Small wind generation systems for private homes/farms

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Comment by tommy hicks on September 3, 2008 at 12:33pm

i m in ! now who wants to set up an demonstrator windmill in my back yard for one year ? if it works in the western north carolina foothills i will sell them !!!!!!! tommy hicks ps let s sell some windmills !!!! you go kim hansen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by dean brock on September 2, 2008 at 12:14am

Whirligig technology is what somewhere around 400 years old? It was great for grinding grain and pumping water but to produce 2 megawatts of electricity? Ridiculous! Why would you engineer a system that only works in a sweet spot? ( not enough wind, it won't go, to much wind and you have to lock it up so it wont over speed)
The problem is the wrong engineers are involved in this. or at very least not the right ones, about three to be more exact.
It's kind of funny to see all of the little no idea followers line up to get on the band wagon, to be part of the final solution, whoopie!
The whirligig idea is archaic and needs and update badly.
The three blade propulsion is wrong!
The drive is wrong!
The sweet spot idea is wrong!
Why would you design a system to only use only 30% of the energy that hits it?
These things are for all intents and purposes are nothing more than a back engineered, poorly redesigned Cessna on a stick!
There is a better idea!!!
The most inovinative idea I have seen yet is Aerotecture International Inc.
this is a nice idea.

Comment by Jessee McBroom on September 1, 2008 at 2:45pm

Hello Daniel. Nice design. Jessee McBroom

Comment by Daniel Quale on September 1, 2008 at 1:09pm

I designed a wind turbine for private uses a few years ago. It is designed to maximize use of available wind. I have not attempted to patent it yet due to limited funds. I would like to develop and promote this idea. This is the first public display on this website yesterday on my page. Daniel Quale www.overunitybuilder.com

Comment by ENVIRONMENT-SOLUTIONS.COM, (WIND INC) on September 1, 2008 at 6:03am

Most of American homes in the "middle class" range, pull from 60 to 80 kW per day. Therefore, these homes, with air conditioning and swimming pools will require something in the 5 kW per hour range, or 10 kW per hour range. We find these ideal for the American home. Our friends in Europe prefer a 1 kW turbine, but it will only produce a few dollars in power per month, and may power a small cabin, storage room, barn, or hunters lodge, but not a working home.

We have also found a bank that will finance small turbines purchased through our company. www.environment-solutions.com.

We have asked our manufacturing company to design a wind turbine especially for the American middle class home. We will keep you posted.

Ben B. Boothe Sr.
www.environment-solutions.com

Comment by ENVIRONMENT-SOLUTIONS.COM, (WIND INC) on September 1, 2008 at 5:59am

We agree with your approach. I travelled to Holland and made a distribution agreement with a company. We now have and office and staff and salespeople. We are seeking more people to be dealers or sales representatives for small wind. It has potential to be one of the largest efforts. Please note our site and check on products: www.environment-solutions.com

We look forward to working with you!

Ben B. Boothe Sr.

Comment by Bruce Eric Montgomery on August 30, 2008 at 1:01pm

SPECIAL REPORT: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY POWERS UP

Enter the New American Dream House

This Oregon couple's home hits a standard few others have achieved: It's completely energy self-sufficient.

Here's how:

Four years ago, Linda Rose and her husband, Eldon Haines, realized it might soon be time to consolidate -- and reinvent -- their family living arrangements. The retired couple lives in Eugene, Ore., where they have to negotiate 46 stairs from curb to doorstep every time they venture out. So the couple decided to build their own version of a dream retirement home in Rose's daughter's backyard in Portland, Ore.

The two life-long environmentalists didn't want just another house, however. The pair already burned old newspapers and cardboard in their wood stove and recycled or reused all plastic. They're proud to boast that they have generated two garbage cans of waste a year for the past 20 years.

EARTHLY PURSUIT. Haines, a nuclear physicist, has worked for decades as a consultant to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, most recently on the Mars Odyssey unmanned spacecraft. But he's also known nationwide as the inventor of the copper cricket, a solar water heater. "My real-life interest is the environment, not planet Mars," he likes to point out.

So it was only natural that the couple set out to build a home that generates all the energy it needs to run appliances, heating, and cooling. It's a pioneering effort in Oregon and one of the first in the nation.

These so-called net-energy homes go a step beyond the "zero-energy homes" promoted by the federal government, explains Charlie Stephens, residential energy specialist at the Oregon Energy Dept. in Salem. To qualify as zero-energy, a home need only generate enough electricity for 70% to 80% of its needs. The Rose House (that's what the owners like to call it), completed this summer, is energy self-sufficient, period.

