Hot Home Wind Turbines You Can Actually Buy, Plus One You Wish You Could
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 11.24.08
photo: Home Energy
Though solar panels definitely hog the renewable energy stage when it comes to home installations, a number of new, innovative wind turbines have entered the market in the past couple of months. Not all of these are intended to be mounted on your roof, some you’ll need a bit of a yard (and a dearth of neighbors) to install and they vary in price from affordable to "when am I going to actually pay this off?”, but they all go to show that there’s more than one way to harness the wind to generate electricity. Check 'em out:
The Windspire
Though not the highest priced backyard wind turbine out there, the $5000 Windspire from Mariah Power has been around for a bit (we first reported on it back in September of 2007) but nonetheless it just one an award from Popular Science for being among the Best of What’s New ’08
At a rated capacity of 1.2 kilowatts, Mariah Power says that you can probably generate 25-30% of an average home’s power with the Windspire. At 30 feet tall and 2 feet wide, the Windspire probably isn’t suitable for every location—though its noise levels (20 db at 40 feet) won’t disturb anyone—and based on current electric rates it’ll take a while to pay this one off.
That said, it is a cool design, and perhaps now that Mariah Power will have a new factory up and running in Michigan and production ramps up a bit, they’ll be able to drop that price a bit.
The Energy Ball
photo: Home Energy
The Energy Ball from Swedish firm Home Energy (whose website is still only in Swedish) is one of the most distinctive looking—and by that I definitely mean cool looking—home wind turbines out there.
There are two models available: The V100 (43” in diameter, 0.5 kW capacity) has a list price of about SKr 30,400 ($3690); and the V200 (78” in diameter, 2.5 kW capacity) which runs about SKr 57,000 ($6900). Both those prices are without mounting materials. Home Energy estimates that the V200 could supply 50% of an average home's energy needs, while its smaller sibling is best seen as a supplement to other energy sources. What’s more, Home Energy claims that the Energy Ball is “completely silent”.
A brief apology/update: How I missed the fact that Home Energy has a website in English (cursing myself for muddling through the Swedish one...), is beyond me. Nonetheless that's the case: . More on the Energy Ball in English.
Air Breeze
photo: Southwest Windpower
The Air Breeze from Southwest Windpower really fills a different niche than either of the preceding wind turbines. With a rated capacity of only 200 watts, the Air Breeze is intended to be used in off-grid locations such as rural cabins, or in marine applications rather than powering up (or even offsetting a good part of) an average home. But if you don’t need a lot of power, and maybe already have some solar panels on your private little off-grid hideaway, then perhaps the 46” wide, rather slick-looking, Air Breeze is perfect for you.
It’s also not that expensive (for a wind turbine...); the Air Breeze will set you back $600-700.
Swift Rooftop Energy System
photo: Cascade Engineering
Announced back in October, the Swift Rooftop Energy System is another turbine which claims to be dead quiet (though I’m not sure less than 35 decibels is really ‘dead quiet’). Made in Michigan by Cascade Engineering, the Swift is rated at 1.5 kW and has a blade diameter of 7 feet. Like many of these, it’s pretty slick looking too.
That’s all good news; the less good news is that the estimate cost to install one of these is in the $10,000-12,000 range—which means that given current energy prices Swift’s maker’s prediction that you can pay this off in three years is, well, optimistic.
Phillipe Starck’s Wind Turbine
photo: Inhabitat
Phillipe Starck’s wind turbine is the odd one out in the group, but not because of its design—as striking as it is, the other wind turbines in this list are no slouches in the design department—but because since its announcement back in the summer it’s just sort been hanging out there in the ether. Since its debut we’ve learned little more, but since both in terms of price point (low) and design concept (high) it’s worth bringing back up.
This is what we do know about its tech specs (such as they are): It’s expected to generate between 20-60% of an average home’s electric needs, is made of clear polycarbonate, and (should it actually be available to purchase) expected to sell for €400 ($500).
Given that normally a bit more in the way of technical data is made available at the announcement of a new renewable energy product, especially one whose design is bound to attract naysayers, I have to wonder whether this one will ever see the light of day. But should it actually get produced, I'd be surprised if a good number of people don't fork out the cash, just to be able to say, "yes, that thing is actually a wind turbine."
Wind Power
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Understandably, people like the idea of generating electricity in their own backyard, using their own wind turbine. However, The wind conditions in the built environment are mostly very poor: the average windspeed is low, and the wind is very turbulent. Consequently the yield is low. So in most cases micro windturbines will not make any sense.
also see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/30/windpower.carbonemissions
Instead of a 700 billion dollar bail out, why cant the government spend the 700billion and install one of these things on every roof in the country?
this could cut everybodies energy cost by 30-50 percent, providing an instant and perminent stimulus package for the whole country.
they could just tie it into your utility meter, and watch the meter turn backwards during non-peak hours.
You forgot about the Windterra ECO1200, which is a roof mounted VAWT, is very affordable, and it is available right now.
If I can power 20% of my house 50% of the time, while my friend who lives across the state can power 20% of his house 50% of the time, then this should help reduce the entire amount of electrity needed.
