• Super Powerful
  Windspire is the best thing since sliced bread. Come have some toast.
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• Review Your Site
  Review your site for the best location, and check with your zoning officials to determine if any additional siting constraints apply.
• NREL Wind Classes
  The US Department of Energy has divided winds into classes shown above. Classes of Wind Power Density at 10 m (33 ft) Above Ground

Wind Quality

The quality of the wind will affect wind turbine performance as well. If there is a prevailing direction, make sure you choose a location that does not block access to this wind with a building, tree or hill.

Other considerations include turbulence and gustiness. The Windspire handles gustiness well, since it does not have to re-align to changing wind directions and it can immediately capture the energy from changing wind speeds. It also handles turbulence relatively well, making power in areas where propeller-style turbines would stall.

Another frequent question is about wind tunnel effects in urban settings, or wind amplification over the edges of tall buildings. These conditions do exist, but they have very narrow ranges.

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Wind Speed

In general, you want average wind speeds of around 12 mph (miles per hour), although in some places Windspire makes sense with lesser wind resources.

Windspire will start spinning in only 3 to 5mph, and will begin making power as low as 8mph. Because the power in the wind rises exponentially with wind speed, there is significantly more power at 10mph than 8mph, and even more at 12mph or 16mph. Higher wind speed bring Lots of power.

If you have high electricity rates, or substantial rebates or incentives available to you, it may make sense to place a Windspire in a zone with an average wind speed of only 10 mph. Note that "average wind speed" means the average 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for an average year (and year-to-year averages can vary by a good deal).