Greentheo... we just got bested! Forget the Stalkerator! These guys can generate around 2000 kWh/year with a 30' vertical wind turbine. The article does not say what kind of windy knob you have to live on to do that, but the Mariah site says you only need an average wind speed of 12 mph! The sample home they showed seemed to be in a reasonable location. http://www.popsci.com/bown/2008/gallery/mariah-power-windspire-photo-gallery With a 30' height, small footprint, and quiet operation, they can get past a lot of neighborhood restrictions... probably not in my current location though... (only 8.8 dba in 50mph wind!) I could not find a price. They had a "nice" cost-saving calculator on the site, but alas, one of the fields you had to put in was the cost of the unit... duh...
I first learned about vertical turbines years ago when I read about Darrieus turbines which were invented in 1931 by French engineer Georges_Jean_Marie_Darrieus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrieus_wind_turbine) The Mariah unit seems to be a close cousin, or maybe a nephew!
Greentheo and I have been blogging about several energy producing and saving ideas and have noted several examples of homes that only needed 1000 kWh/y. With this turbine you could splurge and watch cartoons on Saturday morning! OK Greentheo, I am ready to go build my papercrete elliptical dome in the boonies with my own little power source! I hope the wind is blowing on those cold Colorado nights!
That's pretty neat... although a 30' vawt is pretty large... and for only 2000 kWh/year.... not sure if the cost, HOA fighting vs. payback is quite worth it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about our previous calculations, they seem a bit low now... 2000 kwh / yr = $200 in electricity. I suppose that's reasonable for a house with non-electric heating ($20 / month), but for us we'd need about 3 of these guys... and we live pretty simply too.
Hmm... yeah I too was really interested in VAWT for a while, but have kind of given up on it as something viable for independent reneweable... unless of course I moved into a papercrete dome next door to you :-)