Let’s get it out of the way … I love my small off grid wind power setup at my new place! Before I get started, my name is Marcus and I’m an alternative energy fanatic. I was tired of living in the suburbs and found myself an old homestead out in the boonies that I could call my own.

After a long search for just the right location I found a nice old farm that was close to woods so I could enjoy the wildlife but also not too close to rule out efficient alternative power generation. This place didn’t have grid power and I definitely didn’t want to install it. I wanted to be off grid.

There was an existing farmhouse on the land that my sons and I carefully dismantled. Much of the building materials were still in good shape though a bit aged. I definitely wanted to recycle as much of the old farmhouse as possible and use it in the construction of the new home. They don’t make things like they used to!

It took a while to get the old place torn down and the building site rehabilitated and ready to start building. And I mean a while … it took two years! We could have done it faster if we hired the job out, but I’m definitely a do it yourself guy, and there was no way I was going to let a bulldozer destroy the materials I was going to reuse.

During the process my sons and I discussed various power options and we settled on a combination plan of solar panels and a small wind turbine or two as well. A friend of mine had some extra panels from a home remodel he did back in the city, so all we had to do was figure out where to find a good wind power generator for the new place. That story is what I wrote this site for!

My son James is a pretty good amateur photographer and he took a nice picture of the place a year or so after it was done. I love this shot, and you can see the wind power turbine we installed.  I am particularly proud of how you can tell that we reused so much material from the old house.  It gives the place so much character!

It really wasn’t all that hard to make our own small off grid wind power system, and I kept good notes while we did it and I’ll share them with you here!

Click here to skip the rest of the story and see the alternative energy package that changed my life.