Introduction to wind power and wind energy.

Lets have a quick talk about wind power...
There are many different types of wind turbine out there on the market today that you can buy, the most common type would be your traditional three rotor blade type these are the most common and can be bought on the internet or large chain stores.
Other types of wind powered generators names include ...
1: Darrieus.
2: Savonius.

But the one that stands out as the most popular at the moment is the traditional bladed types.
Nearly all small wind turbines today fall into a few categories such as ..
1: Upwind.
2: Horizontal axis
A thing to remember is three blades run more smoothly than two blades although some smaller wind turbines have multi blades.
Blades can be made from wood, fiberglass and carbon fiber.
The placement of the wind turbine on your property is very important, get it wrong and the wind turbine will be almost useless, like putting a photovoltaic panel in the shade.
The turbine should be at a minimum height of ten meters to get maximum electrical energy generation and more than ten meters from your neighbours property the rule is if it falls it wont fall on someone else's property so you are going to need to have a Farly large plot of land, what I am saying is if you live in the country then you should have enough room but in a built up urban area like if you live in a suburban semi detached property then wind turbines are not such a great idea.

Now of course all the above can be bought over the counter, but there is a alternative to buying a wind turbine you can make your own and would be a great project to start and complete.
I will cover making a basic wind turbine in a later post.

Save Money Now,do a miny energy audit.

One of the first things you should do and one of the easiest is to go around your house or place of business and do a mini energy audit and see can you change your old incandescent bulbs with new energy saving CFL bulbs (CFL=compact fluorescent light) they will last at least for up to 5 times longer than normal bulbs and use much less power.
In some instances you could use led bulbs which are bulb shaped fittings covered with leds (LED=light emitting diode) which last even longer than CFLs and use a tiny amount of power to run.
The initial cost of buying all new bulbs for your house may seem a little steep and if you cant manage it at once try buying one or two at a time and replacing the old bulbs when they blow, this way the cost would be spread out over time but you will eventually end up with all your bulbs replaced.

Solar Power is free energy for you.

There are two main types of Solar power collectors, the first is Photovoltaic and the second is Solar Thermal.
Solar Photovoltaic refers to the conversion of sunlight into an electrical current.
This method is probably the most widely known way of producing electricity and has three dominant types that equal 99% of the market today..

(A) Monocrystalline.. (crystalline technology) 11to 15% efficiency, uniform blue in colour and is the oldest and most efficient PV cell, slow and expensive to produce.

(B) Polycrystalline.. (crystalline technology) 11 to 13 % efficiency, irregular blue colour, less expensive to produce with simpler manufacturing process.

(C) Amorphous.. (thin film Technology) 4 to 8% efficiency, considerably less expensive to produce, light and flexible so can meet a range of applications.

Solar Thermal mostly refers to heating water with the heat of the sun.
There are three main types..
Active Solar
Flat Plate.
Evacuated Tubes.
If you are reasonable at DIY then you can build your own solar collectors to provide you with hot water and electrical power to enable you to live off grid, as they say.