SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Scientists at the University of Malaya have designed a roof that can help address an environmental conflict: increasing demands for energy to increase living comfort versus a need to scale back fossil fuel use to address climate change. The conflict has driven interest in more efficient renewable energy sources, especially in emerging economies.
The roof's most visible feature is a V-shaped structure set atop a peaked roof, which guides wind into a series of turbines situated below it to generate energy as they turn. The structure also increases airflow within the building by means of vents built into the peaked roof to enhance natural ventilation. In addition, a rainwater harvester is connected to an automated cooling and cleaning system that washes solar cells embedded in the sloped roof to keep them efficient. Transparent skylights brighten the main rooms inside the building during the daytime, reducing the need for artificial lighting.
The team says that adding the roof to an existing building creates minimal visual impact and can be used in urban and rural settings.
In Malaysia, the average person uses about 4,200 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per year. The researchers say their roof could support about six people by generating more than 21,200 kWh of energy a year while saving another 1,840 kWh because of its skylights. Also, the venting system could move about 217 million cubic metres of air and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 17,768 kilos, while the rainwater harvester could collect close to 525 cubic metres of water.
Do they have homeowner's associations in Malaysia?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 10 2017, @09:42PM
Are you saying that it must be of poor quality, perhaps because it is small?
Yes. If you have a large wind turbine, that generates a lot of electricity which buys a fair amount of maintenance (expected costs are a few percent of the revenue generated). Meanwhile, these wind turbines simply won't have the revenue stream to justify the maintenance. And any maintenance will be very specialized since one is working at the top of a roof.
I said that, should the turbines fail, the roof would still have value: it would still provide water, electricity, shelter, and ventilation. It would still be useful. I don't see how that is erroneous.
So would a roof without the wind turbines. The wind turbines don't make these other features more valuable. In fact, the "V" structure indicates to me that they'll probably make the solar cells less valuable through obstruction of light.
That's the problem in general with adding more features. Just saying that the other features are still functional even if this one breaks, ignores that they would still be functioning and might even function better without the questionable feature.