Windterra's Residential Roof Turbine Is Ready For California Market
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 11. 6.07
All of the following is excerpted from Windterra press and website material. Key points to remember for this residential wind turbine are: much less expensive than solar install for similar output; very low visual profile; house needs professional assessment for structural integrity/sound damping. We strongly suggest you view the linked video and show it to the neighbors before you go for one. And finally, make sure you're up to laddering up the roof for an occasional oiling or can hire someone for occasional maintenance.
Want to save on your electric bill with alternative energy but can't spring for a solar roof? The answer is blowing in the wind, at least according to Windterra, a Canadian wind turbine manufacturer that hopes to enter the California market via the East Bay...Windterra turbines are vertical axis turbines (VATs) that have a boxy, low profile look, with three small blades perched on a short platform [pictured].
"Most people who pay about $200 a month for electricity can expect to save between $50 and $75 per month with a Windterra turbine," said Gayle Larson, director of market development for the company...
Solar roofs cost about 20,000 for a typical two-bedroom California home. Windterra turbines cost $5,900, with the cost of installation about $1,000...
"Yes, it needs to have an architect check for the structural integrity of the roof. The unit is 250 pounds or so," said Yanni Kalajakis, a marketer in Windterra's San Ramon office.
Advantages as outlined on the Windterra website are as follows:
* VAWTs are omni-directional (can instantaneously accept wind from any direction) as opposed to Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) which have to constantly rotate so that they are facing the wind.
* VAWTs are easily roof mountable and are less affected by turbulent air than HAWTs, which make VAWTs far better suited for residential areas where obstacles such as other houses and trees may disturb the airflow. Mounting the VAWT on a roof as opposed to a pole or tower makes the unit more accessible for easy routine maintenance.
* Windterra's VAWTs rotate at a much lower speed than the very high speeds of existing HAWTs (225 rpm versus 900 rpm), resulting in much lower noise levels and vibration.
* Windterra’s inverter technology provide efficiencies at lower voltages (lower wind speeds) not seen anywhere in the industry.
* Windterra's control system allow the turbine to operate at its most efficient level throughout the wind velocity range (Dynamic Loading). This ensures that the turbine is always producing the most energy possible for a given wind speed without overloading the turbine.
* Our blade design optimizes the turbine’s performance at typical lower wind speeds. Most designs concentrate on rated wind speed and rated power, which yield a lower annual power output at typical wind speeds. Windterra’s designs focus on generating the most amount of power at typical wind speeds. The result is a higher annual power output - this is what is important to the consumer - annual power output, not rated power!
* Windterra ships an all in one, complete system; everything you need to mount the personal wind turbine to residence or commercial building comes in one package!
* Windterra’s ECO1200 is a complete "all-in-one" wind turbine system, which includes the turbine, controller/inverter, and mounting system.
See promotional video with the turbine in motion here.
Via::Contra Costa Times, "Wind turbine manufacturer pitches alternative to solar roof"
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The installation of an urban micro-windturbine is not as straight forward as many manufacturers want you to believe.
*Wind conditions in the urban environment vary widely even within the same street. It is very difficult to determine if the local wind resource is sufficient.
*Much of the technology is still immature, and does not deliver what is promised by the manufacturer.
*Noise and safety issues have to be assessed for each installation.
Don't get me wrong: I am not against urban windturbines, but I just want to warn: thread carefully, because it is easy to make costly mistakes.
See: http://www.urban-wind.org for European experiences with and assessment of the urban wind technology.
The solar company I work for is looking into PacWind (endorsed by Ed Begly Jr. and Jay Leno), but there are some issues. No matter where you put a turbine you really need to test the site for a year to see how much you will produce. The Pacwind model we were looking at is rated 5kw, but thats in a 38mph wind. If you look at a performance graph it drops sharply with lower wind speed. You need to have that anemometer up to see if it is a worthwhile investment. There is also the issue of grid tied inverters. Right now Bergy is the only company that makes direct grid-tied inverters for wind turbines (and they won't sell their inverters separately from their turbines). With all other companies you need to run the power through a bank of batteries to condition it before it can hit the inverter. At todays prices that means about another $2500 in batteries that you will have to maintain and eventually replace (8-10 years if you are good to them, 3-5 if you aren't). I also don't know about that installation cost. The people I talked to erect a tower that is bolted onto the house. It is less expensive than a freestanding tower (lowest price I've seen is $8k for a 50 foot) but its not like you can just bolt a pole to the roof. I think urban turbines are great, but we may have to wait a few years before making an accurate comparison to solar.
Information on the website indicates a temperature operating range of 0 C (32 F) to 60 C (140 F). A lot of the world experiences below freezing temperatures, especially places without a lot of sun that are better suited to wind power generation. May be something worth investigating if you are going to buy one of these.
Pat, you have quite a bit of misinformation there.
A grid tie system doesn't really care where it gets it's power. It can be from solar, wind, battery, or any other DC power source. It's just a matter of conditioning the source power to get it within the operating tolerances of the inverter. Batteries are not the only way to condition power. There's also capacitors and other more complicated solutions.
Companies other than Bergy make grid tie systems you could use with wind. SMA-America for one. They have their Windy Boy line of products which I might add are battery free and run for about $2k-4k depending on what model you choose.
