Home Wind Turbines: Residential Wind Power Generation Explained

Using a Wind Turbine for Home Energy

How To Use Wind Power At Home Today

Wind turbines can be an excellent way of producing clean, renewable energy on a mass scale, provided it is located in a windy area. The wind turbine is attached to a tower, which rises 100ft above the ground to take advantage of the faster wind speeds at higher altitudes.

Because these turbines are tall, the area they take up is mostly high up, which means that the ground area they use is notably small. This remaining space can instead be used for farming or building, or indeed for more of them to be installed.

Of course, installing a wind turbine isn’t the only way to take advantage of wind power for homes, and it’s not practical for many of us. Unless you live on acres of land in the country, a wind turbine just isn’t practical. Your neighbors in the suburbs won’t be happy, and it’s out of the question if you live in an apartment!

Choosing to switch to a renewable energy plan is the much better solution and way to take advantage of wind power for homes, not to mention it’s much (much!) cheaper than building a wind turbine, only takes a few minutes to do, and gives you all the benefits of renewable energy.

That’s exactly what we offer here at Inspire: all the environmental benefits of wind power, but without the tens of thousands of dollars a wind turbine costs. If you want to learn more about switching to a renewable energy plan, click here.

Can a wind turbine power your home?

The power a wind turbine generates could indeed power a home. Large turbines at wind farms can generate a huge amount of power in just one day, in some cases, enough to power a single home for an entire year.

While it may seem like a good idea to install your own wind turbine at home, they are a huge upfront investment, so if you don’t plan to live on that property for the rest of your life, it likely won’t make financial sense to do so.

In any other case, using a simple energy plan with a trusted renewable energy company may be a much cheaper and easier way to do this.

The short answer is yes. The long answer is, it depends on the size of your home, how much energy you need, and the annual average wind speed in your area.

Your household could easily be powered by wind power and solar energy with an Inspire energy plan. Clean energy can be supplied directly to any size household regardless of whether you actually live in a windy area or not.

By simply switching to clean energy, you eliminate the need to estimate the amount of energy you’ll need every year, learn how to size, install and wire a turbine, calculate the elevation of the terrain surrounding your home, and many other complicated steps that are necessary to even begin the process of assessing whether or not it’s worth installing your own.

How do residential wind turbines work?

The function of a residential wind turbine is the same as that of a larger scale wind turbine; it’s just smaller and only serves one property. A wind power generator for home use turns naturally occurring wind power into electricity, using the aerodynamic force from the rotor blades.

Before looking at home wind power systems, you would need to research the amount of wind around your area, the zoning requirements and covenants in your area, and any protestation from other local residents. You’ll also need to calculate whether the turbine would earn the money back so that you end up saving money. You’d then have to estimate the turbine’s annual energy output and choose the best size turbine and tower, before deciding whether to connect the system to the electric grid or not.

Once you have chosen your turbine, you’ll need to figure out the logistics of installing it, and you’ll need to know how to pour a proper cement foundation. You’ll need access to a lift or a way of erecting the tower safely. You’ll need to know the difference between alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) wiring, how to safely handle and install batteries, as well as how to safely wire your turbine.

As you can see, setting up a wind turbine at home is not a small investment, both when it comes to money and time. Luckily, there are much easier ways to connect your home directly to wind power.

Are there companies that will supply wind energy to my home?

Yes! Your energy supplier can be easily changed to a more sustainable and renewable source with relative ease, and that’s exactly what we do here at Inspire Clean Energy. It’s our goal to provide energy that looks at the big picture and helping stop the damage done to the environment through traditional fossil fuels. Since we began our journey towards a more ecologically sustainable planet, we have prevented the equivalent of 1,190,747 metric tons of greenhouse gases. We offer easy and consistent wind power for unlimited home use. Aside from switching to a clean energy supplier, there are many ways you can live more sustainably, like learning how to save energy at home.

How much wind power is needed to power a home?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. Each home is sized differently and has different energy needs, but the typical American home uses about 10,932 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

How much power can a home wind turbine produce?

According to Energy.gov’s [1] guide to installing and maintaining a home wind turbine, a 1.5-kilowatt turbine meets the needs of a single home that uses 300KwH per month, in a location with an annual average wind speed of 14mph.

The location of a site is also worth mentioning here – according to the National Wind Watch, wind turbines produce at or above their average rate around 40% of the time. Conversely, they produce little or no power approximately 60% of the time. This means that, for much of the time, wind turbines cannot serve as the only method of harnessing energy for a home, and a second source of energy would be necessary. This is even more relevant in a built-up area as wind will be reduced by other buildings.

What is the best wind turbine for home use?

If you’re thinking about investing in a wind turbine for home use, you’ll need to do a lot of research, and there’s definitely no easy answer! As previously mentioned, each home is built and sized differently, so the most effective way to guarantee that a home gets the cheapest, cleanest wind energy is to use a trusted, established supplier, instead of installing your own turbine.

We purchase clean, renewable energy from wind, solar, and geothermal sources located around the US and contribute it to the grid from which you get your electricity.

How much does it cost to install a wind turbine at home?

This depends on many factors. Once the wind turbine has been chosen for the specific site, one small factor can cause a huge increase in cost. For example, if a grid connection is not available or can only be made through an expensive extension, this can become extremely costly. Costs start at $15,000 – $50,000 per mile, depending on terrain, so it’s no small investment.

According to Windustry, a 10-kilowatt machine, which will power the average home home, costs $50,000-$80,000 or more to install in its entirety. Not exactly the kind of cash most of us have to invest in our energy use!

How long until a wind turbine pays for itself?

Again, this would be difficult to ascertain as each individual home has different energy needs. It would be a significant amount of time – potentially even decades – before a home wind turbine saves enough energy that it pays for itself. Also, the benefits of mass-produced, commercially-built wind turbines are so much greater that it almost doesn’t seem worth it. As wind farms expand in rural areas, the local economy receives a boost and can fix roads, fund law enforcement and keep taxes low.

Wind farms also reduce the amounts of fossil fuels burned, thus reducing the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that pollute the air. These reductions in air pollution have saved spending on medication from emphysema and respiratory issues, which saved a massive $9.4 billion of public spending in 2018 alone.

How to Generate Wind Power at Home

Switch to Renewable Energy and Leave it to the Professionals

In most cases, the safer, cheaper, and easier option is to leave the wind turbines to the professionals. If your reason for looking into installing your own wind turbine is due to concerns about the environment, Inspire Energy is with you all the way.

You can sign up in just two minutes, and when you do, we buy more clean energy on your behalf, increasing the demand, and the amount of clean energy on the grid. And when there’s more clean energy on the grid, we aren’t relying on fossil fuels and aren’t contributing to climate change.

Not sure if renewable energy is right for you? Read the latest Inspire Energy reviews to see how we've helped customers make the switch.