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With Pennsylvania's strong winds and rural landscape, investing in a windmill might help you save you a lot of money. Or, could it end up costing you more than you ever imagined?
Harold Welch installed a 100-foot windmill on his farm in northern Wayne County almost four years ago hoping he would save big on his electric bill.
"I actually put a gage up there for roughly a year to measure how much wind was there before we took the steps to put the windmill," Welch said.
He was able to buy the windmill because of help from grants. He received more $25,000 from DEP and $5,000 from Penelec. That's a total of more than $30,000 but Welch still needed to invest almost $15,000 of his own money into the windmill.
Welch figured he would save up to 1,500 kilowatts per month on his dairy farm but actually, he said, the windmill is only producing about 500 kilowatts per month.
Welch is also disappointed that the cost of insuring the windmill is more than his savings on electricity.
On top of that, lightning struck twice, damaging equipment and once, knocking the windmill out of commission.
"If I had that money at this point, I'd put it into other conservation practices to help decrease how much electric we use here on the farm," Welch said.
To double check the windmill's worth, Welch installed a special meter. It showed he has generated only about 5,000 kilowatts in a little more than one year. That's less than a quarter of what he was expecting.
"I may have hit all the bumps that are out there. Hopefully other people are doing better than I have," said Welch.
One of those "other people" might be Denise Nowicki of Albrightsville. She's had her windmill for only about eight months but she has nothing but good things to say about it.
"We wanted to try to save electricity because the house was so big and this was one of the best things on the market so we figured we'd try it. So far, so good," Nowicki said.
She added she is saving about 50 percent on her electric bill each month.
"When the windmill is really cracking and really turning we check the meter over there and it is actually running backwards," said Nowicki.
That means she is generating more electricity than she can use. PPL will actually pay her 10.5 cents for every extra kilowatt hour she generates, and there's no limit.
The state requires all utility companies to do the same.
It took a lot of effort for denise to get her windmill up and running.
"We did have to go through an actual hearing because we were the first ones, but the township was for it," Nowicki said.
Eight of Nowicki's closest neighbors were invited to a township meeting for an opportunity to oppose the windmill, but luckily for her, no one did. "
If you're interested in installing your own windmill, you may be able to get some help from the government and your electric company.
Harold Welch installed a 100-foot windmill on his farm in northern Wayne County almost four years ago hoping he would save big on his electric bill.
"I actually put a gage up there for roughly a year to measure how much wind was there before we took the steps to put the windmill," Welch said.
He was able to buy the windmill because of help from grants. He received more $25,000 from DEP and $5,000 from Penelec. That's a total of more than $30,000 but Welch still needed to invest almost $15,000 of his own money into the windmill.
Welch figured he would save up to 1,500 kilowatts per month on his dairy farm but actually, he said, the windmill is only producing about 500 kilowatts per month.
Welch is also disappointed that the cost of insuring the windmill is more than his savings on electricity.
On top of that, lightning struck twice, damaging equipment and once, knocking the windmill out of commission.
"If I had that money at this point, I'd put it into other conservation practices to help decrease how much electric we use here on the farm," Welch said.
To double check the windmill's worth, Welch installed a special meter. It showed he has generated only about 5,000 kilowatts in a little more than one year. That's less than a quarter of what he was expecting.
"I may have hit all the bumps that are out there. Hopefully other people are doing better than I have," said Welch.
One of those "other people" might be Denise Nowicki of Albrightsville. She's had her windmill for only about eight months but she has nothing but good things to say about it.
"We wanted to try to save electricity because the house was so big and this was one of the best things on the market so we figured we'd try it. So far, so good," Nowicki said.
She added she is saving about 50 percent on her electric bill each month.
"When the windmill is really cracking and really turning we check the meter over there and it is actually running backwards," said Nowicki.
That means she is generating more electricity than she can use. PPL will actually pay her 10.5 cents for every extra kilowatt hour she generates, and there's no limit.
The state requires all utility companies to do the same.
It took a lot of effort for denise to get her windmill up and running.
"We did have to go through an actual hearing because we were the first ones, but the township was for it," Nowicki said.
Eight of Nowicki's closest neighbors were invited to a township meeting for an opportunity to oppose the windmill, but luckily for her, no one did. "
If you're interested in installing your own windmill, you may be able to get some help from the government and your electric company.
