Go Greener Tips

Micro wind or roof high wind, as they are alternately described, usually get a dangerous rap; and deservedly so. As far as return on investment goes, roof prime wind is in all probability one amongst the worst renewable energy investments you could make. Unfairly lumped in with this unproductive class of wind power is the house designed wind generator.

To illustrate now I am going to match the price per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity produced by the Swift small wind turbine to a typical home built generator regarding half the size of the Swift. Relating to wind turbines, size is set by the length of the propeller. The length of the propeller determines the “swept space” which is love the collector space of a solar panel. The larger the swept area, the a lot of energy is produced.

Once you recognize the common wind speed at a given location and therefore the propeller length, you’ll estimate monthly kWh production. Multiply that by the quantity of months the turbine is predicted to last, and divide the result into the value of the turbine. The quantity you finish up with is the value per kWh over the lifetime of the turbine.

Determining wind speed
The peak of an average one story house is around 15 feet, or 4.5 meters. Using this info I looked through the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States for average annual wind speeds at that altitude in Massachusetts. The common wind speed I came up with was 8.two mph.

Determining monthly kWh output
The Swift turbine: Based on wind speed of 8.2 mph and the seven’ prop of the Swift turbine, its monthly output would be around 32 kWh or seven,680 kWh over the course of its estimated twenty year life. The projected lifetime of this turbine comes from the manufacturer. Personally I suppose it is a little optimistic, except for the sake of simplicity I won’t quibble.

(A fast note on how I came up with the thirty two kWh figure. Hugh Piggot, a well-known wind power skilled, developed a formula using wind speed and prop length to estimate the monthly kWh production for ANY size turbine. But rather than place you to sleep with his formula, I’ve created a simple monthly kWh production calculator anyone can use. You’ll access the calculator from the link at the end of this article.)

Currently, on to the house engineered turbine. In 8.a pair of mph winds with a smaller four’ prop the home created turbine would generate around 10.half dozen kWh per month or two,544 kWh over twenty years. Since there are no statistics for the estimated life of a home created turbine, I am going to modify for the discrepancy in the subsequent step.

Value of the turbine
The cost basis for this comparison is for the turbine only. The Swift turbine lists for $10,000 to $twelve,000 thus I’ll settle on $eleven,000. Subtracting for the thirty% energy tax credit leaves a net value of $7,700.

The example wind turbine used for this text costs around $a hundred to build. As I simply mentioned, there are not any life span projections for home built, therefore I will assume replacement every six or seven years for a total cost of $350.

The final answer
With a little simple division we can realize out the price per kWh over the lifetime of the turbine.

Swift turbine: $7,700/7,680 (kWh) = $1.00 per kWh.

Home engineered turbine: $350/a pair of,544 (kWh) = $0.fourteen per kWh.

Keep in mind, the home engineered model is supplied with a 4′ prop. If you increase the prop length from 4′ to five’, the magic of physics will increase lifetime kWh production to 3960 kWh and reduces the price per kWh to $0.09. Currently that is eco-nomical.

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