Windmills are mechanical, hence have high maintenance costs. I lived near a large wind farm that was built in the '80s with big tax incentives. Thousands were abandoned as subsidies ran out and maintenance costs zoomed. Many sat unmoving, rusting away for decades. Solar is passive, no moving parts, and sunshine is more reliable than wind.
Old designs may have high maintenance costs but the number of moving parts in a modern winfd turbine is prettty small and they are as reliable as other electricity generatting methods tthat use turbines.
Solar is not an good option here in the dark north during winter, so wind definitive is an viable option here. Still the best option is for a community to collectively buy a large windmill and share it, rather than everyone buying several small ones.
I think we are going to see these in 5-10 years (though maybe never as solar just advances faster). They will never be useful for most people but there are some interesting low impact designs that I think would be useful. Problem is that badly placed solar is still going to pull more power if you don't live in a windy place like Kansas. People who can benefit from wind know they can because they have to tie down everything or it regularly flys away. I have that issue part of the year but not enough. I personally plan to figure out a DIY way to make the "wind turbine wall" of vertical turbines. I have experimented with 3d printing small turbines and it is viable. Not for large amounts of power but why not have a windbreak that generates a little energy? I need a wind break because of how my property is designed with my house on top of a flat spot with a significant hill in front of it accelerating wind.
Both City Zoning and HOA's are big reason #1 that we do not see small wind turbines even on homes with solar panels. The big reason #2 is that most small wind turbines only make about 100-200 watts when there is a good wind blowing and may only make 50 watts when winds drop to just a breeze (wind power is intermittent and even a small wind turbine needs a 8 to 10 mph breeze to run and produce power) and that 50 to 200 watts is only enough power to run a few LED light bulbs and not enough to run appliances so people are still better off having battery systems charged by solar for night use or as a backup when the grid is down. Some Farmers and Ranchers have their own medium sized wind turbines up on towers but they are larger and produce approx. 1,000 to 2,000 watts, The large Industrial sized Wind Turbines make about 4 Megawatts or more.
Wind is one of those things that is better at scale. You need to hoist the turbine up as high as you can to get the most benefit and the bigger the turbine, the more efficient it is at extracting power. These two alone make it hard to do on the residential scale. Add on top of that the nannies who value their sitelines and the people who think wind will decimate the local bird, owl, and hawk populations. Solar just works at any elevation, has no moving parts, super low maintenance, and can blend in if installed correctly.
With a load (something using the electricity). I don't understand electrical stuff, but I keep hearing open (no load) and load give different results, sometimes big differences.
Having sold small/distributed wind turbines for 10 years, selling the most small wind turbines in the U.S., some 2,000 of them, myself, and having one in my back yard the past 16-years, I can honestly and clearly say, they are NOT worth it. They're too expensive, require maintenance, and produce very, very little energy. The best small energy system is a solar PV system, with battery storage. If you have a creek in your yard, a small hydro system may work well too.
Oh wow thank you so much for sharing! I have heard that a lot of wind experts would say "dont do it....." So do you think its a design issue? Or Just the lack of "good enough" wind?
Problem is that you generate next to nothing when the wind speed is low. Solution to this is to increase the area. So a windwall or windfence or something like that. That is lot of material which adds cost. That large area introduces the next problem. When the high wind occasionally happens, that large area and also the generator needs to be able to handle very high amounts of energy in the order of maybe tens of kilowatts. That requires either a large inverter or a system which can reduce the input energy. In the case of windwall this would be something that disconnects turbine from generator or diverts the wind away from turbine or whatever is used to capture the wind. So More parts to maintain and service.
I did install solar but wanted wind as well since I figured out that my solar wasn't working in the winter. I didn't get that far. I realized my mistake as soon as I got my first tax bill. Never install solar panels on the roof of your house. Always install them on a rack in your yard somewhere. If you install them on your roof, the tax agencies for your county will add 100k to the value of your home for tax purposes, even if it only costs you 40k to install. If it's on a rack in your yard, it's removable and you can tell them it won't be there next year.
WAIT!!! What state are you in? a lot of states make it illegal to raise your property value!!! You really should check if that is the case, and file for a solar install exemption....
