Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Bobby G <bobbyg53211@yahoo.com>]

Re: [Livingontheland] Sustainability News: Backyard
Wind Turbines Get Affordable


Mark Nagel writes:
--------------------------
I don't see that there's anything really new here.

"wind speeds above 10 miles per hour"

I know that some areas have winds that approach (or
even exceed) this 
speed as an AVERAGE, but it's no place that I'd really
like to live: 
stuff is always blowing all over the place.

I scanned over the article a while back, but I don't
recall what sort 
of price break they were professing.

-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA
----------------------------
Hey, Mark, 

i have an earlier 403-model wind turbine from
Southwest Wind that puts out 450 Watts max. in a
pretty high wind.  you're right in the sense that 10
MPH is not a great start-speed for a wind turbine.  my
403 starts at about 8 MPH.

i bought the thing to take out to the Alternative
Energy Zone, a village at the Burning Man Festival. 
there, sustained winds of 50-60 MPH often blow through
that valley which is the Black Rock Desert.  the
gennie ran great !

but seriously, the important wind speed is not at
ground level, but up about 40-50 feet.  here in
Wisconsin, that means "above the treeline."  the
higher your tower, the higher wind speeds you
reach--at least until the point of diminishing returns
where the tower gets too expensive and hard to anchor
to the ground.

i don't think the $9,000 price point is that
attractive myself.

if you arrayed 8 of the small 400 Watters together
(feeding a bank of good storage batteries) you could
obtain an average output of 1.8 KW (about 225 watts
per turbine) at a much lower cost, approx. $4,000
instead of $9,000.  and since they're small, light
units (13 pounds), the tower costs wouldn't be that
prohibitive either.  if the house is in a windy
location, rooftop mounting would work on an array as
well.  they have a small footprint.

sometimes, smaller is better!

bobby g



 
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