It has been my experience that solar would probably be most effective. I started building a wind system, but ended up having to take it down. The tower went 17 feet in the air, the propellor was 6ft in diameter. At 800 watts rated at 33 mph, id did no good in the summer. Winter winds are better here, as with most places. Wind is good if you have a lot of land. The most important thing for off grid is batteries. If I could afford them, I would buy forklift batteries.
I reccomend
http://www.otherpower.com . Their stuff is mosty home built, but you get the idea.
Solar can get expensive though, and especially very cost inefficient up north, like here in PA. It's usually cloudy, hazy, or winter up here.
Sadly to say, unless you have a lot of land or money, it's gonna be hard to use alternative energy. :-(
There's always bio diesel, if you can get used to a generator that sounds like a loud lawnmower.
