Taking a positive step toward reducing your carbon footprint can be just as easy as replacing all of your incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones. But for those people who are more ambitious in their green thinking, you may looking at more substantial ways to reduce your energy use.
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Windmills used to be seen as only practical for open areas such as pastureland or in windmill farms. However, there is a new generation of urban windmills that are coming onto the market. With these new products, city dwellers have a viable way to produce energy from the wind in their backyard.
There are many challenges to producing wind energy in a city context. The wind in urban areas can be much more variable than in open areas. Urban windmills need to be able to start up with little wind and then not wear out when the wind speed rapidly increases. The wind in urban areas is also more turbulent, and windmills in these areas need to be more durable than windmills in open areas.
The Canadian company Wind Simplicity produces a windmill called Windancer which addresses these concerns. The Windancer is small and noise free, which helps homeowners fit these products into their design scheme, and makes their operation less of a concern for their neighbours.
The product comes in a few different sizes, with different generating capacities: 3, 7 and 23 Kw. But how much energy will this produce, and will it make a difference in my energy consumption? It is impossible to say with any accuracy because there are too many variables, and individual homeowners should conduct energy assessments to get a better idea about their own energy consumption. However, some back of the napkin calculations will give you a rough idea.
According to Statistics Canada data, the average person uses around 13 Kilowatt hours per day in a residential setting. That means that you could potentially offset your personal entire energy use if a 7Kw windmill is generating at top capacity for two hours. Now, remember there are a lot of caveats to this statement: the windmill will never generate consistently and at top speed for two hours (think of the wind that would be whistling past your house for this to happen) and you likely have more than just yourself living at home. But a windmill operating all day could make a significant dent in your home energy use, and enough of one to justify the cost.
And that is the one problem with home windmills: they cost a lot. The prices of the Wind Simplicity windmills go from $27,000 to $69,000. From a purely economical sense, they are not necessarily the best idea. But with the growing popularity of green thinking and home energy assessments, a windmill could become not only an energy saver, but an attractive selling point for your home.
Heleen Jacobsen
Broker of Record with InfoMarket Group GMAC Real Estate
www.infomarketgroup.com
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