The challenges of residential wind turbines: how efficient are they?

We all have heard of solar panels installed in people's homes but what about wind turbines? In this video, YouTuber Matt Ferrell from the Undecided series tackles this question by breaking down the mechanics of wind power sources.

So, how do wind turbines work? Well, they usually generate power through the use of huge rotor blades (around 164 feet long). The longer the blade, the more energy the wind turbine can generate from the same wind speed.

This makes them highly impractical for home applications as a micro-sized wind blade won't be able to generate enough energy to be viable.

Secondly, wind turbines feature many moving parts to function properly. All these parts may not fit in an installation designed to be small enough for home use. However, it's not impossible to make smaller wind turbines.

A lot of models exist that use passive yaw systems and mechanical pitch control as opposed to the active yaw systems and electronic pitch control featured in large-scale wind turbines.

How do these key differences result in the generation of different amounts of power? Are there currently any truly viable wind turbines effective for use in individual homes? How do these models work and what is their power output? This video answers all these questions.