In most cases, wind turbines for homes should be used to supplement solar. In my area (SE Texas) when the sun is hidden by cloud cover for extended periods wind speeds are usually high.
True, but I don't see them as an either or product. If I had a small turbine that worked in variable winds then I could complement my lack of solar power in the winter with the turbine. During the calm days of summer my solar array produces the bulk of the power. This could even out my production. I could add more panels but the utility wouldn't approve it. I am not sure they would approve the turbine either as they aren't common here. A lot of variables but interesting to keep aware of but the potential is interesting. It's always nice to have multiple tools available to solve a problem.
Wind turbines can produce power at night and in cloudy weather. They can work alongside solar or in places where solar doesn't make much sense at this point in time, provided that the particular wind installation does make sense in that very place of course.
@@zbyszanna Most small wind turbines only make 100 - 200 watts when there is a good wind, even less in a breeze and you cannot run your home at night on 200 watts if you have more than just LED lights on.
Great video! The sad fact is that no matter where you live and how strong the daily wind averages are at your place, the engineers are simply unable or unwilling to produce a cost-effective, realistic wind turbine for residential use.
I’d love to see a wind turbine video. Last time I researched this it looked like maintaining the frequency was the biggest issue which caused a lot of wear and tear, but not sure if I understood that correctly.
Yes I would really like to plan that, and see if the highest or best rated turbine will do much. Hopefully video coming soon! Thank you for leaving the comment.
id like to see the harmony wind generator coupled to a 400w dc motor, connected to a small (solar) inverter. just to see the output over a hour/day/week, etc. thanks again for the videos !!
The problem with highway side turbines is driver distraction. With lighting towers, moonlight, etc, the glint from the blades will get weird at night. There is a highway in California where I have witnessed this during a foggy full-moon night. The wind turbines on the ridge above the highway were above the fog bank, I was below it. The result was swirling lights in the clouds - to say the least that was distracting. I only figured it out on the return trip during the day when I could finally see the large number of horizontal and vertical axis turbines that had been hidden previously. That was a bit of a relief as I was wondering if it was a UFO.
driver are already distracted by phones, infotainment centers....and then they try and drive......but im not sold that it would distract them too much more so.
Years ago, I was thinking of installing a wind turbine at my house, but where I docked my boat, a few docks over someone had a small wind turbine on their boat. That thing made so much noise. I kind of started to hate them. I could never sleep over at the dock because of the noise. Meanwhile, people on my dock has solar and said it supplies all thier needs within reason. I am planning on going green, but more likely going with solar. I like my neighbors and would hate to be "that guy" in the neighborhood. It would be interesting to see if there are any improvements for the sound that wind generators produce.
I actually live in a rural location in Nebraska where wind is an option. However I have not been able to find an 'off the shelf' battery that will work with a turbine. The only thing I can find is custom setups with a lot of electrical engineering involved. Also, most of the wind is in the winter but my greatest electric use is in the summer.
Yes, we would like to see you make wind turbine videos. My guess is you’ll average about 1/4 what they’re rated but that’s one if you test turbines with 1+ kWh ratings.
I think many people underestimate the amount of mechanical energy needed to create significant electrical energy. An e-bike battery with 0.25kWh battery might propel you along the road for 15-25miles. To reverse the argument imagine trying to generate 0.25kWh of energy by riding your bike. Just because something is spinning around fast doesn't mean you can extract much energy from it. One tiny wind turbine in your back yard isn't going to power very much at all. 20 solar panels on your roof easy. 20 wind turbines on your roof not so.
Personally, I like the idea of the "pod" style turbine like the Halcium concept. For home use, at least. Even that still will only be useful in very specific scenarios though.
I so wanted halcium pod I would have put 3 them on my roof in black to blend in with my black roof and black panels. My roof peak is 32ft above ground.
@@danmccoy6164 Me too, I live on a pretty decent hill so the wind rides up the hill and smacks my place right in the face... So a few of these on the roof seem like it might actually work. They recently had an update to the design and update on their website. Hopefully some day it will actually be available and worth looking in to.
