My brother lives on an acreage that has five acres. I and another

[jwirr]

family member have suggested that he go to his neighbors and talk about setting up a small cooperative which would put up the needed machinery for wind energy using our property instead of their farm land. The farmers around would share in the energy produced and any profits from the sales. Does this sound feasible to you? Do we have enough room to do it? And most important is there room for this idea on an acreage that also holds a home and barn?

[liberal N proud]

1. Start by learning the facts of wind energy

Here is a link with some facts: http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets.html


The Fed's also have some info: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/

[jwirr]

2. Thank you. Most articles do not talk about small projects. The

world still thinks bigger is better.

[peacebird]

3. Mother Earth News will be doing article on wind power this month

Should be a good source of info!

[TlalocW]

4. Speaking of cooperatives

There's a guy just outside of DC in Maryland who is a renewable energy guy - has his house so energy efficient that oftentimes he puts energy back on the grid. Anyway, along with solar paneling and using heated runoff water to help heat unused hot water, his big thing is using a corn stove to heat his house during the winter time. He and several other corn stove owners apparently went in on forming a co-op and bought a small piece of land with a silo that they store their corn in. Once every two or three weeks in the winter, they go out to the silo with a large trash basket, get their corn, and a shovel a day keeps them nice and toasty (and the house smelling like popcorn).

I can put you in touch with a guy in DC who's taken a tour of the house and is thinking of getting a corn stove as well.

TlalocW

[TwilightGardener]

5. Corn stoves are BIG out here in Nebraska (understandably!)

If I could think of a place to put it in my house, I would have one.

[TlalocW]

8. Get rid of your regular furnace :)

I think they make models that replace them.

When my friend started looking into them, I did a quick estimates of how much money he would save, and it really wasn't that great. What with buying the stove and then some sort of large storage bin to put on his small lot in DC, he would have needed 4 bushels of corn every 2 weeks in winter. When all was said and done, if corn stayed more or less steady, he would have saved enough to make the switch worthwhile in about 12 years. Of course, it's essentially pollution free and doesn't put money into the pockets of big energy, which is what he really likes about it (as do I). Unfortunately for him though, he's a rather skinny individual whose main mode of transport in DC is a combination of the subway and his Segway Scooter (no car) so he would have trouble getting the 200 pounds of corn he needed every fortnight. :)

TlalocW

[TwilightGardener]

9. Actually, I've got a boiler/radiator system, so unless I want to upgrade

to proper ductwork (very expensive for my old Victorian house), I can't go that way. I do have access to corn, so if I put one in, it would just be a supplemental heat kind of thing, to cut down on our horrendous gas costs--we'd have to see if it's worth it first.

[Arger68]

10. Actually, they make corn boilers for water heating systems

also. I don't have any manufacturers names at hand, but a friend of mine was looking into it. :)

[madokie]

11. we have been using a wood pellet stove since the winter of '92

up until the last two winters we have heated the whole winter for 300 bucks but these last two winters it has cost us 400 bucks because pellets went up from 150 bucks a ton to 200 bucks, and we keep the house warm too, like 72+ sometimes. our first stove paid for itself in two winters. we were spending 1000 plus per winter with propane our only other choice except for electric which would be even more. I installed a duct to bring the cold air from our fartherest room at floor level back to be cycled back through the stove and back into the front room. pulling the air from the floor keeps our bed room warm because the warm air has to come back to replace the air that is being removed from the room at floor level where it is the coldest and densest. we upgraded to a self lighter two winters ago and passed our old one down to our kids. we love our wood pellet heating stove because every time it comes on it is saving us money.

[Rydz777]

6. "Five Acres and Independence"

There is a wonderful old book by that title - reprinted by Dover and still available on Amazon. It was published at a time when it was probably more practical to seek self-sufficiency, but it has a lot of wisdom and good advice in it. I think you are definitely on the right track, environmentally and practically, and I wish you success.

[jpak]

7. Bergey Windpower, Southwest Windpower and Eoltec make excellent small (1-10 kW) wind turbines

http://www.bergey.com/

http://www.windenergy.com/index_wind.htm

http://www.pyrosolar.com/html/eoltec1.html

perfect for small plots of land...

[razzleberry]

12. do what Sen. Lugar does, sell carbon offsets .n/t