wind gen for heat

[mikern]

A friend is looking ot buy or build a wind gen, wants to use it to produce heat, is this a viable thing for him to try, he was looking at the 10ft otherpower design, thanks, Mike

[Flux]

Depends on how much heat you want or what you want it for.

Ten foot is too small to do any serious heating except in a storm but it depends on how much you would find useful.

Heat is the lowest form of energy and a hundred watts or so doesn't do much for water heating, it does nothing for room heating but it may heat the cat basket to a very pleasant temperature.

Again one of the main factors is the average wind speed. It would need to be a high wind area to try such a small machine on a cost effective basis but as a hobby it may be worthwhile.

With suitable loading you may see peaks in the 4kW region on good days but I suspect the average daily power will be in the low hundreds of Watts.

Flux

[wooferhound]

The wind is for electricity

The Sun is for heating

Build a black box with glass facing the Sun and then run the air from the house through it and back into the house. Doesn't work at night tho, but much more heat than a wind gen.

[tmcmurran]

What about running with a fresnrl lens rather then glass?  Think this might offer better convection even without the aiming factor?  Just do not know on what to be lookng at for the same type of system.

The box idea is pretty simple, and if you were able to come up with a better way to use water as radiant heating then it would hold temp a little longer after the sun has gone down.

I might give it a try since I have a decent sheet to see what I can come up with if time permits.  If it works, or even if it's a bit of a flop I will document it and submit it for review in the comming weeks.

[ghurd]

View from the cheap SOB seats,

The fresnel lens may cost more than a complete solar box the same size.  The heat gathered would be about the same, 1KW/m^2 at best.

Aiming would be the same.  I think?

G-

[Kevortex]

Has anyone tried just making a wind turbine to rotate some metal disks or drums to produce heat from friction? Is this practical?