How about putting this wind turbine on the ridge line of your house?

[Ichingcarpenter]

RidgeBlade ® is the first product from the Power Collective and is winner of the 2009 Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge.

The RidgeBlade is an innovative, affordable and effective way of harnessing the wind's power to produce renewable electricity.

RidgeBlade addresses the issues associated with traditional micro-wind generation technologies. The unique design means it can reliably produce electricity in low or variable wind conditions whilst creating very little visual impact. This means that it is suitable for locations including urban houses, rural buildings and environmentally-sensitive sites such as National Parks.

The RidgeBlade is fitted on the ridge line at the top of a building and uses the existing roof area to collect and focus the prevailing wind. This is where the wind is forced to travel over the roof surface, accelerating the airflow though the turbine.


http://www.thepowercollective.com/ridgeblade.htm

This is the right kind of innovation, one which will bring a community together to provide energy together on a collective scale, rather than relying upon some far away power station to provide the same for a profit.

[Sherman A1]

1. Looks pretty cool to me!

:bounce:

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. They won $750,000 dollars for the design/award

So revolutionary is this approach that the company has won $750,000 from the Green Challenge Awards.

“It’s beyond a dream,” said Power Collective CEO Dean Gregory when Skype founder Niklas Zennström announced him as the winner. I’ll bet: he’d only entered the competition two days before the closing date!

[kristopher]

25. I wouldn't get too excited about this.

Similar concepts have been out there for some time, and the electricity they produce is still too expensive. I'd be willing to bet that they deliver less than 10% of their annual rated production capacity because they are at rooftop level. You are excited by the ability to increase the wind speed 3X - and that is significant; but don't be blinded to the fact that 3 times 0 is still 0. Anyone considering the purchase of rooftop system should mount an anemometer on their roof for a year and record the amount of wind that is specific to the siting location.
Most people are very disappointed with rooftop units.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=NNjlSqGZGpS_lAe8uMDoCg&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CBwQBSgA&q=home+anemometer&spell=1

I recommend that people interested in saving the planet should contact their utility and sign up for the green energy program or buy a home solar system.

The benefit of supporting large scale wind through your utility is that every dollar you spend produces more renewable energy (and thus fewer GHG emissions) than it ever could with ANY rooftop system.

The benefit of buying a solar system is that even though the electricity is still expensive (although not as expensive per produced kilowatt hour as a rooftop system) the money spent serves to expand the market and drive costs down by attracting more investment into building plants than make solar panels.

[trof]

3. I like it! K&R

[BigBearJohn]

4. Very cool. Sent to my whole address book.. K/R!!!

[Lochloosa]

5. I would want some acoustical info before putting that on top of my house.

I can just imagine going to sleep to the "whirl" of those blades.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. They are suppose to be almost silent

Its designer is an ex-Rolls Royce turbine engineer.
You know the ones they put into jets?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

6. Ed Begley Jr. and Bill Nye would approve.

This seems like an invention that will make people ask; now why didn't I think of that?

http://www.edbegley.com/environment/tipsandfaq.html

[Ineeda]

8. This is very interesting

It looks like it might be less expensive than residential solar panels, and more universally applicable to houses. Now, too bad it's not a 'Made in the USA' product.

[annabanana]

9. What a great idea!. . . n/t

[FSogol]

10. Wouldn't you need a constant breeze?

My folks house in the Shenandoah valley would qualify, but mine in No Va seldom has any wind.

[ehrnst]

24. You can find out your region's average wind speed:

http://www.ecohuddle.com/wiki/average-us-wind-speeds-by-region

[AtheistCrusader]

27. Keep in mind, that can be 30 feet or more off the ground.

You get better wind higher up. At rooftop level you won't see nearly as much, even with any compression benefit you get from a sloped roof 'funneling' more wind into the turbine.

[fasttense]

11. The way the picture has the turbines positioned would mean building your house

to face the prevailing wind. Do many people really build houses facing the wind? We built ours so that the prevailing winds did not bang on our front door. Maybe it works with lesser winds.

[Canuckistanian]

16. Not necessarily

You'd still get some airflow even if the turbines were not perfectly perpendicular to the house.

All you'd need is a difference in pressure between one side of the roof and the other.

It's a brilliant design.

[Ichingcarpenter]

20. Exactly

Also wind perpendicular to the ridge line will still travel over the roof

[madokie]

29. Many of the houses that I've seen face either north or south depending on the side of the street

on so I think there would be plenty of houses where this would be a good idea. Our house has a t shape with the small of the tee facing toward the north and south and by that it wouldn't be a good candidate for one, our shop on the other would be except for a few trees. Damn damn damn and I really like the idea

[patricia92243]

12. I wonder how much it would cost? Plus installation cost? Of course, it would pay for itself by the

electric bill you would NOT be paying.

