Plugging into the grid

I'm new to this forum and renewable energy and erally interested in having a go at bulding my own wind turbine, ideally with a view to attaching it to a grid-tie inverter to supplement the power use at home... Doubt I'd produce enough to sell back to the grid, and I'm not too worried about that!

Really like the look of the turbine that Ben's got the plans for sale on, but the big questions are (and I know they might be basic!):

- What sort of output would I get from this turbine and is it enough to wire up to supply the home? If not, would building more acheive this and linking together? If so, what would I need for this?

- Other than a grid tie inverter, what else would I need?

- I would plan on siting the turbine(s) about 100m from my house/fuse board, etc. Does this cause a problem, would I need heavier duty cable, etc?

Hope someone can advise!

Thanks.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure that Ben will be along soon to offer you some advice, in the meantime I'll give you a few pointers.

Output from the turbine will depend on a number of factors, mainly the size of the rotor and the available wind. Ben will be able to give some figures for his turbine.

If you use a grid tie inverter it will need to be G83 approved. There are cheap grid tie units available on ebay that plug into a wall socket, most of these are not G83 approved. However, many people are using these units and while not approved for G83 they do meet the specs (as far as Im aware).

Will the turbine power your home? Probably not. Depends on how much electricity you use. We use around 11kWh per day, thats a lot of electricity and we are probably below average use.

Dont expect to save huge amounts of money, but if you are having fun doing it and learning something new then its worthwhile.