Squirrel Cage generators for urban houses?

[chotii]

Hi there, I had a thought yesterday while driving along I-90 in Washington State, coming down the hill eastward toward Vantage, where a huge turbine farm captures  energy from the prevailing, endless winds.  We stopped overnight in Moses Lake, where the wind simply never stops (and I have a friend in Ogden UT where evidently it's just the same way - 40 mph winds every single morning, and lower sustained winds most of the time).

Bear with me, kindly.....now I recently read a post-apocalyptic science fiction book called 'Bone Dance' by Emma Bull, in which the main character has a wind turbine disguised as a vent (squirrel cage style), trickle-charging a battery-bank so he is not dependent on the local power despot.

I know that among the objections to wind turbines are these: the appearance ("unsightly"; NIMBY), and the risk to birds from the spinning blades.  Yet we never even think about the squirrel cage vents on our roofs, and I have see houses with a row of 5 or 6. Nobody even looks at them.

For an urban area like Moses Lake or Ogden, where the wind never stops but true bladed turbines might be objectionable for visual reasons (neighborhood covenants, city codes etc), why couldn't small generators be hidden inside 'squirrel cage' spinners, trickling multiple small charges into a battery bank?

What could one hope to generate with a row of...4 or 5 such spinners? What could be run? (Kitchen fluorescent lights? Track lighting? A few strings of holiday lights? A fan on a natural-gas furnace? Something larger?)

Could the cost to set up be recovered via power generated over time?

Thank you for considering my extreme-newbie questions,

--angela

[DanB]

Hi/welcome.

" where a huge turbine farm captures  energy from the prevailing, endless winds.  We stopped overnight in Moses Lake, where the wind simply never stops (and I have a friend in Ogden UT where evidently it's just the same way - 40 mph winds every single morning, and lower sustained winds most of the time)."

Cool - well be passing through moses lake on our way to Guemes Island this year.

"I know that among the objections to wind turbines are these: the appearance ("unsightly"; NIMBY), and the risk to birds from the spinning blades."

Rubbish... wind turbines are beautiful things, they are (or should be) very quiet - and the whole bird thing is way over the top.  There have been a few minor issues but overall it's fairly insignificant on most sites.  It's nothing compared to the damage done by more conventional ways of generating power.  

  "Yet we never even think about the squirrel cage vents on our roofs, and I have see houses with a row of 5 or 6. Nobody even looks at them."

Actually it gets thought of pretty often...

"For an urban area like Moses Lake or Ogden, where the wind never stops but true bladed turbines might be objectionable for visual reasons (neighborhood covenants, city codes etc), why couldn't small generators be hidden inside 'squirrel cage' spinners, trickling multiple small charges into a battery bank?"

It would work - but the power available would be insignificant compared to the power that folks use.

"What could one hope to generate with a row of...4 or 5 such spinners? What could be run? (Kitchen fluorescent lights? Track lighting? A few strings of holiday lights? A fan on a natural-gas furnace? Something larger?)"

Probably none of those things unless it's hurricane force winds.

"Could the cost to set up be recovered via power generated over time?"

That's the good question here and I would say... probably not - or at least, it would take a very very long time.  It would not be cost effective.

So far as wind power is concerned, the most cost effective solution for urban homes is for them to conserve everywhere possible, and then put large wind turbines on good sites in rural places and bring that energy in on the power grid.  

[electrondady1]

hello angela

the energy we can harvest is directly related to the size of  the wind mill.

that goes for propeller types as well as well as vertical axis types you are thinking about .

some designs  are more efficient than others .but there is only so much energy per square foot of wind .

 

[finnsawyer]

I don't know about this power being insignificant statement.  It depends on the size of the unit.  There is also the factor of the air being sped up as in flows over the roof.  So, it might become a case of designing for the best results.  If the wind is reliable and generally from a certain direction put the building cross wise to it.  secondly, make the building at least twice as long as the turbine is wide.  Thirdly, use a quonset hut type design.  When the air flows past a cylinder, its speed doubles.  Voila, an eight fold increase in power flow.  Well, maybe not, but still substantial.  So, it becomes a matter of designing the turbine and putting a structure to modify the air flow around it.  The turbine must be built to stand alone and not to rely on the building for support.  With the building added, of course, you get a nice storage area.  You could put a dome shaped building around the turbine with a lessor speed up of air flow (only 50%), if the wind tended to change direction a lot.  

[alancorey]

I like it.  Whatever the realities of limited power production, it reminds me of ham radio operators using bird houses on pipes, flagpoles, downspouts and clotheslines as antennas.  Disguise it well enough and it might work.  Maybe you could use a fairly good-sized VAWT with some clothesline strung across it (clothespins and a few socks would help) and if questioned the rotating aspect is an anti-fading feature to keep the sun from fading one side.  Hanging anything very big on it would be counterproductive to making electricity, but maybe it could dry clothes by day and make electricity by night.

  Alan

[vawtman]

Birds pretty much see them has a solid object which they pretty much are and thats why i think there isnt much power available in them.

 So you pretty much need to resign the whole concept.Fewer blades i like high solidity but thats taking it too far.

 

 This turbine i think could benefit from a thicker more airfoilly blades(just invented a word to replace aerodynamic(lol).And fewer also.But like the principle.It would appear has a solid object when its up to speed has the co. claims.No birdies in other words, but would be cool to see one get chopped up inside it.

 My opinions on the matter

[wooferhound]

Here are some squirrel cages at work in hydro situations

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_hydro.html

[yuandrew]

It seems like what you are refering to is a "Turbine ventilator"

I've though about using one of these before since I often see them spinning in very slight breezes. Someone told me they may not have enough torque but I haven't tried one yet.