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A Dutch company has launched a new type of wind turbine that is small enough to fit onto the roof of a house. The turbine looks like a Nautilus shell, and their website explains how it works:
Most today's wind turbines require that a difference in pressure between the front and the rear side of the rotor blades be maintained in order to be effective. However, this difference in pressure also has a negative effect called "drag".
Our turbine rotor captures the kinetic energy of the wind due to its speed, and, by reversing the wind and reducing it to almost zero Beaufort converts it into mechanical energy. By doing this the wind speed's effect (in kinetic energy) on the rotor is maximized and "lift" is obtained by the wind's acceleration over the rotor plane.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Monday June 02 2014, @06:36PM
Quote TFA
So that's about a 12mph wind speed, which is pretty unusual in residential districts. The average at Airports is here. [currentresults.com]. Most places don't show 12mph even around airports which sit in wide open areas.
You just don't find that much wind in your typical residential neighborhood. I live on top of a hill in Washington State, and gazing at my roof mounted anemometer on what seems like a windy day to me, I am reading a peak of 3mph, average of less than 1mph. Hawaii? Probably a much better fit. [usa.com] The trade winds blow just about year around.
I think for the typical house, Solar would be a better bet, especially if you tied it directly to the AC system> Solar usually comes with zero moving parts. Once you mount something on someone's roof, the next maintenance it will get is when it falls down.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday June 02 2014, @06:47PM
"zero moving parts"
There is the noise and vibration issue, which I've never understood WRT residential-ish wind. Nice silent solar, sure. But wind?
I live far north of the peak of tornado alley but we get plenty of t-storms and blizzards with rather high winds, another mystery to deal with roofs and windmills. Usually the sun doesn't decide to be 10 times as bright on a random-ish basis.
(Score: 2) by computersareevil on Monday June 02 2014, @08:51PM
"Usually the sun doesn't decide to be 10 times as bright on a random-ish basis."
I think I read a short story about that once.
Ah yes, here it is [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Informative) by pe1rxq on Monday June 02 2014, @06:57PM
In the Netherlands we actualy have a large costal area where the yearly average is 5m/s or more.
But I guess a few large ones will work better still.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 02 2014, @07:09PM
Agreed, there are places this would work. Seemingly every ridge in the Western US has sprouted wind farms.
There are plenty of rural farms where there is virtually no wind-obstruction.
I wonder if these turbines would be more efficient when scaled up than those huge tri-blade monsters.
Speaking of wind farms, there is apparently a warming effect [nsf.gov] from a large wind farm, and if these devices
started appearing on every city roof top, that might exacerbate the heat sink effect in cities.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.