Re: Wind turbines

Good point!!!! Probably good in the desert though <g>. And the desert, as long as you are not in a densely populated area would solve the noise problem...

"George Z. Bush" <georgezbush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:mKxXi.165$1G4.134@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Islander wrote:
Jerry Okamura wrote:

"California Poppy" <GoldenStatePoppy@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1194210225.287996.212310@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A 5-kilowatt wind turbine suitable for a two-bedroom residence costs
about $20,000, according to Stimmel. This is comparable to a solar
panel display for a typical California home. It takes six to 30 years
to recoup the investment, he said.

Translation: not very practical to install something that will take six
to 30 years to recoup your costs, when you are old and the odds are you
won't live long enough to recoup your upfront cost. Different matter if
you are young, and probably will live long enough to recoup your initial
cost.

Very shallow thinking, Jerry. The investment adds to the value of the
real estate which is useful to you independent of when you expect to die.

"It depends on your wind resource quality, how much you pay for
electricity and how tall your tower is," Stimmel said. The taller the
tower, the greater the wind speeds and hence the power.

A wind turbine for a 1,000-square-foot house would need to be 40- to
100-feet tall to do an effective job, Stimmel said.

Which means what? It means that since the average size house is larger
than 1,000 square feet, that you would need what? A taller structure,
or more than one structure? Also, how many homes even have the land to
put up such a structure? I would think the higher the structure means
you need more land to insure that the structure is sturdy enough not to
fall.

There are a lot of variables and wind power will not be a good solution
for everyone, regardless of the height of the tower. For some, solar
would be a better solution and for some there is no solution other than
conservation. It really depends on where you live.

FWIW, a fellow in my town here at the beach put one up on a tower years ago. I don't really know whether or not it turned out to be economically feasible, but I do know that the works eventually rusted in the salt air and quit operating and it ended up just standing there silently. It ultimately became a tourists' site known as "John Doe's Folly". Even before that had happened, he had alientated all of his neighbors because of the intrusive noise that the blades made 24/7 when the wind was turning them.

George Z.


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Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Vibration resonance?
    ... But maybe one will have to build to reduce the 'Wind noise'. ... It had both an audible "whoosh" at 3X the rotor as each blade passed the support tower plus a sub-audible reverberation that was felt rather than heard. ... That capacity is only a tenth of the output of a single large scale generating station that would have a land footprint of perhaps 1/4-sq mile and be visible from only a few miles at most even on the flat KS prairie. ...
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