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Saw a story about a man who installed a traditional design wind turbine for his home and his neighbors are complaining about how it looks. The man is in the electrical industry installing solar panels and wind turbines. It got me thinking about discrete wind turbines. Did a search and found many new designs that are very discrete. Downside of these discrete designs are low power production compared to the traditional wind turbine design. One design is a roof ridge turbine. It mounts on the roof’s ridge and is a horizontal turbine. Another design resembles the old fashion terracotta clay pot exhaust extensions on fireplace chimneys. Say your home has a fireplace chimney you no longer use. You install this wind turbine on top of your chimney for discrete energy production while maintaining the aesthetics of the property and not risk the ire of the neighbors or Nazi HOA board. Though they don’t produce as much energy, they work well for those looking to maintain the visuals of their property. There are some that resemble the old style farm windmill so you have the decorative appearance with energy production.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we can't argue about tastes.
There are a couple problems with residential wind turbines-- They need to be placed high enough above surrounding obstructions to wind flow for optimal operation, and zoning laws usually don't allow towers so high that they would fall across property lines....
In regards the traditional "propeller" style vs the verticl helical style-- power generation is proportional to diameter, so you get less power from the smaller helix type...
...and that brings up the subject of power in general. A 400 W unit sweeps out an area of ~ 3-4 ft diameter. More powewrful units would be prohibitve in size....and power production falls off by the cube of the fall in wind speed, so that 400W unit would produce 400W with wind speed of 25mph, but only 50W at wind speed of 12 and only 17 W with wind of 6mph....and, most units have brakes to prevent damage at wind speeds ove ~35mph (no power at all with wind below 4mph) so you need a Goldilocks wind speed profile to be most effective.
I'm looking into wind generation for security reasons to power my hydronic heating pumps. I have a good wind average speed here, but would need two 400W units to keep batteries charged enough just to run the heating system each day (1.5kW) with little reserve for non-productive days.
it would seem home wind generators woud be a niche solution for limited, specific applications, and not a complete solution for whole-house energy needs.
A little arithmetic-- with wind speed averaging 10mph all day & nite, a 400W unit would produce ~ 50 x 24 = 1.2kW-hr/d of powwer...The average family uses 30 kW-hr/d.
Last edited by guidoLaMoto; 07-06-2022 at 02:42 AM..
A downside of any wind turbine mounted to or near a home is likely the noise it will make. In addition a turbine actually attached to the house could create vibrations depending on wind velocity.
If the wind turbine is attached to a tower near the home, I would look closely at the sound level in decibels at various distances from the house, before making any firm decisions to install. Try to replicate that noise level with something temporary, and determine if that sound is audible in the house with doors & windows closed, then with some windows open (as may happen during mild weather seasons).
If there are neighbors within close distance, they might make big objections not only at the turbine tower, but at the noise.
Not only sound but vibration as well. I was on someone's property that had one and there was a constant vibration in the ground. That would drive me crazy
Not only sound but vibration as well. I was on someone's property that had one and there was a constant vibration in the ground. That would drive me crazy
How big was the turbine?....Most of the units for residential use are in the range of 3-4 ft diameter for the vanes. I can't imagine that producing enough of a vibration to feel in the ground.
I'm interested because I'm about to purchase one but can find little first hand, credible experience with them.
A downside of any wind turbine mounted to or near a home is likely the noise it will make. In addition a turbine actually attached to the house could create vibrations depending on wind velocity.
If the wind turbine is attached to a tower near the home, I would look closely at the sound level in decibels at various distances from the house, before making any firm decisions to install. Try to replicate that noise level with something temporary, and determine if that sound is audible in the house with doors & windows closed, then with some windows open (as may happen during mild weather seasons).
If there are neighbors within close distance, they might make big objections not only at the turbine tower, but at the noise.
Interesting. What would the noise BE, i.e., what would it sound like? The wind blowing? A snow plow? I have no idea at all, and now you've got me curious.
But I suspect that I would not be bothered by the noise at all -- it would be white noise to me. (The only neighbor noises that would drive me insane are things like stereos or TVs blasting ... mechanical noises like generators, a/c units, etc., don't bother me at all.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMSRetired
Not only sound but vibration as well. I was on someone's property that had one and there was a constant vibration in the ground. That would drive me crazy
Interesting. What would the noise BE, i.e., what would it sound like? The wind blowing? A snow plow? I have no idea at all, and now you've got me curious.
...
Personal wind turbine run pretty high RPM, so there is a constant flutter sound (trill with your tongue as per a wind instrument and then magnify so the outdoor environment hear / feels that).
And the occasional "Thump" (bird strike).
Wind turbines are troublesome to install and maintain. I would go for the less efficient, but simpler vertical axis turbines.
Personal wind turbine run pretty high RPM, so there is a constant flutter sound (trill with your tongue as per a wind instrument and then magnify so the outdoor environment hear / feels that).
And the occasional "Thump" (bird strike).
Wind turbines are troublesome to install and maintain. I would go for the less efficient, but simpler vertical axis turbines.
I could probably live with everything except the bird strikes. I actually googled after reading your post and found a study that said bird deaths by wind turbines could be cut by 72% simply by painting one of the blades black. Such a simple fix.
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