Electricity Savings Is Blowing In The Wind
Green Right Now (Blog)
April 18, 2008
www.greenrightnow.com
By Bill Sullivan
Nancy Riddick leads a visitor to the power meter on the side of her rural home, set on two acres of prairie land in Hunt County, Texas. The mid-April wind is whipping at 30 miles an hour or more, so the timing of this demonstration couldn’t be much better.
Nancy points as the dial slows to a crawl, then stops. As the stiff breeze continues unabated, the meter actually starts to move backwards.
“I love it when it does that,” she says with a smile.
Small wonder. Thanks to a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine, the Riddicks (for this moment, at least) aren’t paying for electricity. Instead, they are actually creating and capturing it for future use.
Welcome to what just could be the next big thing in personal energy conservation, assuming you have upwards of $12,000 to invest up front and a lot of 1/2 acre or more to accommodate the installation. Skystream isn’t going to eliminate the need for the local power company any time soon, but it just might help take some of the sting out of that monthly bill. Since flipping the switch just after Christmas, Nancy says the Riddicks have enjoyed a 40 percent reduction in their monthly electricity costs compared to the same months in 2007.
The source, in this case: A 33-foot tower located about 80 yards from the back of the Riddicks’ house. At the top, 12-foot rotors catch the force of the wind, and a 2.4 kilowatt generator turns those gusts into energy that feeds directly into their home — or it could be your home or business.
The system works in conjunction with your local utility. When the wind is blowing, Skystream (produced by Southwest Windpower of Flagstaff, Ariz.) provides at least a portion of your electricity. When it isn’t, you tap into your regular power source.
Even better: If Skystream produces more power than you are currently using, the meter actually does spin backwards as you contribute energy to the local grid and earn credits.
Skystream requires an 8 mile per hour wind to get started and a 5 mph breeze to keep going. How much power you generate is completely dependent on how much wind you get. The beauty of the tower and rotors is in the eye of the beholder, but the turbine is surprisingly quiet, producing a low hum that can barely be heard from the Riddicks’ house.
“We had been interested in some form of alternative energy for a long time,” says Nancy, a home-based medical transcriptionist. “We’ve looked at solar, and we’ve looked at the wind. The solar is so bulky and there’s a lot of maintenance to that, and the turbines were so ridiculously expensive.
“The price (on Skystream) finally came down, starting at $11,900. That was the cheapest we’d ever seen it. That’s when we decided to do it.”
While the wide open spaces of rural Hunt County in Northeast Texas make for an ideal setting for Skystream, the creative conservationist can find a way to do his part — even in the midst of suburban sprawl.
Dr. George Joseph is an ophthalmologist based in Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas. On a similarly breezy day, the 33-foot Skystream tower located across the parking lot from his two-story, 17,000 square foot office complex is spinning merrily, helping the good doctor take the edge off soaring utility costs while doing his bit to preserve the environment.
“We’re trying to leave as little of a carbon imprint as possible,” he says.
Being the first kid on his block to own a Skystream wasn’t without a challenge or two. Joseph had to obtain a permit from a city planning committee that had all kinds of questions about fall lines and dead birds.
“They were thinking we were going to put in one of those huge things they have in West Texas,” he said.
Joseph estimates his investment at about $17,000. He believes the unit generates about two kilowatts per hour. (“Put it this way: That’s enough to run all our emergency lights all night.”) Combined with other energy-saving measures such as placing film on exterior windows and zoned air conditioning, he says, “We probably save $4000 a month. We use 30-40 percent less energy as the next-door building.”
He hopes others will see that tower and consider what they might do to help save the planet.
“We want people to see it’s good technology, it’s efficient technology, and it’s not hurting anything,” he said. “And the wind blows around here all the time.”
Back in Hunt County, Nancy Riddick knows all about the wind blowing: A recent storm produced gusts that snapped the retractable flagpole in her front yard.
Like Dr. Joseph, the Riddicks like the idea of combining environmental responsibility with cash savings.
“(The environment) was very important,” Nancy says. “We watch the news at night. Global warming. Ice caps melting. It kind of scares you. If everybody would do something, it would add up.”
By the time the Skystream was up and running, Nancy Riddick had become not just a satisfied customer, but an enthusiastic evangelist for the new technology. She routinely wears a Skystream T-shirt, and a sign in the front yard promotes the local vendor and the product.
If you want to know more about it, just drop by and ask. “I mean, daily, people drive by, pull into the driveway, write the number down,” she says. “If I’m outside, I’ll speak to them. Everybody has thought it’s fabulous. We’ve been very proud about it.” (You can also get more information at the American Wind Association website where they promote “small wind” power as clean, quiet and bird-neutral.)
Nancy describes herself as a “skeptical” shopper. She was prepared to find fault with the Skystream and steeled herself against a “used car salesman” pitch. Her husband, Ron, has a background in engineering, and the two grilled the Skystream representative for the better part of a day.
Somewhat to their surprise, they came away satisfied with the answers. A few months later, that Texas wind was shaving a significant amount off their electric bill.
“We are not easily pleased,” she says. “We are not easy to fool. But now, we’re big fans.”
Especially on those blustery days when the meter runs backwards. |
