http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/04/small-windmills-test-results.html
Basically this says that small wind is inefficient compared to big wind, and in urban areas may not pay back the money or energy that goes into it.
Rgds
Damon
Wind power needs wind and that means high, wide open spaces if you want good results.
If you have no other source of power then wind does work to some extent even in poor sites but don't even dream that it will save you anything compared with grid power.
When grid power is available there are few cases where wind will compete with it especially if you include batteries.
I don't know why we are doing the " seen to be green " thing just to be politically correct. If you are self sufficient away from grid then wind can be your saviour but if you are on grid in a poor site then wind can be a fun hobby but don't even dream that you will save anything. Leave it to the big boys on good sites with large grid tied turbines to do your green bit.
Things like the Windsave scam have done nothing for the credibility of wind power in the eyes of the general public.
Flux
I would not be one to purchase any of these for the prices they're asking, knowing my home site in the city, is near worthless for any mill of a size under say 4 meters :-) BUT toys are fun and a little power is nice.
The HF panels and soon the "micro-VAWTs" that will be up are mostly for keeping my NiCd packs charged so I can run stuff and have emergency power, and hopefully soon will also be used to keep the e-scooter's battery packs topped off.
I am on grid, can't beat the price. I can however, do the 3-R's (reduce( easiest by far to save serious money) Recycle, (by recycling all those wonderful NiCds into battery packs) Reuse, by making use of the NiCds too, I don't have to purchase more batteries , I also save money ) that I can smile about.
Also to teach others on the block that its not as hard as others ( who want to sell them a solution) would have them believe.
Good article. It would be very interesting to see how well a home-built unit would do against these, which if course would have to include the energy cost of each build.
Cheers Bruce S
Who knows, it could even be a VAWT.
And I'd like to see a VAWT do well!
Damon[ Parent ]
I would never say that small wind does not work. Inflated claims are out there for sure and the "stick it on your roof and power your home" marketing will continue to be around for a long time. Draw the Betz curves converted to KWH and help educate people on wind power. You won't make any friends in the snake oil business, no matter how you spin it you can't get blood out of a rock. Dave B.
Of course they're going to get more energy out of a larger turbine than a smaller one. Especially at those wind speeds I would think.
boB [ Parent ]
I am not really sure what it was about or what conclusions you draw from it.
There is no doubt that small wind works and on the right site and for the reasonable loads it can be expected to supply it works very well.
Where grid power is available and people are trying to supplement it with wind it can still work but if you are trying to make much of an impact on the average household use for a grid connected home then adding a few small turbines in a poor wind area will never recover the cost of the installation. As far as I could see that was the point of the article.
I can't see this changing while we still draw enormous amounts of power from a grid at very low cost. If we move to a more distributed power system and costs change drastically then things may change.
To stand any chance of supplementing grid power cost you need a bigger turbine and a really good wind site.
If you live on a boat or in some remote area small wind can transform your life but you will be living with your available power and will use it wisely. If you are on grid in less than an ideal wind site you will see more return on your money from not using a few stupid luxury ( but unnecessary) devices than installing a little wind turbine.
For those who do it as a hobby it is probably better to use the turbine to deal with all the modern gismos that run off batteries rather than try to get the few watts from a little turbine back on to the grid, where it makes no real difference. A small turbine is not that expensive but additional battery banks and grid tie inverters will probably never be paid for in their life cycle.
Flux[ Parent ]
