Many people are looking into the pricing of wind turbines these days. If this is you then you need to be very careful and understand the things that go into these rating devices before you get too far. The big question of course is how does all of this data really impact that you will end up paying for the device itself.
Really there are only a couple of pricing elements that you need to debate. If you take the time to understand these design and pricing elements upfront, you’ll have a much smoother time sorting things out.
Here are the things you need to know to make one home mill better than the other:
1. Number of Kilowatts the mill will put out – for home units, they are often measured in watts vs. kilowatts (1,000 watts).
2. The total price you pay for the turbine itself – it’s easy to mess up because the turbine manufacturers don’t help you figure it out clearly. Sometimes they go on for key items to make their price lower and watch you end up having to buy those from elsewhere.
3. Running expenses – these take the form of spare parts for things like blades and regular maintenance you will have to perform.
Okay, which of these do you need to look at to make sense of the shopping experience? The answer is actually not one of these individually? Please let me explain ?.
What you should do is measure the total “life cycle cost” of these wind turbines. This is the most important factor – understanding what the total expense of money will be over the life of equipment – which maybe 30 years old – is key to putting these devices on par.
Once you’ve got the total cost of installation, divided by the number of kilowatt-hours, you’re likely to ‘have it done for you during the life of the unit. The way to do this is to multiply the rating by the kilowatt-hour that you think it will operate during the day, multiplied by the number of days in its life.
what you do with this number is to divide it into the total cost of the life cycle.
This gives you a ratio that you can compare with other turbines that you may be looking for less.
Although it takes some work to do all of this in math, it is the best way to compare overall prices for wind turbines.
