# Home Depot offers electricity producing "windmills" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-depot-offers-electricity-producing-windmills/586489 "2011-06-22T21:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-depot-offers-electricity-producing-windmills/586489/1 "2011-06-22T21:40:03Z")
> **[CNET: Product reviews, advice, how-tos and the latest news](https://www.cnet.com/)** > > Get full-length product reviews, the latest news, tech coverage, daily deals, and category deep dives from CNET experts worldwide. Alright guys, why would it be a bad idea to get one of these? Too expensive, not enough power for the money? I have a home on the windward side of the Big Island of Hawaii just north of Hilo. Average wind speed is over 20 mph. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-depot-offers-electricity-producing-windmills/586489/2 "2011-06-22T21:54:27Z")
400 kWh/month for 15,000 dollars with a 5 year warranty? Electricity in Hawaii is about 36 cents per kWh according to a quick search. That works out to about $1700 dollars a year if you have an average windspeed of at least 12 mph. This is a payback period of about 9 years. If the wind blows more, it will payback much faster. Of course this assumes you simply sell the power to the energy company at full cost if you don’t use it. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-depot-offers-electricity-producing-windmills/586489/3 "2011-06-22T22:00:23Z")
> [@randomface](#): > > 400 kWh/month for 15,000 dollars with a 5 year warranty? Electricity in Hawaii is about 36 cents per kWh according to a quick search. That works out to about $1700 dollars a year if you have an average windspeed of at least 12 mph. This is a payback period of about 9 years. If the wind blows more, it will payback much faster. > > Of course this assumes you simply sell the power to the energy company at full cost if you don’t use it. I believe the 400 kWh/month is a best-case scenario, but that’s still not bad. These little home turbines make a whole lot more sense in Hawaii than they do in the lower 48, though. I won’t torture the OP by telling him what my rate is, but my best-case payback period with this generator would be about 40 years. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-depot-offers-electricity-producing-windmills/586489/4 "2011-06-22T22:14:54Z")
Skystream manufacturer website [http://www.windenergy.com/](http://www.windenergy.com/) compare with what local vendors and installers might sell. they will also give you much information, you might hire them to do a test at your site.