Comment How big is your backyard?? (Score 1) 475
If you live in suburbia, your neighbors are probably going to have a problem with that big prop tower you are planning to erect. Keep in mind any large trees or buildings nearby are going to degrade the quality and reliability of your wind. Do you even have good wind where you are? If your backyard looks more like a small-scale industrial site, where you do some agriculture or fabrication or what have you, and if you are in a rural area where you have wind and can get away with it, yes, put up a prop. It will be a fun project that should eventually pay for itself.
If you like wind power you might want to see how you could support it in your community. My power company National Grid has a 'Green Up' program i've been participating in for a few years. I pay a 2 cent per kwh premium for a 'pure wind' option, which means that they supposedly reimburse a wind power project in my state for all the money I spend on electricity from them. I know I still get my juice from the grid like everyone else, but at least I don't have to feel quite as bad when I crank up the AC all summer.
In upstate New York, we have a company that has been trying to get approval for a 12MW wind project on an old mining site in the Adirondack park. The level of opposition has been
