Home Wind Turbines for Under $3,200 Installed?!
Loading ...Posted on: June 29, 2009
Posted in: Appliances & Gadgets, Tax Credits and Financing, Video, Wind
Our mantra has always been “reduce then produce.” So after you’ve gotten your house to be the ultra-efficient haven you’ve always wished for, what’s next?
Power the rest with renewable energy, of course.
Windtronics and Honeywell recently announced a wind turbine capable of producing 2,000 kWh/yr and the installed cost is only $4,500 . This makes it about 1/3 the per kWh cost of a typical turbine. The new 30% Federal rebate on the cost of any renewable energy systems brings the cost down further to only $3,150.
Some states offer even further incentives which may make these essentially free.
Better yet, they are small enough to install on your roof or chimney (6′ diameter), and they may be on sale at Ace Hardware stores beginning in October 2009.
Windtronics claims that its novel design, using magnets rather than a gearbox, allows the turbine to create electricity at speeds as low as 2 mph and as high as 45 mph.
I have not seen these up close and operational, but if they work as quietly and efficiently as claimed, you may soon start seeing these on roofs in your neighborhood.
RESOURCES:
To calculate your return on investment on wind turbines – check out www.greenandsave.com
Earthtronics website: http://www.earthtronics.com/honeywell.aspx
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June 29th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
yeah, well $3,200k where k = 1000 yields $3,200,000 or 3.2 Million dollars. I think you need to correct this. IN Europe the comma and the period are reversed and it would mean $3.2k, but then why have the trailing 00 in there? Hmmmmmm.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thanks! I’ll correct it now. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Appreciate the heads up.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:38 am
This turbine does seem like a big improvement over other turbines. One thing that concerns me is that it is marketed as being ideal for roof installation. According to a recent study by the Energy Saving Trust, turbines mounted on roofs experienced severely hampered performance. Large numbers of disappointed customers is bad for the whole micro wind power sector.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Beware all wind generators on short towers (shorter than surrounding trees & buildings) and especially rooftop mounts. Buildings not structurally designed to have a windmill mounted to them should never be subjected to those stresses – the building can be damaged, and the vibrations from the windmill telegraph through the structure making the windmill much louder than if you simply mounted it on a tower adjacent to the building. The physics of windpower is that energy generated is proportional to the CUBE of the windspeed, so locations close to the ground have dismal performance – it is like buying solar collectors and installing them in the shade. The energy ratings the manufacturer gives are meaningless if not given with the windspeed that the power output is measured at. There is no government regulations requiring manufacturers to report power production at a standard speed so you could compare turbine performance more easily, nor any requirements for testing by a government agency before the products can be sold.
While I’ve not thoroughly investigated Honeywell’s offering, as an architect who designs zero energy homes I have looked into the microturbines in my state that make similar glowing claims, and I encourage everyone to do their homework to get actual performance data from NREL, and to go with established renewable energy manufacturers & installers who’ve got a couple of decades of experience and have stuck with the business through the famine times and aren’t just showing up now at the feeding trough for the gov’t stimulus feast. The last time there was major gov’t funding for renewables in the 1970’s there were a lot of startup businesses making shoddy products that went out of business or production shortly thereafter, and we are seeing a repeat of that trend now.
In my state there have been two new businesses manufacturing microturbines like this who’ve been getting gov’t funding from the stimulus $ due to their ability to create manufacturing jobs, but apparently the state either didn’t do their homework or doesn’t consider performance a requirement for funding, because one manufacturer hasn’t been 3rd party tested, and the other discontinued the National Renewable Energy Lab testing they paid $thousands for, because the results were so far below their claims and the test model was continually vibrating loose its fasteners and falling apart. Both report their power performance based on high windclass speeds that only occur on less than 5% of the state’s landmass at heights that are at least 30 feet above the surrounding trees (many trees in our wooded state are 60-80 feet tall). They base their payback info on their power production at these rated windspeeds, which 99% of the homeowners will never see on the tiny pole mounts and roof mounts that the companies provide. Actual data-monitored performance of the devices at the low urban mounted locations the companies have been installing at indicates payback would take 30 years or more, assuming no further investments of $ are needed to keep it running, which is a totally unrealistic assumption given what was seen in the NREL testing. Since most turbines need maintenance every 3-5 years to stay running, including likely parts replacements in 30 years, its possible that some of these microturbines might never achieve payback. While I live with and recommend renewable energy to my clients, it is critical to design RE to fit your needs and use time-tested products with system design and installation done by installers with decades of experience in your climate. And always maximize your investments in efficiency improvements (which will pay back much faster) before you spend money on energy generation.
February 5th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
In Palm Springs/Morongo Basin in California I had the pleasure of seeing some of the first wind turbine’s operating in the desert, while I lived there. I used to drive on the road next to the acres of windmills and think some day I’m going to have one of those on my property – saving me lots of money and the country’s energy. Today I could and would do that if I could afford to. I see that this wind turbine is very reasonable and because I am intrigued to look into this at the local ACE Hardware, I could possibly begin saving $$$ today! Thanks for the post and video.