I don't have a good answer to your question, other than to point to
eBay, where their Home and Garden section has offered various wind
energy devices. Most of the small wind energy devices I've looked at
there appear to be of rather poor design. Back in 1973, I worked
briefly with a start up company that wanted to import wind energy
systems from Australia. I installed their demo unit, which was a 2kw
horizontal axis mill with a 40 kw-hr battery bank. That system used a
brushless alternator and the blades were pitch controlled to limit
RPM. Those systems are no longer being manufactured and I haven't
run across any newer ones with such features.
I have seen comments which suggest that mounting a windmill on a roof
is a bad idea. One reason is that the vibrations from the mill are
easily transmitted to the structure of the house, which creates some
annoyance to the inhabitants. Also, one would like to elevate the
windmill a several 10's of feet above the structure to minimize
interference and place the mill high in the boundary layer where the
winds are faster. The smallest tower we sold was a 40 foot one and
that was likely to be too low if there are trees nearby. There are
maintenance problems to worry about and one must be sure that the mill
can both be erected and taken down at a later date. Some local
building codes require a safe area around the mill for a "fall zone",
which would not work with a roof installation.
E. S.
----------------------------
Richard Fletcher wrote:
> I found a wonderful windmill developed by an Oregon State University
> professor, however the company they formed to market it does not have a
> residential rooftop variant. Does anyone know of a good, inexpensive
> windmill for residential purposes?
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of
global environmental change.
Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not
gratuitously rude.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
