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Old 09-29-2009, 12:31 PM   #5
jmen24
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You may want to mention to your neighbor to verify that nobody behind him/her has a View Easement. Putting it up is expensive, but putting it up and being sued and having to take it down is even more so.

Other than that I think windmills are cool, but the returns do not justify the means in this area. The winds just do not have enough fetch. Anyone that has driven out west through the windfarms will agree that there is not much blocking the wind from reaching them.

The following is only slightly off topic, but is worth mentioning.

Electricity is really not the most expensive thing to replace in New England home when it comes to using nature to offset those costs.

One of the gentlemen that works in my company, designed and installed himself (he has the background and knowledge) a solar hot water heating system, using 6 hydronic panels and 600 gallons of storage he can heat his home all winter (3800SF) with the boiler only picking up 5-10% of the load on the coldest darkest days and that includes all domestic hot water. After winter he turns a valve and continues to make hot water all year long. I will not get into exactly how the system works as there is alot of information about it, but he invested about $28K and has not had to refill his 500 gallon propane tank yet (2+ years). This system is very cool to see how it works, it also adjusts the temperature of the water in the heat loops based on the outdoor air temp, so it only makes the water as hot as it needs to. Disclaimer is that this system would only work with Radiant heat as you do not want all that work to heat and store the water just to let it go to waste heating air.
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