How do I Calculate the Average Wind Speed for a Home?

Calculating average wind speed requires basic statistics knowledge.

To calculate the average wind speed at your home, you will need something to measure your wind speed. A common wind speed measurement device is an anemometer. Once you set up an anemometer to measure the wind speed, you need to determine how long of a time interval to determine the average wind speed. The average wind speed is the same calculation as finding any average. This is a good calculation to find out how windy it is at your house, and could help you determine the practicality of installing a windmill for energy production.

Instructions

1. Take wind speed measurements at the home to collect data. For example, a person wants to find the average wind speed at his house at noon for a week. He collects data of 5 mph, 10 mph, 7 mph, 4 mph, 15 mph, 7 mph and 3 mph.

2. Add the wind speeds. In the example, the sum is 51 mph.

3. Divide the sum by the number of days you collected the data. In the example, 51 mph divided by seven days equals 7.28 mph. Therefore, the average wind speed for the week was 7.28 mph.

References

• RCN 27: Measuring the Wind
• AAA Math: Mean