Wind Power for Dummies

The consumer guide to small-scale wind electricity production!

Maybe you're not T. Boone Pickens, but you can build your own home-sized wind-power empire right in your back yard. Wind Power For Dummies supplies all the guidance you need to install and maintain a sustainable, cost-effective wind generator to power your home for decades to come.

This authoritative, plain-English guide walks you through every step of the process, from assessing your site and available wind sources to deciding whether wind power is the solution for you, from understanding the mechanics of wind power and locating a contractor to install your system to producing your own affordable and sustainable electricity.

Guides you step by step through process of selecting, installing, and operating a small-scale wind generator to power your home
Demystifies system configurations, terminology, and wind energy principles to help you speak the language of the pros
Helps assess and reduce your energy needs and decide whether wind power is right for you
Explains the mechanics of home-based wind power
Shows you how to tie into the grid and sell energy back to the power company
Offers advice on evaluating all of the costs of and financing for your project
Provides tips on working with contractors and complying with local zoning laws

Yes, you can do it, with a little help from Wind Power For Dummies.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.

By David Stebbins "Relocate! 25 Great Bug Out Co... - February 27, 2010

If you're looking for a resource that covers most everything about residential size wind generators, this book is as good as anything you'll find. It has chapters on how to figure how much wind you have at your site, wind generator types, towers and how to erect them, legal issues, costs and how long it will take for your generator to pay for itself. The use of wind for off-grid and grid tied applications are compared. Maintenance and safety are covered in great detail. In fact, after you read the safety chapter you may decide that wind is not for you. If that's the case, you're in luck, there's a whole chapter on alternatives to wind: photovoltaics, hydro and solar thermal. A chapter on home energy conservation is also included. The amount of information can be overwhelming, but the author does a good job of tying it all together.
The author, Ian Woofendan, has been writing articles on wind and renewable energy for Home Power magazine for many years, and has wind and solar power... read more

Wind Power for Dummies A Review by Paul Gipe

By Paul B. Gipe - April 19, 2010

April 16, 2010

Wind Power for Dummies by Ian Woofenden is the mass-market, mainstream book on small wind turbines that the industry has long sought as a measure of respectability. Small wind has arrived when the wildly popular Dummies' series takes up the topic. Dummies books, and this one will be no exception, are the kind that one finds shelves of when entering Barnes & Nobles, America's big box book store. Small wind has indeed arrived.

Woofenden, a long-time editor at Home Power Magazine, fortunately doesn't fall for the temptation posed by his entry into big-league publishing and sugar coat the technology. This is a real book by a real author who lives, breathes, and writes about the subject. He doesn't pull any punches.

As an outspoken proponent of safety around wind turbines-of any size-I found Woofenden's Dummy book particularly valuable because of its emphasis on safety. This is a topic that other writers often shy away from. Woofenden tackles... read more

Good small wind info for the uninformed

By Katey - April 22, 2011

If you don't know much about small wind power and are thinking about buying/building a system for home use this book is a good place to start. It doesn't get so technical that you can't read it (ok, some of the electricity stuff does get a little boring), but it's mostly easy to read and comprehend. I was hoping for more information about specific turbines and manufacturers, but there is not a lot of that in this book. However, if you're looking for the basic principles and whether or not wind will work for you this book does a good job with that. It's definitely a quick read and helpful for the wind newbie.