Home Wind-Power Turbines Make Headway 163
Pickens writes "Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, is causing a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California. "Back in the early days, off-grid electrical generation was pursued mostly by hippies and rednecks, usually in isolated, rural areas," said Joe Schwartz, editor of Home Power magazine. "Now, it's a lot more mainstream." Some of the new "plug and play" systems can be plugged directly into a circuit in the home electrical panel and homeowners can use energy from the wind turbine or the power company without taking action. Schwartz says that even with the economic benefits, it can take 20 years to pay back the installation cost. "This isn't about people putting turbines in to lower their electric bills as much as it is about people voting with their dollars to help the environment in some small way," he said."
20 years payback? WTF?? (Score:2, Funny)
OK, spotted the problem right here down in the "included with package" list -> "100ft Acme MONSTER turbine cable"
People Power! (Score:1, Funny)
There's a lot of energy being exerted into all that gym equipment and it all dissipates into nothing. Some cleverly placed generators and a gym could turn into a people power plant.
Re:How green is it? (Score:2, Funny)