How to calculate your wind turbine needs

[caverdude]

Two books, “Solar Living Sourcebook” and “Producing your own Power”. Both explain how to figure this.

http://larrydgray.wordpress.com

[Jay]

Thanks for the reply. I will certainly be adding these to my books to purchase list. I have a number of others already added in other topics also. I was honestly hoping just to get the equation to solve this problem for the moment as I am currently looking into every aspect of my life in the coming future and would like to calculate a rough figure to aim for when it comes to costs. (obviously it will fluctuate as time/inflation go up/down in various areas).

If you could help me right now I would greatly appreciate it.

[Jay]

Hey all,

I am currently researching wind turbines and was wondering how would I calculate how many KW turbine to purchase. I have my average KW-h (kilowatt hours) and the average wind speed.If you know how to calculate this can you explain how to do it so I can use it for my own research?

My average wind speed is 5 miles per hour (mean annual wind speed).

My average power usage is 8 KW-h per day. In this scenario can you calculate what power wind turbine I would need to power my entire home and also explain how you got those figures.

PS I know the mean wind can mean there is days without wind but I just need the figures so I can do more complex calculation based on a day by day basis to figure out how many days backup I will need.

Thanks in Advance.

[chowan]

i hope you like math jay i found this

https://www.crwr.utexas.edu/gis/gishydro99/class/schram/project.html

i do know many people before they invest a large amount in a big turbine

which i know you are looking at with your usage rates and windspeed.

they will run a test turbine for a year or 2 to get better data on what can be expected from a much larger turbine

below is a good site to read as well

https://www.otherpower.com/bottom_line.shtml

[chowan]

and here is a link to a online calc i have not used it though

https://www.windenergy.com/assessment

[gordo]

chowan – the wind energy assesment was pretty accurate from what i have figured to expect from my property. pretty quick and painless. also scary that you give an address and google maps comes up and they have you pinepoint the location of you project.

another note – related. as i mentioned in a previous topic about converting a ceiling fan. actually did it the other morning. was generating 4 watts ith wind 5-10. in the afternoon it got real gusty. motor didnt blow but lost a paddle and tweeked the mount. fun while it lasted . yard art now.

cheers

[Jay]

Thanks all I did the rough math based on the low spectrum figure of a mean 5mile an hour wind. With a 2.4KW wind turbine installed and a 3 day backup that would sufficiently cover my needs. The 8kwh I calculated was based on my last bill which I shared my house with my partner and another individual. Also that included using an electric shower/old washer/old dryer and everything else. So I would assume if it was just two people, my bulbs were LED, My washer was more efficient and I did not use a dryer this would be significantly lower.

The wind energy link asks for the location as it pulls local wind data based on that location which is a useful feature. For me I lied about where i was and just looked at a place extremely similar to my own place.

[HOMER Energy]

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory created a piece of software, HOMER, to answer this exact question. It is available at http://www.hoemrenergy.com.

[Author]

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