Wind Power

For those of you who are looking for a way to get off the grid, or at least pull over into the slow lane, Honeywell is offering a wind turbine you can mount on the roof of your house. This baby is advertised to produce 1500 KWh/year on average, compared to an average home consumption of 11,000KWh/year for about 13% of your annual consumption. At $11,000 installed, and with an estimated lifespan of 20 years, that's $.36/KWh you'd be paying.

Compare this to the current going rate of between $.083 and $.10.7/KWh depending on whom you ask.

The thing weighs as much as a big-block V8 and that's before you add in the lateral loads from the wind blowing against it. Having an engineer do a load calculation for your roof first is recommended. Check an available wind map to see if you can expect the kind of winds needed to run the thing, and then step outdoors and look around your house. If you live on a barren hill crest in southern Wyoming, the rig may well provide all the power you'll ever need but if you live in an urban neighborhood with mature trees, you might as well forget it.

It has no real problems that can't be largely fixed with a generous infusion of Federal money equal to the purchase price of the windmill and the replacement cost of your roof and as long as the Feds can print all they need, this shouldn't be a problem.

Consumer Reports reviews the device here and seems rather cool to it.