Mag-Wind - Can this possibly work

[gwarwick]

 another rooftop turbine that appears to me to breach the betz limit - anybody know anything about it - seems too good to be true

[Waterfront]

Yup, I get the same feeling, too good to be true...

Noticed the disclaimer? «The above mentioned figures are based on a best-case scenario. Actual results may vary.»

Roofmounted VAWT producing 5kw in a 28mph wind... I'd like to see the alternator specs on that... You couldn't get 5kw of power in the blades of a 12ft prop at that speed! And they're going to do it with a 4 foot VAWT sweep??

They say the average productivity (with average wind speed = 13mph) is 1100kwh per month. That's 1.5kwh on average per hour, so, the average continuous output of that thing would be 1.5kw. Somebody should ask them, if I mount 4 of these on my roof, will I be getting on average close to 4500khw per month?? You could be selling to your entire community with that kind of electricity, hehe...

You should see their table comparison where they compare their nice little VAWT with HAWTS and solar power... Would get alot of people flying HAWTs and using PV cells pretty darn angry... hehe

Anyways, I vote it's a scam too...

[gwarwick]

What is more interesting that their probable exageration on power output is the use of magnetic  bearings - I would love to see some more deatiled plans on this

[SmoggyTurnip]

They also use the roof effect as an explaination, so I guess you could attach a very large tail to your house so that your entire house would always turn to put the roof into the wind.

[paradigmdesign]

I wonder why it does not say the size of the device anywhere.  According to them, there "5k" unit only costs 10,000, which is relativily cheap.  The problem is, a 5k genny rated at 28 mph, in a 13 mph/average wind zone, at 30% blade efficency should only put out like 500 KW/H a month, not 1100.  

Also, magnetic levitation?  Sounds like a waste of money when you can acheive similar losses with a simple thrust bearing.  I do like the turbine shape, though I am not very firmilar with VAWTs.