Renewable "Green" Energy in the Home - How Does Wind Power Work?

As a source of renewable energy, wind power is one of the cleanest and greenest. Electricity generators around the world are switching to wind power, and as the cost of technology comes down many smart, environmentally conscious and money smart individuals like you and me are starting to generate their own wind power at home. In this article, I will outline the basics of wind power electricity generation.

Firstly, there is the wind which is simply air moving about. As it comes up against the propeller of the wind turbine it is forced to slow down and move around the propeller. Some of this energy is transferred to the propeller which starts to spin. The propeller is connected to a shaft which then spins inside an alternator/generator to generate the electricity. Inside the alternator/generator it is the effect of magnets moving around a piece of electrical wire that forces electrons to move through the wire -- and there we have it, electricity.

In most cases the electricity is then stored in a bank of batteries, ready for use by whatever systems are connected into it. You can also setup what is known as a 'dump load', so that when the batteries are full the excess electricity being generated is used to heat hot water or provide some kind of lighting -- basically, you are ensuring that none of the generated electricity gets wasted.

The last step is ensuring that we can make use of the electricity we have stored. Without getting too technical, basically the electricity stored in batteries and the electricity we use to power our appliances is different. However, we can make them the same. To do this, the electricity from the batteries passes through what is called an inverter. This basically converts it into the right kind of electricity to power your appliances. From the inverter you have your plugs setup that you plug your TV / stereo / etc into.

Using wind power to generate electricity within your home is really quite easy, and there are a number of detailed guides on how to do it. Not only is it cheap and easy to do, it can save you lots of money. Find out more here - http://wind4energy.reviewsworld.info