Wind speed in your area is a handy thing to know before siteing your wind turbine. The rated wind speed on wind turbine alters from different makes and models so its best to get what suits your area. the rated wind speed on our wind turbines is around the 8 m/s ( metres per second ) around 18 mph ( miles per hour ). A lot of wind turbines seem to be rated around the 12 m/s, 27 mph. Now if you take a 1 kw wind turbine heres an eg: of the diffent wind speeds against rated speeds will do for you.

1 kw rated at 8 m/s in a 18 mph wind speed will give 1000 watts.
1 kw rated at 12 m/s in a 18 mph wind speed will give around 660 watts.
So as you can see if your wind speed in your area hardly ever gets to 27 mph but does get to 18 mph a wind turbine rated at 8 m/s will give you nearlly twice the power! worth thinking about :)

Heres a few links to sites that you can check your wind speed.
Dont for get that the charts etc wont take into account obstructions around your area ,houses trees etc .

xcweather wind speed charts

BBC Weather

Met Office

If you find any better links to help people please feel free to email the link to me many thanks.