I live in Silicon Valley and the wind is almost never straight line wind friendly wind. It would be very interesting to see a vertical axis turbine that is cost effective and workable in the valley.
I would like to see residential wind, but a thought as I watched this video, why not put turbines on bridges? They can be placed on the supports, like on the George Washington bridge in New York, they would be hundreds of meters high and generate power on the scale of offshore wind because it is wide open space, many times with high speed and constant wind. The added bonus is the revenue from the power can help pay for maintenance on the bridge. We have many large bridges in our country.
Oh my gosh yes! Very interesting development! Probably for another video!!! :) Definitely very compact than traditional wind turbines which solves the challenge of space needed. Especially good for areas with less sun, but more wind, like the northern parts of the world. I will do my bets to do more and more research on them, thanks again for sharing!!!
Hi Martyna, i discovered you channel thru other Polish youtuber. I am wondering how looks actually the situation in US in number of new installation per month? btw, great job and your videoa always so full of positive energy :)
HI!!! So happy to have you here! Witam i pozdrawiam :) W usa roznie :) Kazdy stan to jak inny kraj. W Californi bardzo spadly ilosci instalacji, przez zmiany w net metringu. Texas jest stabilny ale tez ostatnie dwa lata powoli powoli.
Good video only that should touch more on electronic part. The problem is not the turbine is the MPPT controller. I mean is no controller for wind. Because power output is proportional to the cube of the wind speed solar MPPT can't be used. Wind controller work in voltage and once voltage step reach dump the power in a resistor and brake the turbine exactly in the point where the power is produce instead of increasing brake torque and produce power.
Speaking of wind. How is the survival rate of solar roof installations during storms? Do they weaken a roof through the extra weight and attack points or do they even protect?
Good question! Properly installed solar panels are actually pretty tough when it comes to wind. They don't usually weaken roofs ( IF PROPERLY INSTALLED!!! ) and even protect them since they shield it from elements. They also absorb the heat so the attics tend to be less hot. Now they're made to handle strong winds and hail but How well they survive really depends on how crazy the storm is. I am sure a lot of them got damaged in the MIlton Hurricane, but a lot of them survived. I should maybe prepare a video on this subject.
Available energy is expressed as Power (W) = cp × ρ × A × v³. While nontraditional designs make make some power, the will always be limited by the area captured and wind speed available. Hence, large diameter rotors at great heights are the only viable options. I wish it weren't so. I want wind and hydro to work for me as solar is terrible, in my location. My only hope is SMR and i don't have the money for that 😂
You’ve got to look at average wind speeds on a geographic basis. And wind just doesn’t make monetary sense in many, many places around the world. And those places where it does make sense tend to be very remote and very few houses are found there.
Hurricane Milton, Dear Martyne, please discuss the dirty little secret about string inverter vs microinverter array hurricane survivability The time is right to have this discussion. Martyne, you have the floor!
Thank you for the idea for a future video! I want to make one coming in the next few weeks!!! Short answer in my opinion is the less electronics the better! String for the wind. Its located in the garage and not on the roof exposed to those extreme winds.
The problem with wind turbine is the designs. If you could build one that operates on little wind and will take full power also at high winds. The problem with wind, is that there will be no wind for maybe a year, wind change or not enough is a big problem.
I've had a 1kw wind turbine for 1 year. I live in a reasonably windy area but it generates virtually nothing. Unless you live in constant typhoons forget wind and go solar 👍
I've wondered what ever happed to the highway turbine concept, that was genius (or I guess not since it has gone nowhere). You didn't mention the Wind Wall/Fence, that could be the next bright idea that doesn't get off the ground.
I really like Harmony and there presentation, but as far as I know they never connected there prototype to a generator so we do not have the slightest idea what wattage to expect.
One of the questions can easily be answered: Why don't we see them on rooftops? Because its the opposite of convenient when the typical structures of buildings are not built to support the forces and vibrations generated by a wind turbine.
Very good point raised. Thank you for sharing, the buildings weren't built with the design of solar panels, but those were pretty easily added to our home structures.
