The Right Wind Turbine

Windmills have been a source of power for well over 1000 years, mainly to pump water and grinding grains. Only recently (late 19th century) have wind generators been developed to produce electrical power. When people think of wind turbines they imagine the old windmills pictured in many photos and art paintings, especially of the United States old West. Like their predecessors these wind turbines generally were used for pumping water or providing a small DC voltage to charge batteries. Today’s wind turbines are used for the same purpose but are configured to a particular application. For example, a version of the Whisper 200 wind turbine by Southwest Wind power is specifically designed to work with water pumps such as the Grundfos SQFlex series pumps. The Skystream 3.7 wind generator is designed for grid-tie connections to help people reduce their electric consumption thereby reducing the overall power bill. The Skystream falls into a rather new category of wind generators call residential wind turbines or residential wind generators. Other wind turbines are better suited for off-grid applications where battery charging is necessary. Depending on the amount of energy needed, will determine the “size” of the wind turbine. For example, small battery systems as those found for remote whether stations, radio repeaters, or small highway sign lighting, might only need a wind generator rated at a few hundred watts. These wind turbines include the Air Breeze or the Air-X by Southwest Windpower. Other applications might require more power to ensure batteries are kept charge. Wind turbines that satisfy these requirements include the Whisper 100, Whisper 200, and the Whisper 500 all by Southwest Windpower.

Other wind turbines such as the Bergey XL.1 also do an equally good job at maintaining battery charge. The Bergey XL.1 is a awesome battery charger for low wind areas!

The most important things to remember when selecting a wind turbine is what are you trying to accomplish. If your goal is to reduce your power bill a wind generator like the Skystream 3.7 wind turbine is the best choice. If you goal is to charge a battery bank, sizing the wind turbine to the average load requirements is most important.

Another thing to keep in mind is the expected wind speed. For small applications where the expected wind speed is low you are probably better off using the Air-Breeze rated a 200 watts than the Air-X, which is rated at 400 watts. In this case, the Air-Breeze starts producing power at 6 mps whereas the Aix-X doesn’t start producing power until 8 mph. However they both will produce 38kW per month in a 12mph wind. If your wind speed is low, the Air Breeze will produce more power per month than the Air-X.

Take a look at the chart below. It will give you an idea of how much energy can be produced by the different Southwest Windpower wind turbines.