Micro Wind Turbines
50 W to 1 KW turbines

Micro turbines (below 1 KW) can be useful  for small home applications. As a residential option, they are typically used in remote places and specific applications, where the connection to a utility grid is impossible.

Below 100W to 1 KW turbines

Micro or mini wind systems - typically based on turbines with a power ranging from 100 W up to 1 kW - shouldn’t be confused with typical home wind electricity systems, involving small but substantially larger turbines (see Turbines Power and Size).

These systems are mostly off-grid and include turbines based on varied technologies and designs.

Uses

Micro wind systems applications include:

- battery charging and small electric applications in remote homes and places.
- recreational vehicles, namely sailboats
- electric fencing and water pumping;
- telecommunications dishes, measurement instruments, radar and telecomm devices, security and electronic systems

Micro turbines are often used in connection with diesel generators, batteries or photovoltaic systems. A new kind of systems includes the urban micro-wind generators, a rather untested type of wind systems.

Designs and tower height

The designs of micro-wind turbines vary a lot, but the most common are three-bladed up-wind horizontal axis.

Towers are usually simple, usually a mere pipe of 2” diameter or less. This towers are obviously inexpensive and often a “do-it-yourself” job.

There are many roof-top mounted micro-turbines, but this option is often a poor one in terms of electric generation. Do not forget that towers should be tall enough to raise the wind turbine above turbulence caused by obstacles as buildings and trees. And that wind speed and power increases dramatically with height.

Cost and manufacturers

Micro-wind systems are relatively cheap systems, and are sold in retail stores and on-line sites. The variety of products and their inexpensive prices explain the high number of manufacturers.

There are thousands of small manufacturers of micro wind applications. 

See also:
Prices and Investment & Wind Generators
Wind Energy payback and financial incentives
 

Warranties and lifetime

Warranties of micro-wind systems are usually short - 5 years of less – and quality vary a lot and is difficult to measure, due to the wide variety of machines. There are, many times, unrealistic claims of some manufacturers.

Typical lifetime of smaller units (under 500 watts) is usually shorter (10 to 15 years) than that of the larger units (500-1000 watts).  As expected, turbines operating in very cold temperatures and subject to high levels of corrosion have much shorter lifetimes.

Maintenance & repairs

Maintenance requirements are usually minimal, mainly in the smaller range (below 100-500 watts). Larger units (500-1000 watts) may require occasional on-site repairs, involving blade damages, controller failures, etc.





See also:
Basics on Wind electric generators
Stand alone systems
On-grid systems
Batteries and backup systems for wind and solar systems
Turbines Power and size



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