@@solartimeusa Thanks. And yes, you are correct, even if the roof structure design didn't have PV rooftop in mind, depending on the region they have at least some safety margin in mind for snow load and/or wind forces on the flat surface. Since PV is comparably lightweight and the final surface doesn't differ that much from the original roof, it is very common that roof construction can support PV without alteration. So far I have one single exception from that rule: People who mount Bi-facial PV on vertical standoffs to flat roofs (a rather rare but in some places useful specialty) this can ask for reinforcment of the roof structure due to the heavy weight of concrete bases of such standoffs.
I would like to know how to design multiple wind turbines (preferably vawt) in an array that can be used to compliment a solar system, and top of the solar batteries when sun is not available. What safety circuits should be incorporated, etc. Where can I learn about this technology???
You didn't go into the cost of energy related to these various wind turbine designs. But it will only tell you what you already know which is too expensive and thus not worthwhile. Also, if you look into the efficiency of things like the Savonius turbine, You will easily answer your own question about why these things have not even hit the market yet. Thank you for looking into this.And no I won't be putting a wind turbine on my roof
I am not concerned with payback. I am interest in the current state of the art technology, system design, and how to incorporate safety within the design to protect all components. I am interested in how to connect/use more than one turbine to simultaneously charge batteries. I am interested in how i can use wind system array, to charge the batteries being used in a solar system, without potential damage to that system. I am seeking knowledge. Someone out there, knows these answers, or where to find these answers. I am not looking to be persuaded to not develop this idea. DIY is not Do Not Try, it is Try Until you get it to work. If anyone out there knows where i can learn, please post links. Thanks
I hope soon we will see some improvement, as of today I would not spend any money to it or recommend it to my clients. But I SO HOPE soon I will be able to tell you which option to choose!
I hope soon we will see some improvement, as of today I would not spend any money to it or recommend it to my clients. But I SO HOPE soon I will be able to tell you which option to choose!
😁😁😁those tiny wind generators are a waste of time, a chocolate teapot is of more use 😂 In the Uk we have a company called 'Ripple Energy', put simply they have a scheme where by home owners/electric users can put a lump sum upfront into said company, they construct the wind farm and you own a share of it. In turn the customer gets cheaper electricity bills....does anything like that happen that you know of?
I have 1kW invested in Ripple’s second project - it is disappointing so far only paying 3.2p/kWh due to cost increases and delays going online - so far that 1kW is outperforming my 4kWp PV but I still end up paying for import - that’s the only benefit of on-site generators 😐
@@sorbetingle yes it's complicated, I think the first turbine did really well as wholesale prices went through the roof, but by the time the second project of 8 turbines went live in June this year and was delayed due to grid connections and raising extra cash, the return rate had plummeted - that's not to say it doesn't pay itself back - it's just a bit crap being paid when 3.2p for generating when I'm paying 25p for importing - on the other hand my PV is 1-1 - not looking at the money side, I am a net exporter of renewable energy 😀
@@solartimeusa YOUR ENGLISH IS VERY VERY GOOD - DONT WORRY ABOUT PRONUNCIATION - MANY PEOPLE 60 YEARS AND OLDER ,GET SIMPLER WORDS WRONG- ITS CUTE, AND IT ALSO CAN GET CONVERSATIONS GOING.... WHICH IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN CORRECT PRONUNCIATION !!!!! AND IM A GAS AND AIRCON ENGINEER, WHO DOES ALL THE MAIN RENEWABLES- CONGRATULATIONS ON AN EXCELLENT VIDEO ON WIND TURBINES - ESPECIALLY VAWT- ITS THE ONLY ONE I'M NOT QUALIFIED ON- AS YOUR VIDEO SAYS, VERY LITTLE DEMAND - BUT I THINK WITH ROOF AND GUTTER TURBINES, DEMAND WILL GROW- ESPECIALLY FOR COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS- I'M WATCHING THIS MARKET CAREFULLY- THERE'S A LOT OF POTENTIAL- I CAN SEE MULTISTORY CARPARKS HAVING GREAT AMOUNTS PRODUCED- ESPECIALLY AS VAWT WORK BETTER WHEN CLUMPED TOGETHER... KEEP LUP THE GOOD WORK- GREAT TO SEE WOMEN KEEN ON THIS INDUSTRY - WHEN I WAS A REPROGRAPHIC ENGINEER WITH OCË, WAS PROVEN TO US THAT WOMEN MAKE BETTER ENGINEERS !!! SO GET YOUR OVERALLS ON- ALTHOUGH BETTER MONEY AS A RENEWABLES SALES AND DESIGN PERSON .. 👍👍👍👍🥂😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️🙏🙏🤯🤯🤯
I th8nk both solar and wind, except for nitch instances, can not power a country. Their waste at decommissioning has not been addressed. However we do have an energy source that works day and night, windy or calm. We need to expand our water power generation. Yes but not only dams. Waves keep going in cycles 24 hours a day 365 days a week. Wave generators don't depend on sunlight or wind.
