Wind Power

The ancients believed that the winds were gods. The ancient Greeks had four wind gods named Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus. A fifth god Aeolus was the keeper of the winds. The Venti were the Roman wind gods. Fujin was the Japanese wind god and the Vikings had Njord as their god of the wind.
The Slavic god of the winds was Stribog.

Wind is caused by air flowing from high to low pressure. But because the Earth is rotating, the air is deflected (to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere), so that the wind flows around the high and low pressure areas. The closer high and low pressure areas are together the stronger are the winds. The highest wind speed ever recorded on the surface of the Earth was 231 mph on April 12 1934, atop Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.

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Wind power has had a big impact on the expansion of the USA. The water pumping windmill was a major factor in allowing the farming and ranching of vast areas by providing water where there was none before.

Wind powered mills contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems by pumping water from wells to supply the needs of the steam locomotives.

The multi-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel was, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America.

The arrival of electricity in rural areas, brought by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in the 1930s through 1950s, contributed to the decline in the use of windmills in the US.

Wind power has been used for household electricity generation for decades in remote areas. But today with the increases in energy prices and the more and more people in urban areas are looking to reduce their electricity bills by using wind power in their homes.

Wind power is a renewable resource, which means using it will not deplete the earth's supply of fossil fuels. It also is a clean energy source.

A new Carbon Trust study into the potential of small-scale wind energy has found that small wind turbines could provide up to 1.5 terawatt hours (TW·h) per year of electricity , saving 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2) emission savings. This is based on the assumption that 10% of households would install turbines at costs competitive with grid electricity, around 19 cents a kWh.

There are pros and cons to building your own wind turbine , but most of the cons can be overcome with some careful planning and research. And your home turbines don't need to cost the earth, you can build one for as little as $200.00. Having your own residential wind energy power plant is a great investment that could last you for a lifetime.

For more information on how to build your own wind turbine click on the link below