Top Three Reasons to Go with Homemade Wind Turbines

Wind power has surged to the forefront of the rapidly growing green-energy market. The farmers' best friend for generations, wind energy has become practical for homeowners, too. Now, going green both to save money and to save the planet, you can build your own wind turbine.

Your new wind turbine will yield three huge advantages...

1. Environmentally Friendly

Hydro-carbon emissions from power plants contribute significantly to urban air pollution and the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Generating your own electricity from wind power protects the environment and reduces our dependence on fossil fuels. Reliable, sustainable, and infinitely renewable, wind power soothes your conscience while it relieves the strain on your wallet.

2. An Easy, Inexpensive Project

Building your own wind turbine only

sounds expensive, complicated, sophisticated, high-tech, time-consuming, and suited best for characters with degrees from Cal-Tech and MIT.

Hundreds of websites show ingenious, easy-to-construct designs. Most of these sites belong to satisfied turbine owners who feel eager to share their knowledge, breaking down their designs into step-by-step instructions simple enough even for the extreme technophobe.

No matter which design you select, however, you will need only five relatively common parts: a generator, blades, a mounting that swivels to keep your blades turned to the wind, a tower to elevate the blades into the strongest breezes, batteries and an electric control system.

A long morning at the swap meet and a long afternoon shopping the online auction sites should bring home the essentials for $200 to $250. A skilled bargain hunter probably can pay less, but the wind-wise have driven up the cost of recycled generators, and the bidding wars grow fierce.

3. While the blades turn, the meter spins backwards