My build project is in NW Arkansas. The areas electric coop is anything but cooperative when it comes to new builds. Facing a $50k+ line extension we are considering off-grid solutions. Solar will be prominent in our plan, but like so many others, I want to take advantage of the wind in our area as well. Our site sits atop a hill that sees strong breezes from the west coming up the river valley from across the lake. Certain times of year, especially winter months when sunshine is less, the winds could well make up for the shortfall. I'm not interested in more china junk, anyone that has not yet learned their lesson on that needs to open their eyes. Stop sending them money in return for garbage.
Thanks for sharing your situation. I am sure its probably challenging but also very interesting. Solar will definitely be great, plus maybe a propane tank and a whole home generator for bad weather events? Or are you going all solar?
400w in 25mph wind and big with moving possibly noisy parts that need upkeep. that's the problem for smaller scale and why just 2 400w solar panels with a small battery beat that wind turbine on cost, kWh produced and maintenance.
I have the same problem with home turbines as roof solar: it's vastly more cost effective to just have a plant. The effective area of a regular wind turbine is enormous compared to the tiny roof top ones (like 10,000x). Not to mention the higher wind speeds at elevation (there is a reason they're elevated far above ground level) and by location (there is also a reason wind is largely harvested in certain areas: many places just don't have much wind). Home turbines and solar are just a way to push off renewables on to consumers.
Yeah, when she be coming back like we create so many different designs many different ways to do it, but I do believe we will get there like we put more air on the interstate and clean the highways. That’s actually S energy wasted and also leave table leaving money on the table. It’s just take time and also a lot of stubbornness but we get there and we’re like our generation we’re getting.
Go to a marina on a windy day and listen to all the small wind generators. You will be glad your neighbors don't use wind turbines. Fortunately dropping price of solar panels will keep wind generators out of our neighborhoods.
@@solartimeusa Would like to mention. I had a Sailboat with Solar and I put a wind generator on top of Mizzen mast. That's the shorter mast on a double masted Ketch. From that experience I learned it would of been better to spend those funds on another Panel or 2. I like your channel, keep up the good work!
Only diy turbines made for hundreds of dollars make sense because of the limited amount of energy they make at ground level. Turbines costing thousands of dollars create pay backs of decades and at that point maintenece is another cost factor, doesn't take much thought to see they don't make sense.
I'm not a fan of wind generators just because it has moving parts. Solar will evolve faster, I expect solar panels to eventually use heat and night light for generation and achieve 40% solar efficiency.
@@solartimeusa tak właśnie oglądałem kolejne twoje wideo, na których słyszałem, jak mówisz po polsku. Dalej masz polski akcent, a zarazem tak pięknie mówisz w akcencie amerykańskim (angielskim). Zazdroszczę ;) Jestem pełen podziwu jak sobie świetnie radzisz w USA. Dalszego rozwoju i więcej wideo - lubię oglądać, sam zakładam u siebie fotowoltaikę
Overhyped myth. Having designed a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) with industry leading efficiency, 3rd party tested and verified in a wind tunnel, it is an overhyped myth. If you want a kinetic sculpture, buy a vertical axis wind turbine like the Harmony turbines, Wind Tulip or any other promoted VAWT. They are selling an unobtainable promise.
good start, but after you started promoting harmony (which is the let me tell it politely, "the most not great wind turbine") - it became clear that this video is a waste of time!! pure facts: 1. efficiency of the normal horizontal axis wind turbine - 40-45% 2. efficiency of Archimedes type of horizontal wind turbine - 30-33% 3. efficiency of Darrieus vertical - 14-15% 4. efficiency of Savonius type vertical - 9-11% and HARMONY - IS A SAVONIUS!!! Believe me, I know what I am talking about, I've got a lot of solar (45 kW), and I've got 5 wind turbines (total 4 kW of nominal power) installed already in my yard, and the 6-th one is getting installed in a month.
