I have an idea...
Posted on 10/16/2009 9:57:31 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin
Has Affordable, Efficient Rooftop Wind Power Arrived? Of the 10,500 small wind turbines installed last year, 99 percent were attached to giant constructed towers in rural areas. Rooftop wind turbines—constituting 1 percent of the market—have a huge potential in urban and suburban areas. But the products, which are heavy, noisy and require permanently attaching wind-catching blades to homes, have not yet caught on. One inventor thinks his unique turbine is just what the market is looking for. Are rooftop turbines set to take off?
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Interesting article. Some day may even be feasible.
That's the flaw in the deal. I'd love to have wind power, but plugging into the grid remains the cheapest source.
Maybe just add heat pumps here in NY....to replace regular heat source during severe temps.
If you’re talking about the heat pumps used to heat houses in the South. They don’t work in the real cold of northern climates.
Geothermal systems do help.
It only makes sense if you have no electricty now. The thing I like about this is it is a lot quieter. I have a freind who has one with conventenal blades and it’s noisy.
How does one re-shingle their roof with solar panels, windmills, and hot water panels installed on the roof? Just a question. Average roof is re-shingled every 10 years. Does this mean you would incurr re-installation costs for all systems mounted on your roof? Will the systems installed today be continually supported with spares for the next 10 to 20 years? Lets be real here folks.
Price Per Watt /// $2.25 per watt without installations (where costs vary). Expect that price to roughly double with installation. With the 30 percent federal tax credit, the price works out to about $1.58 per watt without installation. This price reflects only one year of use. Given five years without repair costs, the price drops to 22.5 cents per watt, just roughly double the current national average.
Interesting, here in NM I have plenty of wind and sun. I’d like enough independant capability to power my well pump. That’s the only thing I don’t have backup for when the power goes down.
Keep in mind that any maintenance you do to the unit will extend that payback period.
There are very few mechanical devices that will function flawlessly for 20 years.
I have an idea...
I kinda noted that...I live in NY but lived in Va for a year. A friend here in NY had a heat pump plus...
Will it work on one 350’ deep?
If you live on a hill, a turbine is a good idea. If you live low, like I do, there’s no wind at roof level most of the time. Too many trees. Same with solar panels. At this point, the cost/benefit ratio is too high.
“Will it work on one 350’ deep?”
Lol Work being the key word here.
Our geothermal heats and cools the house, heats the floor in the main level and is 300 percent efficient. Not cheap going in but was paid for (vs. traditional system) in about four years.
I was at my friends house and we were talking and all of a sudden I hear this loud noise. I asked “whats that”. He says “Oh thats the windmill”. I can’t imagine them in an urban or even suburban setting.
Imagine you have one of these generators up on a tower, ten feet or 50 feet or some distance above your house. Imagine the thing breaks down.
There is virtually no power available in a 1 mph wind so the claims of low startup speed don’t have any practical implication. The power available is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity. So an 8 mph wind speed contains four thousand times as much power per unit area than a 1 mph wind speed. If the system produces 200 watts at 8mph it will create just milliwatts at 1 mph, enough maybe to light a couple of LEDs.
The quiet aspect is significant though. It has been known for a long time that more blades lead to slower turning and quieter operation. Moving the alternator out to the periphery to obviate the need for “gearing up” is a clever trick.
But this could only work for very small turbines. Putting all those magnets at the periphery of a large turbine would lead to stress failures flinging magnets out at high velocity.
So this is probably no more than a clever curiosity with limited commercial application.
There is virtually no power available in a 1 mph wind so the claims of low startup speed don’t have any practical implication. The power available is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity. So an 8 mph wind speed contains four thousand times as much power per unit area than a 1 mph wind speed. If the system produces 200 watts at 8mph it will create just milliwatts at 1 mph, enough maybe to light a couple of LEDs.
The quiet aspect is significant though. It has been known for a long time that more blades lead to slower turning and quieter operation. Moving the alternator out to the periphery to obviate the need for “gearing up” is a clever trick.
But this could only work for very small turbines. Putting all those magnets at the periphery of a large turbine would lead to stress failures flinging magnets out at high velocity.
So this is probably no more than a clever curiosity with limited commercial application.
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