@clickinaway wrote:

In the context of economically sustainable I think you need to weigh in some other factors that haven't really been mentioned yet (this is a fantastic topic BTW). I'm fortunate to live in a state that has just approved a higher net metering rate and that is a huge factor to consider. There always seems to be an assumption that a home wind project will have a grid-tie option at all.

For what the original poster is describing, that could easily represent a situation where grid-tie isn't even an option. In that case, you need to have either sufficient power generation demand within the confines of your home/property, and/or the ability to bank that power in a deeeep battery bank (or something else creative like moving water up hill, or scheduling work around peak input times;

don't laugh, that's how many water driven mills earned notorious names and reputations). Shuerwood Botsford states that

"At present small scale wind is not economic unless you have both open space (several hundred feet) a good site, and a good reason to not be connected to the grid."

And that is all true! However, I think there's another layer of complexity to that. I have a good reason to be off the grid: the thousands of dollars to bring poles into my property via a non-existent right-of-way which would cost additional money to secure.

I'm not complaining, but please appreciate the irony of the situation as well as the reality that likely many others face while trying to make this decision. I have a fairly suitable site as well, but the pay off period to justify the cost would be a long long time and the demand doesn't exist for me (yet).

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