MORE AFFORDABLE Such homes are at the cutting edge of alternative energy. Fewer than 500 zero-energy homes exist in the U.S. today, and net-energy homes are even rarer. One being constructed in the oceanfront community of Canon Beach, Ore., will store hot water in wells drilled through basalt several hundred feet down. The idea is to store heat in the stone to be siphoned into the house later. Clever as this system is, it costs several thousand dollars extra. You won't find one in the aisles of Home Depot (HD ) or Lowes (LOW ).

The Rose House takes a different design path. It's plainer and more affordable than most such experiments. In fact, this one-story, green-colored home with a steepled roof looks deceptively normal. Set in a quiet residential neighborhood, it's surrounded by tall sunflowers and beds of tomatoes and squash. It only has 800 square feet of living space: two bedrooms and one bathroom.



The Rose House's owners received $27,750 worth of government grants from the likes of the Energy Trust of Oregon for the construction. With the grants figured in, they estimate they spent about $146 per square foot to build the home. That's 22% more than Portland's going price of $120 per square foot for a standard home. But because Rose and Haines will have no energy bills to pay, they'll save hundreds of dollars each year.

HIGHER RESALE VALUES. The economics might turn out to be even more favorable as utilities start to pay for electricity that residential customers generate. In Tennessee solar-home owners receive 15 cents per kilowatt hour produced (an average solar home produces 6,000 kilowatt hours a year). They pay only 6 cents per kilowatt hour that they buy from the utility. That's one of the more generous deals in the nation.

Builders in California have found that energy-efficient homes have a higher resale value than traditional homes, says John Suppes, president of Clarum Homes, which expects to have built 277 zero-energy homes in California by yearend.

A June survey of 600 Californians conducted for Environment California Research & Policy Center indicated that 63% of respondents said they would pay more for a solar home.

In Oregon, the Rose House doubles as a research lab, monitored by scientists from Oregon Institute of Technology, among others, and some of its features could show up in new housing developments to be built in the state capital of Salem in 2006. Sensors dispersed throughout the home measure temperature of the exterior and interior walls and on the roof. Energy generation and consumption is constantly monitored. For the next two years this data will be fed to researchers and builders throughout the state -– and soon onto the Web for anyone to see.

HOT AIR AT WORK. The reason for the study, in part, is to motivate more builders to construct energy-efficient homes. The Rose House was recently featured on a local "Build It Green!" tour, showcasing 20 Portland homes incorporating innovative environmental ideas. "My hope is that anyone would be able to see themselves in it," says Clark Brockman, project manager at SERA Architects in Portland, who designed the house. "That they don't think of a net-energy house as something out of a sci-fi movie."

Space-age technology is certainly at the core of the experiment. Part of the house's south-facing roof is covered with 300 square feet of solar panels that should produce 6,000 kilowatt hours a year (a typical American household spends 2,000 kilowatt hours a year on lighting alone). A special system sucks in hot air from underneath the solar panels -- it's typically heated to more than 100 degrees -- and uses it to heat water and air inside the house.

In addition, Haines's invention, the copper cricket, uses the sun's energy during the summer to heat water. Together these contraptions should produce enough hot water for a hot shower.

"MORE ALIVE." A special energy-recovery ventilator -- a file-cabinet-size box -- recaptures heat leaving the house and recycles it. A big part of creating an energy-efficient home is an air-tight design. In a typical older home the whole volume of air escapes through cracks and crannies in less than an hour. In an energy-efficient home, walls, roof, and foundation are designed to reduce this air exchange to once every three hours or even longer.

The Rose House features so-called staggered-stud walls, which prevent heat from leaving the house and the cold from entering it. And its special air-exchange system prevents the house from becoming too stuffy. "You can almost feel the house breathing in the night," says Haines. "It feels more alive."

Haines hopes that as more people see his house, they'll feel it, too, and follow his lead.

Comment by Jeff Hulgan on August 29, 2008 at 1:43pm

Hello all. I live in Arizona so I will be installing solar soon, I am checking w/ the Home Owners Association to see if they will allow small turbines next to homes.

Comment by M Please on August 26, 2008 at 6:36pm

By the way, I found it most comforting that this particular blog begins with Mr. Hope and Mr. Faith - - - Check it out yourself

Comment by M Please on August 26, 2008 at 6:30pm

So - T-Boone, what is your response to those who own property and are considering a small wind generation system to put wind in this sail?

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