Honeywell wind turbine is a breeze to run – and a light one at that

It is amazing that people are finally getting it that wind power generators do not use propellers. They have to use resistors. Dead flat, highly polished stainless steel is best.

They are finally beginning to replicate the studies by Bill Allison, the retired engineer from Ford, in the mid 80s are correct. You can hit the 60% theoretical maximum efficiency but you do have to mitigate the cone of resistance that builds up in front of the fan. Bill found that the best way to do that was to remove two blades directly opposite from each other. The cone instantly disappeared. He found 10 blades to pull the most power. No need to pay extra for the shroud.

The problem back then was having a variable speed generator. Yes his fans would take off spinning like crazy in small breezes. And he used to get a kick laughing at the propellers desinged by NASA.

He calculated that a 18ft dia fan would provide all the power that a house would ever need and probably some left over to power the auto as well.

Reinventing seems to be going on.

Island Architect

- June 18, 2009 @ 01:06 pm CDT

This is a terrible design and way too costly for what you geIf handy you can make a much better one for much less that makes much more power. google Axial-flux wind generator or join a wind gen yahoogroup

Never believe any wind gen company that says they can make power under 7mph as there is no power under that. Wind power goes up the cube of the wind speed after that.

jerryd

- June 19, 2009 @ 04:06 pm CDT

Reinventing or copying, at least people will look at this stuff now and maybe even buy it.

Facebook User

- June 19, 2009 @ 05:06 pm CDT

There was much more to Bill Allison's design than just "remove two blades directly opposite from each other." The blades also were staggered front-to-back. And his work dates back to the 1970s, not 1980s.

This Windgate design owes more to Tom Chalk's "bicycle wheel" turbine from the early 1970s. Like the Windgate, the Chalk started spinning at very low wind speeds. But the Windgate likely shares the main problem of the Chalk, namely that there's no protection from high wind speeds, which will overload the structure.

Spirit of 76

- June 20, 2009 @ 12:06 am CDT

if this will only provide about 15% of the annual homes usage, I would think it would take many years for it to pay for itself. Since the average person only lives in a house for 7-9 years before moving, I doubt it would ever pay for itself for the majority of people.

pbvt

- June 20, 2009 @ 06:06 am CDT

My house only uses about 45-50 kwh per month ( this is a rough guess from the last time I saw my electric bill ) so this would reduce my electric bill to nothing and even provide me a credit towards my gas usage.. whoohoo!!!

Koala

- August 21, 2009 @ 01:08 pm CDT

Industry expert Paul Gipe has already reviewed this product and, as you can imagine, says its full of BS:

"There is no substantiation to back up the promoter's claims and the claims themselves are exaggerated."

Also of note:

"There are no units in use. One turbine has been "tested" in a wind tunnel. Thus, all claims about the product are projecture.

Those who have followed the debate about performance measurements of small turbines realize that testing in a wind tunnel is not testing at all. Wind tunnel "tests" are useful only for design not for estimating the performance of the wind turbine in the field.

Though no turbines have been tested in the field, Earthronics has hired a public relations company."

Something tells me the positive comments on the internet about this product are nothing more than a hired PR firm doing its job..the product and company are clearly shady.

jac05

- November 23, 2009 @ 10:11 am CST