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.

Ian Woofenden is a Senior Editor with Home Power magazine, the Northwest & Costa Rica Coordinator with Solar Energy International, and a wind-energy author, consultant, and instructor. He has been living off-grid with his family and several wind generators for almost 30 years.

Introduction.
Part I: A Wind Primer: Stuff You Need to Know.
Chapter 1: Introducing the World of Home Wind Electricity.
Chapter 2: Is Wind Energy for You?
Chapter 3: Deconstructing Wind-Energy Systems.
Chapter 4: Electricity Basics — a Shocking Amount of Info.
Chapter 5: Blowing through Vital Wind-Energy Principles.
Part II: Assessing Your Situation.
Chapter 6: The Home Energy Assessment: Gauging Your Energy Appetite.
Chapter 7: Increasing Your Home’s Energy Effi ciency.
Chapter 8: Determining Your Site’s Wind-Energy Potential.
Chapter 9: Defi ning Your Relationship to the Grid.
Chapter 10: Calculating the Value of Your Investment.
Chapter 11: If Not Wind, Then What? Other Options for Green Energy.
Part III: Assembling Your System.
Chapter 12: Gathering a Team of Experts — or Going It Alone.
Chapter 13: Weighing Wind Generator Options.
Chapter 14: Talking about Towers.
Chapter 15: Checking Out the Rest of the System Components.
Chapter 16: Tying Everything Together: System Sizing and Design.
Part IV: Installing and Operating Your System.
Chapter 17: Safety First!
Chapter 18: Installation Time.
Chapter 19: Living with Wind Energy.
Part V: The Part of Tens.
Chapter 20: Ten Essential Steps toward a Successful Wind-Electric System.
Chapter 21: Ten Wind-Energy Mistakes.
Chapter 22: Ten Tales of Wind-Energy Users and “Abusers”.
Part VI: Appendixes.
Appendix A: Glossary.
Appendix B: Conversions, Abbreviations, and Acronyms.
Index.