Everything you hear regarding residential wind power is not positive. Even though it is an excellent way to cut power costs at your home, there are certain things about this type of system that can make it a problem.

These are the residential wind project elements that cause many people problems….

Where to locate the device – This is always a problem because there are usually 4 or 5 places that look like where you could install a home wind turbine and make it work. The first step is always to look and see if you have options. Many people do, many people do not have options. The only way to find out for sure is to do some testing.

Knowing how much wind is enough – You need at approximately 6 miles per hour of average wind to make one of these devices work for you. But to understand what the averages, you got to get an anemometer and put it in the places where you might install a wind turbine and there’s just no substitute for doing this. It is great to take a high-level view and look at Internet data to be able to determine if you are in the right ballpark, but the problem with doing that is all the wind in the world is “local”. By local I’m mean that just because your community has a lot of wind doesn’t mean that you will on your property. Or, that you will have enough to make a wind turbine project work.

However, the biggest downside of residential wind energy is the fact that it is more expensive than utility provided power right now. This is a huge negative. It is an impossible hurdle to get over until more people invest in wind energy at their homes. Only then will the prices come down significantly and offer a realistic competitive alternative to buying from a centralized utility. There’s just no way to beat the economies of scale the large power plants can offer.

While all is not lost, it is very easy to see how someone would write off the purchase of a home wind turbine and not take action. It is just not super clear they will work for everyone and you have to do your own homework to determine if your location is an actual candidate for this type of renewable energy project for the home. Home wind turbines can be a tremendous advantage for you but they can also be a tremendous source of frustration if you don’t do this investigative upfront part right.

In summary, residential wind energy is mostly good but the expense of it as compared with the utility alternatives is definitely not good yet.