It doesn't really matter if it starts producing 1 or 2 watts in 2 mph winds. There simply isn't much power to capture in winds less than 12-15 mph. Article says it only weighs 170 lbs (?!?) so your roof should be able to handle the weight. The only thing is, the weight isn't really important, what is important is the wind loading and the article doesn't mention that. If you get a 90 mph wind guest it will tear this thing right off and take part of your roof with it unless you seriously re-enforce your roof. Of course roof mounting small wind turbines is a waste of time and money as has been pointed out numerous times before. Living in a class 4 wind area doesn't mean this turbine will be exposed to class 4 winds unless you mount it up in free air on a pole. Article doesn't mention this and doesn't factor in the cost of doing so. In a class 4 wind area (when mounted 50 feet up in free air) this turbine can generate $400 worth of electricity per year. Figuring in realistic costs for installation and taking the 30% rebate into account this will take over 20 years to break even and I doubt it will survive that long. For the same cost as installing this turbine you could install at least a 2kw solar array which would generate more power even if you don't live in one of those rare class 4 wind areas. As Woogy pointed out, numerous studies have shown over and over again that small turbines like this one are not a good investment unless you live off grid, on a sailboat, or something similar. Don't take our word for it, use the website provided by Honeywell to see how well this would work for you, I just went through it and it says I can save $3,000 of my electric bill.....over 15 years!!!! that means it would take over 30 years to break even and that assumes I can get this installed for the ridiculously low price the website estimates. If you want to install one to feel good about going green, knock yourself out, but don't expect to save any money on your power bill.
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First of all I don't think neon-hippie is a bad thing. If you made this forum "Green Living" then you need to be open to discussions such as CSA's, buying local, traceability, recycling, reusing and much more. There is much more to Green living then renewable energy. I personally don't like the title of Energy policy or there will be oodles of posters saying drill drill drill. There already is a forum for ecology which in my opinion should cover conservation. You are going to have a certain amount of garbage posts in any grey forum. I don't think that the title is going to stop what you are talking about in your first paragraph. Anyway, there is my opinion. My wish was that people wouldn't give out wrong and deceiving information but that is going to happen no matter what you call it.
A large number of men and women who really want to shell out in eco-friendly energy schemes meant for their particular households, will most likely do a bit of understanding upon facts about solar power. We tend to will need to help create educated actions simply because which is usually the just right method to find a match for the purpose of your property. The applications of solar energy are multiple around the house, although we are most familiar with electricity generation and water heating. But did you know that you can heat your swimming pool, power attic fans, computers and small appliances with photo-voltaic cells?
One of the rather common facts about solar energy is that it charges batteries and can be used for indoor and outdoor lighting systems. The demand for solar panels for homes is presently higher than the offer, although production has increased over the last years. And there's no mystery about it: not all geographical areas and climates are suitable for the use of photovoltaic panels. And even if solar energy is captured in colder areas, the process is more difficult and there may not be enough power for all the applications. In terms of statistics, some interesting facts about solar energy indicate that water heating consumes most energy of all. You should expect a 30% consume of the total energy production to just heat water. As for the different parts of the solar system, it includes panels with photovoltaic cells, a support structure, a battery, an inverter and a charge controller. Since the costs of a fully operational solar system can range around $10,000, the incentives provided by the government may be really convincing. If you read more statistical data and facts about solar energy, you will see that for sunny climates, a 1 kilowatt home solar system can generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours in a year. In cooler climates with about 2 hours of sunshine per day, the number of produced kilowatt hours ranges at about 750 yearly. Even for average systems, the coal consume and the level of CO2 emissions is drastically lowered. The optimal number of solar panels into an average solar power for homes system is between ten and twelve; the panels should be oriented towards the North for maximum exposure. Very long warranties, this is one other advantage of solar panels. Yet, you only get 5 years warranty for the functional system as such. The model of the panels also influences the energy storage capacity and the rest of the technical features. Sunlight can be absorbed, reflected or insulated by the collecting photovoltaic cells and then transferred and stored by the batteries. |