. As a rule of thumb, you will need an average wind of 9 mph to make the economics of home wind work. There are 2 actions you need to take to understand how your local wind will help you or hurt you. 1. Visit Wunderground on the Internet to learn about average winds in your city. That investigation will help give you and idea if you are in the right ballpark. 2. Then, it is wise to validate what you have learned at www.Wunderground.com by sampling the wind on your property by renting or buying an anemometer. You should let the anemometer record wind at different places on your property for about a month and then analyze the data you collect. If you have at least 9 mph, then home wind turbine kits are probably the right thing for you.
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