Study Says Home Wind Turbines Are Often Useless
Before buying a small wind turbine for your roof, consider this: a recent British study claims that many home turbines generate only a fraction of what manufacturers promise, and some don’t even generate enough power to run their own electronics. The study, which was funded by the British Wind Energy Association, looked at turbines in four rural, 10 suburban, and 12 urban sites over the course of a year.
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Many of the turbines in the study generated on average only 214 watt hours per day— less than five percent of a household’s electricity.
Unfortunately for many homeowners, obstructions like trees and buildings often get in the way of accessing substantial wind power. Turbines installed on buildings in exposed positions obviously have the best results.
Of course, there are still plenty of options for homeowners hoping to invest in renewable energy, including solar panels, which usually reap better results than home turbines.
Photo Credit: NREL
I’m with Ariel on this one. I am currently developing a 2.5kw downwind turbine, and fine - we will include site assessment information because we want to ensure that our turbines work for people. Not everyone takes that approach.
A large hardware chain recently offered a turbine that you bolt onto your house, and the British Tory Party Leader did just that (see link to photo at end of this post). Thousands have followed his lead becasue it is a cheap and simple solution, except it isn’t of course - such turbines probably never recover their embodied energy. Shame on those who prey on people who want to reduce their carbon emissions.
The other problem in the market is a range of cheap and troublesome, or downright dangerous turbines from China flooding the market. I’ve tried five different ones on our site and I give up on that line.
Yet the alternative is a turbine that costs more than the average family car. Why? Becasue turbine designers seem to see this as a niche market and assuming they’ll only sell in low volume charge a high margin. That becomes a self fulfilling prophesy….
So our plan is to commoditise the market with a rugged turbine offered at prices that reflect standard hardware margins. Thankfully I enjoy my work so this is as much a hobby as an entrepreneurial endeavour, so the worst that can happen is a very expensive stamp collection.
Oh yeah, that picture of house-mounted follies…
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/greener-power-to-the-people-the-real-energy-alternative-837821.html
Quentin (Turbotricity).
First let me said I have no real problem with this site or Ariel. Hay! To anyone who might have an issue with this type of reporting, consider the source. You’ve been reading and will continue to read this type of reporting your whole life, when dealing with general sourcing. This is what reporter/writers do, they know little about what they write, and when called on it their defense is “here my source, I just the messenger”. I would venture to say Ariel’s training is mostly in writing not wind, etc.. Her product would be just same no matter what the topic. Outrageous byline to lure the reader, then a pile of words to fill the space. Her job it to get you to come to this site, and return, period. It’s working. If you want real information don’t go to a media site. Controversy ? You got it here. One of her replies is to refer to other works doing the same this. Ariel is just doing her trade. The type of articles you want is not written by generalists like A’ but those working in their field of study. You’ll never find that kind of articles here. Ariel does a good job this type of article is what she’s paid to produce. Good job Ariel! Everyone else, if you don’t like what this store is selling, go to an outlet that is.