Also, if the electric goes down, then I can at least power up part of my house part of the time till the electric is back on. Nothing worse then having the elecric go out in the middle of winter, taking out your gas furnace as well, leading to broken pipes.
4 years ago I wrote a term paper on the cost effectiveness of using micro wind power in residential installations and I couldn't find any options that were this cheap. At the time the cheapest thing I could find was 25K before installation which was way more involved than any of these would be.
I think it's great that the options are expanding. Even though wind isn't necessarily the most effective way to use micro energy it's pretty sweet to just sit and watch your turbine spin.
You can always install more than one. If One will produce 20-60% then 2 or 3 will double and triple the output, No?
In an urban environment, personal windmills make no sense:
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/09/urban-windmills.html
Also, Home Energy is NOT a Swedish company, it is a Dutch company.
There is more information available in Dutch than in Swedish, and they do have some information in English, too. Here is their main site, might read a bit easier :-)
http://www.homeenergy.nl/
The design of Helix Wind seems promising to me. They avoid saying anything about the cost on their website, but a quote from an article on the web says they're about $8,000
They're going to have to come down a bit before I can install one, but we get more wind than strong sun here in Berkeley, CA
http://www.helixwind.com
it would be a good idea to install these turbines in a hilly place, plain grounds, mountain foothills, beaches and other windy places... doing so in an urban setting is nothing more than a feel good, do-the-right-thing, token gesture which serves no purpose except to fill somebody else's coffers.
Sadly these designs will not work as they say, most barely work at all. No vertical ones get even 10% eff vs 50% for 3 bladed regular types either upwind or downwind. Why is basic physics I don't have time to explain but plenty of it online in one of the many RE, wind groups/lists.
Look for 7-15' dia' ones. 10' in a good design gives about .8kw in 12 mph average winds. Anyone saying more is not being honest. rating at 15-30 mph average means nothing as few have those speeds. US average is about 11mph.
Best if you are handy is build your own, about $300-600 in parts for an Axial-Flux type by Hugh Piggott, ect.
Look for companies that have a realtrack record and don't be fooled by those more interested in your money vs putting out a good product.
Done right windgens are the most cost effective RE you can do unless you have hydro.
jerryd
The Windspire is awesome, and getting 3kw for $5000 is a pretty good deal. However, it takes more than 3kw to produce 100% of your home energy needs. It is possible to keep your energy consumption to a level where a 3kw system will work, but the average household needs more. 6kw for $10,000 is still less than it would cost for solar though - that doesn't include rebates either.
ALWAYS look at the wind speed vs. turbine output graph that the company provides. Most wind turbines are rated at the maximum wind speed they can handle without furling or braking (usually 26-30mph). There are very very few wind sites with an average wind speed that high. You need to look at the performance at your sites wind speed. Cut-In speed, another number the companies like to use, is the speed at which the turbine begins making power. This may only be a few watts and it may be less than an inverters minimum requirements. I know two people who were convinced to buy Bergy turbines for bad sites. Now they are trying to take the towers down and sell the parts. There is no point in putting a turbine up in a bad site, it would be like putting solar on the north side of a house or hydro on a tiny stream.
Here's one more kind that we covered here in San Francisco:
http://www.kqed.org/quest/radio/beyond-solar-do-it-yourself-home-energy
When they take the Greed factor out of the equation, wind turbines can be sold for 200 dollars with a manufacturer's cost of under 100. Many homes have 'whirlybirds' on their roofs for venting attics - and in many parts of the world those things spin more than 60% of the time. They retail for about $40 dollars, and will last a lifetime if maintained. Any decent electrical engineer should be able to rig up a 12 volt generator to those for less than 60 dollars. The problem seems to be that far too many people think that the highest good is to amass tons of money. It's time for us to wake up and see that we're one big dysfunctional family - and to work at changing that by helping each other instead of exploiting each other.
Although I think producing your own energy is a very good thing, check out this link to find some test results for these wind turbines. Some really have a terribly small energy output, and all are very expensive!
So please, no more high energy claims, but only high energy results!
http://www.olino.org/us/articles/2008/10/29/test-results-small-wind-turbines
Take a look at www.allsmallwindturbines.com for a complete overview of small wind turbines.
The Energy Ball looks really cool, but its power inverter is designed for 230V 50cycle current. Unless you have a house full of European-spec or dual-voltage appliances, you'll need to hack this one to get it to work for you.
After reading this article, I decided to research Phillipe Starck’s Wind Turbine, that made such a huge splash last summer, and there seems to be a tiny bit more information on Pramac's European site, under "Wind Power" (http://www.pramac.com/Europe/en/default.asp?Location=Europe&Language=en). There the picture of the packaging indicates it will generate up to 300w. But if 300 watts costs 500 Euros (currently $697), and if you want just 2.4kW of homemade electricity, you'd need at least 8 of these, for a cost of $5,576 -- plus the price of related equipment, installation costs, etc. I hope I'm wrong -- because I've been hopefully waiting for their debut - but maybe that explains why we've heard little news since last summer.