Hi there :) Thank you for sharing your story and your point of view. :) I was not paid, nor did I even speak to Harmony prior to making this video. The reason why I found it interesting is not their power rating or any of that, it was more about how the wind turbines for residential areas are full of different designs but if you dig deeper none of the companies seem to be doing or showing any progress, and that's where this one came in as a surprise. :) Because they actually do. You should share if you please can, what kind of wind turbines you have and what you would recommend, since youre installing a 6th one now! Maye we can look into that one for a future video research.
@@solartimeusa thanks for your response. Well, Harmony is the best Savonius wind turbine, that would be true )) But it's still Savonius, and you can't beat physics. I have got tiny ones, and some middle size ones. The biggest one is 3.2 m in diameter (FT-2000L2 is the model name from Chinese WuxiFengTeng manufacturer), that one is showing 2 kW of power at 10 m/s winds, but since my winds are more at about 4-5 m/s, so I more often see 150-300 watts out of it. That the truth and the reality, that fully corresponds to how the wind turbine should work. And to be honest, there are many updates happening even to the standard wind turbines, you just have to talk to the manufacturers to see that there is a thing or two released in a year, or the product update that happens...
It's just plain physics that residential wind systems do not work. First, vertical axis wind machines are garbage and none of them have ever proven to produce a reasonable amount of power with respect to their cost. Second, any reasonable power producing wind machine needs to be at least 40 feet taller than anything within 300 feet laterally. This makes residential wind machines completely impractical.
Wind... Expensive, too intermittent, much more site/location specific, building codes/karens/NIMBYs. The list goes on and on. But mostly it's because wind is basically terrible if you can't get significantly higher than everything else in your area. A solar panel badically just needs clear line of site to the sun and even those don't make sense in tons of areas. My own quotes for solar aystems on my house all had payoff periods in the 15-20 year range and that was without batteries. Adding batteries makes the payoff never happen.
Hey! Thanks for sharing your point of view. DO you mind me asking what state your ein that makes solar only such a long ROI? In North texas we should get like 6-10 years. But I know lots of SCAMMY solar companie charge way more and screw people over ;/
@@solartimeusa I'm in East Coast Canada. For one I couldn't use any rebates. Second our energy rates are very low (about 12 cents per kWh pre-tax). Third our solar hours over the year are low, especially because of low sun in winter where we use the vast majority of our energy. Then fourth, I have a hip roof which only allows a small number of panels with the layout of the property so the amount of panels vs the labor costs are just too high. I'm figuring out now if I can just DIY most of it to help gets the costs down and make it more reasonable. All of the quotes I received were pretty reasonable and didn't seem sketchy at all. It's just a ton of circumstances all coming together to make it less viable than I had hoped.
Thank you so much for the comment! :) Ideally the highway turbines would be designed to significantly impact traffic speed. Just placed in whatever area to allow for the use of what energy is already there.
It is a net source of energy. How much of a gain that's debatable, as it will have some impact on the traffic, but it's never going to be 100% of what is harvested and the difference is the net gain of energy.
@@doubleooh7337 I'm not sure that room has any bearing on the issue. You are going to have a roof on your building whether it is covered in panels or not. As for efficiency, at this point solar is more efficient for a greater percentage of people. Here in San Jose there is a lot of sun during the spring, summer and fall and little to no usable wind in late spring, summer or early fall. So having a turbine helps in the winter when there is more wind but you would be hard pressed to depend on it year round.
@@doubleooh7337 Hmm, As the topic of this video was wind and you referred to an aerial system which I interpreted as a wind tower, that is what I responded to. What are you talking about then?
