Homeowners, small businesses install turbines to cut long-term energy costs
April 25, 2009 By Carolyn StarksSteve and Sue Kirkham's home sits atop a hill where the wind can be strong enough to mute conversations and rattle lawn chairs. Instead of complaining, they decided to harness its power.
The Harvard, Ill., couple is installing a small wind turbine on their property -- a 34-foot-tall modern-day windmill that they say will make them a bit more energy self-reliant and they hope will save them money.
"It's primarily to reduce our electric bills long term and to do something good for the environment," Steve Kirkham, 52, said. "We have all this wind up here, we might as well utilize it."
Residential wind turbines are becoming a larger part of the renewable energy picture, and more homeowners are harnessing the wind to help them reduce energy costs. The small turbines also are being purchased by some small businesses and schools.
Rhodes School in west suburban River Grove, Ill., installed a wind turbine April 9, as a teaching tool and to conserve energy, said John Mertes, director of technology for Rhodes School District 84{. He said he believes Rhodes is the first urban school in the state to install a small turbine. It is expected to generate 400 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, which is about half the energy needs of a small household.
In about two weeks, Chicago will host the 2009 Windpower Conference & Exhibition, which is the world's largest annual wind energy event and is sponsored by the American Wind Energy Association. The association said Illinois is ranked eighth among the states in the number of wind turbines installed.
New federal incentives also are spurring interest, energy experts say.
For 2008, homeowners could claim a federal tax credit for 30 percent of the cost of a wind turbine, though the credit was capped at about $4,000. The stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed in February removed the caps.
Depending on the size, the cost of buying and installing a turbine ranges from $14,000 to $20,000, experts say.
"We've definitely seen an interest for small wind turbines, especially in Illinois, which is a great place for wind especially as you move further away from the city and get a lot of open land," said Miriam Robbins, marketing director for Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff, Ariz., the largest producer of small wind turbines in the country.
The company began manufacturing small wind turbines in late 2006. They've sold more than 3,500 nationally, Robbins said.
Most turbines need at least 10-m.p.h. winds to be efficient, which is what the Kirkhams say they have in rural Harvard. Their electricity bill has been going up about $300 a year -- to about $1,500 in 2007 -- and they hope their investment -- just under $20,000 -- will pay off.
The turbine is expected to generate 40 to 90 percent of their power needs, said Ray O'Connor, the McHenry County electrician who installed it.
Any extra energy that the Kirkhams' turbine produces will be fed back to Commonwealth Edison. When this happens, ComEd will keep track of the amount of power and provide a credit to reduce any future energy draws.
Last year, Ivanhoe Nursery near Mundelein, Ill., had a 100-foot-tall wind turbine installed to augment solar energy panels, which generate energy for the 400-acre farm.
"We got great tax incentives," said farm manager Tony Zimmerman. "Ours is much larger than what a homeowner would get, but I would say it is generating 15 to 20 percent of our energy needs. But it is fairly new. We'll have to wait and see."
Troy Rudy said his company, Northern Illinois Wind Power in Freeport, Ill., has installed 19 residential and small-business turbines in seven counties. He has sold five this year, and next month will put one in the Smart Home exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.
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(c) 2009, Chicago Tribune.
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Oct 31, 2008 |
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Homeowners, small businesses install wind turbines to capture genereous subsidies, export useless intermittent electricity to the electrical grid.
It has definitely saved me money, although it took about 6 weeks to cover the cost of all the parts. But it is definitely a solution and much cheaper than buying one.
I found the guide through this site http://www.CostSucker.com
The deepest hole ever drilled is the Kola Superdeep borehole at 12.2 km. This hole was drilled for research purposes.
The target of 15 km could not be reached since the projected temperature of 300 degrees celcius would have been too hot for the drill-bit to work.
The cost goes up very rapidly with increasing depth. Given that the deepest boreholes economical for oil production is about 6 km. How do you expect geothermal boreholes, which bring up on the order of 50 times less energy per volume pumped, to be economical?
What about geothermal heat pumps [or ground source heat pumps ]?An overlooked source of "free" energy,no deep drilling,constant and very cost effective
I looked into this for my home. it wasn't feasable given the layout of my property and building, and its closeness to other existing structures. You need to either drill deep and narrow or shallow and very wide. For some people in more rural settings, or if you were building from scratch the house and incorporated it in at that time, it might work out.
http://geologyeco...y_crisis
Thats meeeeeee !!! :)
Sorry ,being selfish there for a minute,but some urban properties can utilise vertical "bundles" with a degree of success
Geothermal is a bit of misnomer.
A heat pump moves heat from cold to hot, the maximum efficiency it can operate at is related to the temperatures of the hot reservoir (your house) and cold reservoir(the bottom of a lake, air, the earth beneath your house...).
Several meters under the earth the temperature is "annualized" to the yearly average, which is higher than the fridgid outside temperature. This allows you to increase the coefficient of performance of a heat pump from ~3 to ~5(resistance heating has a COP of 1). This still represents a USE of electricity, you still need a source.
If you hermetically seal your house and do all ventilation centrally through a high-quality(big, expensive) counter-flow heat exchanger you can almost eliminate heating and cooling demands from ventilation.
The problem with these things is that they don't repay themselves fast enough and many people have too much debt load as it is and cannot add more.
Chances are, neither is your house.
Wind generators are simple, eff and should be cost effective. Sadly most ones being sold are way overpriced.
One can build eff, very cost effective ones yourself. I'd suggest joining a RE or wind generator list or yahoo group or yahoo Axial flux wind generators. No need to buy a $50 guide as it's all available for free online. So are the parts needed.
Since it cost less than $300/kw in parts retail there is no reason they should cost more than $1k/kw. I've built quite a few so I know first hand.
I have and many do use wind generators for our power needs and you can too if you find those who are doing it themselves that have no business interest in it to guide you.