Would a homebrew roof mount system be a reasonable project?
A roof mount is NOT an efficient place for a wind turbine. The turbine needs a smooth flow of air. The air will become unsmooth some distance before it reaches the roof.
Its easy enough to make for a small turbine, but are you sure that your building can take the strain ?
I have always felt a telegraph pole would be an ideal mount for a small turbine.
Rick
given the requirements of the OP it most certainly is.
no it doesn't, all it needs is sufficient airflow to turn it.
eh ? a 1-2Kw wind genny will destabilise a few hundred tons of brick, mortar and slate ? even in the hebrides, that's a nonsense.
I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before and a large thermal store was suggested. This seems reasonable since an immersion heater isn't too sensitive to variations in voltage - (i.e. + or - 20 % wouldn't matter much).
A homebrew roof mount system would be a very interesting project. Reasonable is a matter for you to decide! :-)
Mr F.
Does this help?
Need may be have been the wrong word. A smooth airflow has more power obtainable from it, than a disturbed airflow.
Less power will be obtainable from a turbine mounted on a roof, than one mounted on a pole.
If the mount was at the bottom of the wall, then maybe it would have to effect the whole wall, but the mount will likley be attached at the top of the wall, where only a few bricks (for example) will need to come loose.
Actually, putting a turbine on the roof ridge might be a good idea, as the roof acts like a one-sided venturi and speeds the air up ( Bernoulli's Law and all that ).
I would be concerned about the architectural acne side of things - it won't look good, but fine if you're out in the boondocks.
Andy.
I just happened to be browsing the BBC site this morning and saw this about an inventor needing planning permission for his wind turbine.
smooth airflow doesn't matter, as long as the required revolutions are achieved the required output will be produced. 'smoothness' is irrelevant.
so, a turbine mounted on a pole, in a valley, will make less power than a turbine mounted on a gable end of a house on a hill ?
here comes the science !! ~~~~>
aside for the affect/effect issue and the 'likley' situation:
hahahahahahaha !!
produces some 600 KwH per year at say 7p per KwH which is £42 worth of electricity a year which is only (2000/42) 47 YEARS to just break even, assuming no maintenance and other problems..... He will probably die before breaking even, especially if he falls off the ladder installing it.
Is it any wonder why there is not a rush to do this on economic grounds ?
About the best I have seen are geothermal systems for house heating, but even this has ongoing maintenance issues, a long break even time and a requirement for at least a largish plot of land to dig trenches into for the collectors, or a bore hole... However, it is a lot closer to being viable in the nearer future...
Nick.
I'd noted that, also...
Is it viable on resource grounds? How much energy and resource does it take to make one of these things?
I can't remember which site, but at least one of the major domestic turbine manufacturers stipulates their turbines should not be installed on a building constructed using lime mortar. Turbines are far from vibration (and noise) free, and can certainly cause damage to a masonray wall over time.
LGF
I work on a figure of around 10% for the cost of the embodied energy of most manufactured goods. So, within somewhere between 5 and 10 years, you can be fairly certain that the device has repayed it's energy of manufacture/transportation/installation. I can't help but think that domestic wind turbines can be no more than a rich person's status symbol.
What I find most striking is the discrepancy between the output from actual installations and the marketing hype. I really don't know how they get away with it! I
The 7p per kWh is this years price. The price rises on their way over the coming years could give you payback in a few months.......of course doing a Rod Hull is slightly more likely. ;-)
inventor?
Course this begs a question...
Suppose you have a small village of say 200 houses or family units. Now what would be more efficient to have 200 small home sized ones, or one big 'un mounted outside the village which supplied the whole lot?....
DIY windy miller:
My place in in one of the Welsh Assembly TAN-8 areas, where they wish to promote windmill buliding. So I phoned up a few suppliers for a
10KW windmill, and none would sell me one. They said the wind at my house was too low to make it worth the government giving me the 10K grant towards the machine. So why did the Welsh assemply put the TAN-8 area here ?Rick
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