The wind is always blowing here and my coming DIY project is setting up a mini windmill. I have considered a lot of different setups from the Calorius mill that produces hot water directly in the tower (no generator) to a grid-connected setup. The mini generator market is so small that it is impossible to find the right setup as a standard package, and I am not a genius when it comes to calculating inverters.

The hot water mill, Calorius, was too expensive.  On-grid setup – also very expensive, the  inverter would cost more than the mill and since I am looking for a less than 2 diameter mill (mills less than 2 meters can be installed without applying for it) there would be nothing but expenses.

Instead I am going for a 24 Volt mill that only will be used for the boiler in our hot water tank. The tank is already connected to solar panels and a wood stove/oilburner. This is working great but in the summer when we do not need hot water for anything but the how showers it would be nice to avoid burning wood or oil on (partly) cloudy days.

So what I need is a mill, a battery, a charger and boiler.

The mill above is from www.procure.dk. It is a 600 Watt, 24 Volt mill, that seems inexpensive. (a bit more than 1.000 euro) It comes complete with chargecontroller. It is made in China and it worries me a bit compared to:
The other one I consider is the American build Air X One from South West Windpower. Link. It is smaller and cheaper than
the other but can also do 400 Watt at 12,5 m/s. Download video here: link. It has a build-in chargecontroller in the mill-head.

Finding the right boiler has been hard, but I think this guy can help:
http://www.wind2watts.co.uk/index_files/Page841.htm

I will make up my mind this week, so stay tuned :-)