How does wind power for homes work, and do you have to rewire your home to use it?

Oct

How does wind power for homes work, and do you have to rewire your home to use it?

Archived in the category: wind power home

In the context of the home, you usually cannot generate power at stable enough voltage and frequency for reliable use.

So what they do is to generate DC (Direct Current) power, and then this is fed into an inverter, which converts it to AC at your supply voltage and frequency. The inverter is an electronic unit. Sometimes, there can be a battery banka as well, so that when everyone else is blanked out, you stll have power.

You will have to have some connection made to the house wiring, so this needs to be done by a registered electrician.

By the way, in principle, the same applies to solar energy panels.

Posted by: admin - 6 Comments

6 comments for “How does wind power for homes work, and do you have to rewire your home to use it?”

ZORCH

I've seen articles on it. Put a big (obnoxious) windmill in your backyard (offending all your neighbors). You probably don't get 120VAC directly, so you have to do some conversion, but it has been done in a few places. Makes the cover of magazines, but not done often enough to be a great option for the energy future. And, then there are the neighbors.
References :

October 30th, 2008 at 10:54 am

paducah_billy

The wind will turn a generator which will create the electricity. You will have to wire the output into your home. You will need to contact your local electrical company for their guidance. And you will need the skills of an electricain to do the wiring.
References :

October 30th, 2008 at 11:42 am

DereKiwi

In the context of the home, you usually cannot generate power at stable enough voltage and frequency for reliable use.

You will have to have some connection made to the house wiring, so this needs to be done by a registered electrician.

By the way, in principle, the same applies to solar energy panels.
References :

October 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am

MikeY

It depends. The main problem is not so much the windmill but the fact that it only generates electricity when the wind is blowing it round – you may not want to use the electricity at that time and you may want to use it when the wind is not blowing. So, you spend money on your windmill and you don't necessarilly get electricity when you want it – if you are connected to mains power from an electricity company then that's not so bad, you can use windmill electricty when the wind is blowing hard enough and the companies electricity when it isn't – you might even be able to sell the electricity company the spare power that you generate when you don't want to use it. If your windmill is the only power supply though then you might prefer to look at ways of storing electricity until you want to use it when the wind isn't blowing. There are a number of ways of doing this – depending on how much space you have and how much cash you have to spend. If you happen to have a huge lake high up on your land and can generate hydro-electricity for example then you might just use the windmill to pump water uphill back into your lake or you might fill a shed full of storage batteries or even crack water into hydrogen and oxygen to run back through a generator or fuel cell when you need the power.

You don't need to rewire your house in any of those cases but you do need to install a miniature transformer station which ensures that the electricity fed into your house looks just like the power companies electricity ( and if you are selling your spare electricity back to the power company they need to know how much you are effectively selling them and that it's at the right voltage and frequency and that the power factor/impedance is right, safety regs are complied with, legal access granted, etc. etc. etc.).
References :

October 30th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

Greg S

You can get windpower in a number of ways;
Most energy companys now offer a package where you recieve energy through renewable sources, (i.e. windpower.) This option is the best for people who live in cities as a windmill in a city will not work due to the air flow being manupulated by other buildings etc…
The other option would be to buy your own wind turbine, (don't wory! most governments offer grants for this if you apply for one.) You will also need to apply for planning permision, (If this is rejected take it to a higer level of authourity, it should eventualy be accepted because it is in the governments interest to use more renewable energy.) You Wll need to do a bit of rewiring. Energy from the turbine will need to go into what is effectivly a "booster" maximising the energy from the turbine, and creating an output to your house. You will also need a power "well" where energy from the turbine can be stored. Also, you will need to create a "spill." Here any access energy the turbine makes will overflow into the "spill"
The spill could be something like heating or lighting
References :

October 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Charles J

Answer, you don't have to rewire your house it stays the same. Wind power is very popular in west texas arizona and california. it can be done but it is expesive up front but with the increasing utility bills it will pay off in the long run. you can go online to windenergy they have a magazine you can get that is free that tells more indepth about the direction of windenergy in the future.
References :
Electrical Engineer

October 30th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

Cut Your Electric Bills