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Which small wind turbine is best for your home?
There is no best brand — there is a best match between your load, your wind and your tower site. Answer five questions and the shortlist writes itself.
Step 1: measure the load, not the roof
Add up your daily kWh from a real bill (annual kWh ÷ 365), then subtract any load you can move to daytime, such as hot water or an EV. A family using 12 kWh a day needs a 3 kW machine at 5 m/s; a 30 kWh/day house needs 10 kW, at which point the project stops being residential.
Step 2: find the wind at hub height
Not at 10 m, not at the weather station — at the height the rotor will spin. Use a wind atlas for a first estimate, then correct for height and obstacles. If your best estimate is under 4.5 m/s, the correct answer is solar, and any supplier who tells you otherwise is selling, not advising.
Step 3: pick the tower before the turbine
A 3 kW machine on an 18 m tower out-produces a 5 kW machine on a 9 m tower in most obstructed sites. Tower height, foundation and access usually decide the budget, so price them first. If the site cannot take a 12 m tower, the project is probably not worth doing.
Step 4: grid-tie, battery, or hybrid
Grid-tie with a certified inverter: cheapest, simplest, needs utility approval. Battery: only for off-grid or backup, adds 40–60 % to the cost. Hybrid with PV: the best compromise in most climates, and the only configuration we recommend for full autonomy.
Step 5: interrogate the supplier
Ask for: a measured power curve (not a calculated one), the swept area, the cut-in and survival wind speeds, the certificate for the inverter's anti-islanding, a foundation drawing, and two references at similar sites. A supplier who cannot produce the power curve within a day is a reseller of someone else's machine.
Then check the warranty in writing: three years on the machine is normal, ten years on blades is marketing unless it excludes erosion, and 'lifetime' means nothing without a definition.
