Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

also called large wind. There’s also small wind, which refers to turbines that have a capacity of 100 kilowatt-hours or less, and these turbines are being considered more and more for residential use.

Here’s how it usually works. The wind turbine provides all—or some—of the power you need for your home, but your house is still connected to the grid. That way you can get electricity from your local utility company during those times when there’s no wind or not quite enough. If the wind turbine produces even more power than you need, you can feed that excess power into the grid via net metering—so again, you’re literally selling electricity to the utility company.

With this kind of residential wind power system, there’s no need for a battery setup like I have at home. But if you install a wind turbine and you’re not connected to the grid—if you live in a remote area or if you choose not to connect for whatever reason—then you would need a means of storing power at your home. A stand-alone battery system would provide a reserve for those days when there’s not enough wind.

It’s very common for wind turbine owners who have totally electric homes—that is, people who have no gas appliances whatsoever—to pay as little as $8 to $15 a month for their utilities nine months out of the year. True, those bills are likely to be higher in the summertime, when the air-conditioning is running, but for three-quarters of the year, they pay next to nothing for electricity, beyond the price of installing the system, of course.

What does this type of system cost? According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a small turbine can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $22,000 installed, so the investment is not insubstantial. But in several years it will pay for itself, much like my solar electric system has.

It’s important to note that the typical residential wind turbine is not appropriate for every home. These are still pretty large devices, and the rule of thumb is that you need to have at least an acre of land to install one. They’re not legal in many more densely populated areas, they can be noisy, and they’re not always bird or wildlife friendly. It’s like having a giant Cuisinart spinning away in your backyard. To be honest, they kind of scare me.

But now there’s another option. A new type of small wind turbine is much better suited to an urban environment, and it’s more affordable. It’s called a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT), and I just installed a 500-watt VAWT on the roof of my garage.

This way I’ve got solar during the day and then, when the sun goes down, I’m still making energy with the VAWT, which actually runs 24/7. So you could say I’ve got a true hybrid power system for my home.

I’ll let my friend Ken Johnson, COO of PacWind, tell you more about wind power and VAWTs.

Ed’s Green Friend: PacWind

Wind power is, and always has been, the most inexpensive form of alternative energy available to us today. And because of this, it is also one of the fastest-growing segments of the alternative-energy sector. Our winds are ever present, and the amount of wind available to us is infinite. Wind turbines produce zero emissions. They relieve our dependence on foreign oil. They help keep our environment clean for future generations. And they help educate all of us about the need for constant awareness of our fragile environment.

When you think of wind power, you probably picture massive towering structures with swooping blades in our mountain passes and cornfields. This type of wind power comprises the “large wind” industry. This industry supplies clean wind energy to our power grids with the hopes of meeting future demand for power and also the critical need to convert our energy supplies to clean, renewable sources worldwide.

On a smaller scale, when people are looking to rid themselves of their ever-increasing electric bills and to help maintain our environment, they generally utilize a small wind turbine. This is a great way to produce power in rural areas. But to put a sizable dent in our current climate and energy crisis, we need to be able to harness the power of the wind in the populated areas of our world.

Propeller turbines, which dominate the current small-wind industry, have several severe drawbacks that prevent their use in these populated areas, including very high noise levels, instability, and safety concerns. So, then, how do we utilize our infinite supply of wind where we need it the most: in our cities, towns, and backyards?

PacWind has created a full line of revolutionary vertical-axis wind turbines that address this problem. The PacWind designs spin on a vertical axis, rather than a horizontal one, as propellers do, which makes them more adaptable to all types of urban and rural environments.

Our vertical-axis turbines are:

• completely silent

• stable

• safe in all wind conditions up to 100-plus mph

• virtually maintenance-free

• built to last a lifetime

And they can be installed nearly anywhere—around buildings of all shapes and sizes, on homes, boats, bridges, telecom sites, oil rigs, billboards, streetlights, parking lot lighting, and irrigation/water pumping stations. Wherever the wind blows, you can install one.

PacWind turbines can also be stacked vertically in tower configurations where large amounts of power are needed in small amounts of space. We believe these designs will change how we all look at and utilize wind energy. We like to say: Urban wind power has finally arrived.

—Ken Johnson

An Easy Way to Go Green

Say you don’t want to make any kind of an investment in your home, even the modest deposit fees involved in leasing solar equipment. Or perhaps none of these options are viable for your location. You can still get greener power into your home—probably through the very same utility company you are now using.

Here’s how it works. The local utility company goes out and buys new green power in the