Domestic Wind Turbines

Looks cool, so you are talking £850 for a 1kw wind turbine. A quick google seems to suggest this is about the pricing for a normal turbine, so the safety features do add value if true here. The only thing I would say is the warranty probably counts for squat, and why are they doing a kickstarter rather than crowdfund?

I believe the average house uses 8-§0 kWh of electricity per day, so realistically with the right storage, this could help take you off grid. Something I'll definitely be looking into if / when I move into a house. Right now I live in a flat, so rather limited in this regard.

It is interesting that their prototype was built using a 3d printer. I'm sure there are some creative folk on here that could re engineer the design!

The costs look decent too - if the build can last 25 years, then you are talking £35 a year to produce(depending on location), more than enough for the average UK home that uses 8-10 kWh a day, so you need it to operate at 50% capacity 24/7.
 
Ok so first off, I think you've got bigger fish to fry if your kids / pets are getting in the location of a traditional wind turbine, ie. a roof or a massive 20m tall pole.

Secondly, wind energy is a multi-billion pound industry with billions upon billions poured in to R&D yet these kickstarter guys have somehow managed to beat that industry with something that looks like a bin?

The only flaw I can see in my logic is that somehow there's a lack of development budgets in domestic machines as opposed to commercial units, but that is a big if.

I'm not sold and frankly I don't see this going anywhere.
 
Looks like a great idea. I just don't understand why it hasn't been done before. I'd stick it on my chimney. They might as well not bother with a green one though, looks minging.
 
Diddums said:
Ok so first off, I think you've got bigger fish to fry if your kids / pets are getting in the location of a traditional wind turbine, ie. a roof or a massive 20m tall pole.

Secondly, wind energy is a multi-billion pound industry with billions upon billions poured in to R&D yet these kickstarter guys have somehow managed to beat that industry with something that looks like a bin?

The only flaw I can see in my logic is that somehow there's a lack of development budgets in domestic machines as opposed to commercial units, but that is a big if.

I'm not sold and frankly I don't see this going anywhere.
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They can't even get the axis on their chart correct.
 
Thing is, that kickstarter isn't for a wind turbine to be brought to market/production. The creator advises the kickstarter is to

The point of the Kickstarter has been to raise money to finish development. We've gotten our prototype as far as we can, but we need experienced engineers to carry it the rest of the way. As I just mentioned to someone else, the plan is to turn it over to a local university to finish development and produce their own data.
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So you're basically paying for them to pitch their idea/designs to a University, who can then presumably either patent, sit on or find it isn't feasible?
 
Actually kind of tempted to build one see what it is like - doesn't seem to be much too it from the video though some things aren't very clear.

Can't imagine it is really significantly more effective than the horizontal sail type turbines though.
 
I'd definitely be tempted by a wind turbine at home. We have one of those kids windmill things that we bought from the beach a few years ago and it spins pretty much non stop in our garden.
 
Average wind speed here is 5 m/s, on that basis the unit would produce, on average ~400 watts, not terrible but not great.

Also the thing looks huge and would need elevating a good height, which I imagine would need planning permission.
 
BUDFORCE said:
How can something "increase wind speed"?
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Looks like it is creating a funnel type shape. The wind speed increases as it gets directed into a narrow channel. It's nothing new or fancy, buildings and mountains (and any other obstructions) also increase wind speed as the air flows around them - that's why most of the records for highest wind speeds are usually from the tops of mountains.

It still has the same power because the pressure will drop as the speed increases.
Similar to a river flowing through a narrower section: the water flows faster through that area but has a smaller cross-section so the actual volume of flow is always the same.
 
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