Mounting a pole to the house isn't really all that complicated for the simplest of carpenters. I'm sure you could run up a 50' pipe for less than $8k. Heck, just look up windmill towers and you'll find plenty of affordable riggings pretty much built just for this sort of thing.
This stuff gets ridiculously expensive when you buy the package deals. With a little extra work on your part and some creativity it can be relatively affordable. A good alternator is the heart of the beast. The rest is mostly cosmetic.
If the price in the article is correct ($6k purchase + $1k install,) and the "average" output of 4.5Kwh/Day on the windterra site is correct then . . . assuming a gratuitous value of 9.5 cents/Kwh earned:
7000 / (((4.5 * 365) * 9.5 ) / 100) = 44.861011 years for payback!
I don't think the output is high enough to justify the cost. Unless I made an error in my calculations?
Is there a reason these couldn't be installed on top of existing telephone poles?
The grid is literally right there and a telephone pole is one of the tallest structures in a typical non-city residential area.
It seems a utility could buy a bulk order of these and install their own distributed power system.
Man, who uses $200 of electricity per month? I use about $4. The rest of my bill is the basic charge.
I use about $4.
You live in a fridgeless dorm room with central air conditioning in Seattle or West Virginia? How's that working out for you?
California people pay at least .15 per kilowatt hour and with the price of oil on the rise, many will see over .20 per kwh.
4.5Kwh per day? 130Kwh per month? So I get to pay at least $7 plus ongoing maintenance worries in order to save 6% off of my average monthly electrical usage, which is 2063Kwh? I would have to install 17 of these on my roof to go net neutral for a year?
Still, I love the idea to pieces.
4.5Kwh per day? 130Kwh per month? So I get to pay at least $7 plus ongoing maintenance worries in order to save 6% off of my average monthly electrical usage, which is 2063Kwh? I would have to install 17 of these on my roof to go net neutral for a year?
Still, I love the idea to pieces.
I guess you could, at minimal cost, add some sort of wire mesh to protect the birds...
=== authors' response follows ===
I had thoughts that it might be a useful pigeon dispersal technology.
Check their website -- their numbers assumed 5 m/s average winds, or about 12mph. Now, go to one of the other websites that actually shows a historical map of average windspeeds taken over entire year periods.
There are relatively few places in the US that have year-round average wind speeds of 12mph or better.
I did the calculations on another wind turbine system that also required an average of 12mph wind speeds, and it took 99 years to get payback on that unit here in Austin, TX which is one of the most alternative-energy friendly places in the world.
With the solar power credit from AustinEnergy, the solar panels with 20% efficiency only took 33 years to repay.
This stuff needs to become more cost-effective for the majority of people to install, before it's going to get anything more than empty interest.
I am not sure where those of you that claim to be paying $0.10 / KWH or less actually live, but I live in northern California, along with 15 million others, and with the tiered rate system we have in place TODAY I can easily pay $0.37/KWH with a household of 5. Remember that with a wind turbine or solar panel the energy you save reduces your bill at the TOP tier rate and therefore you can easily save THREE times the cost that some on this site have estimated. I have put together a very detailed, 10 year month-by-month economic model that also takes into account inflation - does anyone believe that electricity rates will remain flat or decline? Finally, all along the California coast, through the Sacramento valley, and along the Sierra the data exist which show an abundant wind resource. Add this to a potential rebate, and one can easily show a payback of 5 years or less. with the Windterra VAWT. I have the data.
I live in Minnesota where with tax our electricity cost is $ .09 /KWhr. We only average ~5.5 mph with the wind. That is a little misleading as the wind often blows stronger but many times we have no wind at all. I like to calculate wind power as available half the time at 12 mph. The Western part of the state has much more wind then the Twin City area. I would love to be able to justify a system like this but wind or solar the cost for us needs to come down to justify it.
When I can install something for $2 per watt I'm going for it. I want an electric car and solar panels to power it. This is a step in the right direction and hopefully soon I'll see solar panels and a wind generator on top my roof.
I live in south Mississippi and there are only a few days a year here when you can even fly a kite!
Florida - $0,09/kw - wind? what's that?
But I love the idea.
WARNING - PacWind is a scam. I paid them in full a year ago for a wind turbine installation and have received at least 10 firm due dates for delivery, all of which turned out to be lies. Over the last few months they have not returned any of my email or telephone calls. Pacwind is a scam operation and should be avoided.
I want something that I can put on the roof ridge line that would be 30 ft long but want it only 1ft tall.
Wouldnt affect athestics as much.
Horizontal helix? Bunch of short VAWTs?
I think the ECO 1200 is a good concept in wind energy. The problem , of course, is the low rating of power output, and the inflated oveall cost of the kit in the first place. Another example of a Canadian company thinking that they can fleece stupid americans. To make this a viable product, it needs to put out 4 - 5 times the current output, at the current price for the kit. This should not be a problem for a reputible manufacturing company who is in business for the long run.
this is a good idea of windturbine installation on the roof but this good for those areas where wind circulation is more.
now days i am using a solar energy. now i am thinking to install a wind turbine.newroof