[madokie]

13. If our house was turned 90 degrees this would be perfect

I like the looks of it though and would put on one the roof in a second if I could.

[NNadir]

32. Well, don't you have a brazillion megawatts of solar up there now,

or were you too busy reading comic books to actually install anything?

It seems to me that most of the dumb anti-nuke fundies have an excuse about why they aren't participating in the latest breakthrough renewable miracle.

It's always supposed to involve someone else.

Why don't you just build a new house? Fundies are always talking about "all new stuff," as they are simply consumers.

[madokie]

33. You see big guy your premise that everyone who disagrees with you is a fundy is flawed

like most of the rest of teh shit you sling here is.:rofl: But you're just too fucking SMART to figure out how most times I'm laughing at your stupidity, which seems to come in bunches with you.

are you a banana tree??? by any chance ;-) your fruit comes in bunches like banana's do so from using your logic I declare you a banana tree. Now go away you stupid banana tree :rofl: Oh and stand still my dog needs to piss

[Strelnikov_]

35. Forum Rules 3 & 4

3. Civility: Treat other members with respect. Do not post personal attacks against other members of this discussion forum.

4. Content: Do not post messages that are inflammatory, extreme, divisive, incoherent, or otherwise inappropriate. Do not engage in anti-social, disruptive, or trolling behavior. Do not post broad-brush, bigoted statements. The moderators and administrators work very hard to enforce some minimal standards regarding what content is appropriate. But please remember that this is a large and diverse community that includes a broad range of opinion. People who are easily offended, or who are not accustomed to having their opinions (including deeply personal convictions) challenged may not feel entirely comfortable here. A thick skin is necessary to participate on this or any other discussion forum.

[Dead_Parrot]

14. Call me Mr Picky, but...

...any figures on output and cost?

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. Not yet but I did a search and he has a great team of engineers and scientists

The project arose from researching windflow around buildings in an urban environment. They discovered that pitched roofs act like a wing where air travels three times faster over the peak within a space of 30 cm, thus creating nine times more energy for a wind turbine. Although this area is small, it is as long as the roof creating a horizontal solution to windmill turbines as opposed to the traditional vertical design.

It was also impressive to know that the estimated impact that 500.000 units would have across the world to be equivalent to turning off one coal power station.

[MineralMan]

22. Yes. Whenever I see one of these blue sky proposals

that doesn't have any data, it's clear that the product either has not been built and tested OR the output is so low that it's useless.

As usual, I'll wait until they have a working system installed and tested before celebrating.

[madokie]

28. I would think that a ball park figure for that would be easy to figure out

from the looks of the picture it looks to be no bigger than two feet in diameter, possibly even smaller like 18 to 20". Looks like it could be made in about any length anyone would want up to a point and I would like to know what kind of output it has too. It almost looks like something that wouldn't be that hard for a guy like me to build one.

[WhiteTara]

17. I want one! This is very cool looking

When will they be on the market?

[Ichingcarpenter]

18. 2010

In Europe

[smoogatz]

19. Brilliant. I want one.

Our house is gable-end to the street, so the roof-line runs North/South, prevailing winds from the west. This critter would be howling all day long!

[Berry Cool]

21. What a great design!

These guys may have invented the equivalent of the wheel in terms of renewable energy!

[phiddle]

23. Speaking of great designs, I liked this a few years ago:

http://www.jovanovic.f2s.com/page2.html

It's a wind turbine inside a cowl which is designed to funnel air to the blade. I can't find any news about it; does anyone know anything?

[never cry wolf]

26. Don't want to rain on the parade

It is an interesting idea but what is the output in electricity, a 60 watt bulb or a fridge? How is it maintained? Roofs get shit on them like leaves, birds, squirrels, hornet nests, ice, snow, etc. Do you screen all those out? If so the screening will greatly reduce the free area for air movement. Moving parts need to run smoothly or they lose efficiency, will it be self lubricating? Heated to run in the cold?

[wtmusic]

31. Rain? Sounds like common sense

Design award or not, this idea is a non-starter.

"Roofs get shit on them like leaves, birds, squirrels, hornet nests, ice, snow, etc." How very unacademic of you.

:thumbsup:

[madokie]

34. I've yet to see any of the things you list at the top of my roof or any others roofs

Damn I missed the ice or the snow, but you get the idea I'm sure

[BrklynLiberal]

30. Thanks for this info. i am going to send a request for more info.