Inexpensive residential wind turbine

gotta get one for my house!

Your electric company will then give you credit or cash for the power you generate!!??

is this serious???

"The WindMaster is weather-resistant and constructed of high-impact, powder-coated steel and comes with a five-year warranty. This unique system can also be used as a stand-alone backup system for electrical blackout and /or brownouts.”

The larger 48volt model produces 300 to 400 kwh per month with 6 hours of 12mph wind a day. Models range in price from $1,399 (12v) to $2,299 (48V) @ freetricity.com"

ingaling, Thanks, I've been meaning to look them up. Would love to have one. Now, if I had that and an electric car I'd be so happy.

I like a different design however the price is something to eval. people need 0% financing and monthly payments that also cover install.

I doubt we will see that kind of support anytime soon, unless we get new leadership.

Cool, I want one.

But, this could be a problem:

"....doesn’t look like it could withstand hurricane-force winds...."

6 hours of 12 mph a day...seems like a lot...i'm not sure that where I live can support that....it is fairly inexpensive and would be a good addition to an existing solar panel system

"A residential wind turbine can be a relatively large device and is not suitable for urban or small-lot suburban homes. Except for very small wind turbines (i.e., with rotors one meter or less in diameter) on very small towers, a property size of one acre or more is desirable.

The economics of a wind system are very sensitive to the average wind speed in the area, and to a lesser extent, the cost of purchasing electricity. As a general rule of thumb, if economics are a concern, a turbine owner should have at least a 10 mph average wind speed and be paying at least 10 cents/kWh for electricity.

Residential wind turbines have been installed in at least 47 of the 50 states, but the majority of the units have been installed in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Homes use approximately 9,400 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year (about 780 kWh per month). Depending upon the average wind speed in the area, a wind turbine rated in the range of 5 to 15 kilowatts would be required to make a significant contribution to meet this demand."AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION

I did a search for average windspeed maps of my county....looks like where I live is on the low end of wind potential...however, it might still be a feasible addition....

interesting. I'd be interested in the hydro/energy storage that would accompany it...

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What a great idea!

It really all boils down to volume, doesn't it?

If we had all new housing required to have these wind turbine installed and each of them ONLY reduced power consumption by 1 percent -- that still adds up to a lot nationwide.

Solar, wind turbines, energy efficent light bulbs -- it all adds up to reduce our need for oil (or coal).

I wish our government would stop searching for the "magic bullet" solution that will solve all our problems. It seems like that if solar can't fully 100 percent power the country (or wind or hydrogen) than the government just ignores it. We need a combination of solutions to create a cumulative effect.

seeker561, Not to worry. Fasten it to your house very securely and if a hurricane comes you might get a vacation in the Bahamas. I think you would need the propeller kind that can be battened down in a storm.

Several years ago I saw a very attractive small windmill at a McDonalds Restaurant in Daly City, California (by the Serrramonte Shopping Center). It was as I recall on a compact tower. It would be suitable for any size city lot. I wanted it then and still do. I wish someone that lives in that area would go take a picture of it and post it.

Awesome. We don't need any more oil wells.

This is great. De-centralized power production!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My only concern is for the birds - with a proliferation of wind mills. Perhaps, someone could develop a way to prevent birds from flying into the windmills?

Any ideas?

Thanks Jade - for bringing this to my attention, and tingaling for posting this.

And last but not least solar shingles.

http://www.solar-components.com/pvshingl.htm

I think if you are going to invest in one of these rooftop or tower top units, that you have to have the right kind of system installed in your home to wire this up to.

If you go with one of the DC systems, you will need to switch out all your lighting to either a 12v or 24v system. In which case you would need two units. One for lighting for low voltage systems, and one for running your refrigerator, stove, dryer, and water heater, supposing those are all electric. Some people use natural gas to run these items except for the Frig.

It seems to me that to get a complete system where you could truly be "off the grid" you would need to invest close to $10K in order to do that using this technology.

Our bills in the NW for an average home has jumped to $300 per month. IN the summer, if we don't use airconditioning, the bill drops to around $120 per month, in the winter when I use the electric central furnace, the electric bill jumps up to $400 and even $550 per month depending of if it snows or gets down to freezing temp.

This would mean that it would take three to four years for the investment to pay for itself. That is not bad, considering that the systems come with 5 year warranties. At least you would get two years of economic benefit for sure, and if the unit lasts longer than 5 years then that is just icing on the cake.

I think it is a good investment.

An interesting article, but a little too PR-ish for me. I think they're missing the big story here: is this a trend? Are there other models available from other companies? Where are they popular to use?

i suggest if you can afford one buy it, it is a good investment. if i had money i would buy won

yay!

BigME413, just found a link to a list of small wind turbine providers:

http://www.awea.org/faq/smsyslst.html

also, residential wind turbine FAQ:

http://www.awea.org/faq/rsdntqa.html

Awesome! I think the next president (Obama!) should give tax cuts to people who install these things to their roofs, as well as solar panels.

That is great! Maybe 2 or 3 of these would put you off the grid. Brilliant!!! Thanks for the posting "tingaling!" I'll really love to see it working and observe if there are any acoustic impact around it. I hope it is a quiet operation.

isn't there currently some kind of tax break for homeowners who use solar panels?

Yes, and they should add wind turbines to the list. The more they install, the more tax breaks they get. (And tax the oil companies to make up the difference. heh heh)

It is interesting in many ways. One need is to make it in a way that landlords will not have an issue with tenants putting one up either with the forethought that it remains the property of the tenant or with a agreement that costs are shared by tenant and landlord so that it remains if tenant moves on. When you have an all-electric apartment something like this could be incredible towards savings especially on a fixed income household.

what a great invention for the masses...i would hope that contractors when building houses would make this an option that could get...just think of how much cheaper energy would be if whole neighborhoods took the initiative to have these installed...resteraunts schools and municipal companies should all look into this and other types of energy...
speaking of which does anyone know if there are any plans for water turbines in rivers in the united states

To him who has worries about the bird: A grating of sorts can be put around the blade; where a house-fan has a cheap, plastic grid covering the front and back of the fan, windmills could have a metal grid with more spacing between each division so as not to block any wind.

Actually, this bird-proofing has been applied to another kind of windmill, now that I think of it, that is great for urban areas. It is a very small wall-mount windmill which can go, essentially, anywhere on the walls of buildings and which functions by picking up the draft caused by wind being forced upward in tight spaces. In other words, it would go great in a Windy City.

this works if you get wind...sadly for me i rarely do at my current residence. i'm glad its finally getting marketed on a reasonable scale however

i wonder if you could find a fan to put in front of it that uses less output than you can generate, hence endless supply :)

I think it's a really neat addition to a home. A little pricey but I'm sure a wise investment. I'm sure homeowners can skip on building a new deck and scrape up enough dough for this.

I'm definitely considering buying land and building my own home one day so with these innovations and ideas coming out so often, I think it's great because there are a lot of us who want to live eco-friendly and now we actually know how! Everything is becoming easier to attain so there can be no more excuses!

I just pick this as my best news of Today. What a cool and great idea to be off and free from the grid. Everyone's comment here is also precious and very informative. Thanks again Tingaling!

I think affordable, practical wind power would be a very cool thing but I have some questions about this company. Does anyone else notice that 3 of the first 4 hits google gives from a search of Freetricity are negative about the company?

There's a good discussion about this company here:

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=43994

(Don't just read the first few posts)

wow, i just saw that thing at the fair. nobody wanted to do the tongue test!