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Rooftop solar has really taken off here in Australia, and around 20-25% of houses have a solar inverter. Is it practical to build a cheap rooftop wind-power har

Rooftop solar has really taken off here in Australia, and around 20-25% of houses have a solar inverter. Is it practical to build a cheap rooftop wind-power harvester that plugs into the inverter?

desdiv 11y ago
http://www.australianwindandsolar.com/wind-turbines http://www.australianwindandsolar.com/wind-turbines This is the first google result. There are many others like it as well.
- andymurd 11y ago
  Yes, I should have been more specific - I was thinking of something much smaller that could sit along the roof-line of a typical suburban house. The site supplies separate wind inverters too. I guess that means that the turbines supply very different power to solar panels.
  - NamTaf 11y ago
    The vertical turbines are quite small. Here's one at a house in Brisbane near where I live: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.50561,153.05533,3a,75y,163.9h,84.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKNMKf64oUjHfy7pvAxTQUg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.50561,153.05533,3a,75y,1... I suspect there's issues attaching it to the house itself, but for houses on the top of a hill such a setup can work well. That thing gets spinning really quickly some days.
    - andymurd 11y ago
      That's a great example - is it in a particularly windy area? I will look into installing something like that.
      - NamTaf 11y ago
        It's on top of a relatively large hill in the suburbs, so it gets a lot of breeze. Scan around behind you and you'll see the extent of it. The traffic lights are just about at the top of that hill, so that house has at least a 180 degree view of the east, which is where the bay/ocean is and thus where breezes often blow from.
danieltillett 11y ago
The killer here is likely to be planning restrictions. The other problem is wind is actually more efficient when centralised. The large turbines that our PM hates so much are much more efficient than small turbines.
- andymurd 11y ago
  Agreed on both points. With planning restrictions, I hope that something small and noise-free could please the nimbyists. Something(s) the size of a Dyson fan on the roof-line would look cool. With regards efficiency, I think it's not about replacing the large centralised turbines but augmenting the house's existing solar. A typical single solar panel that generates 200w peak makes about 500Wh/day (on sunny days). If (big if) a turbine can generate 20w average over 24 hours, that's 480Wh extra. But as @desdiv correctly points out - the idea is nothing new. Here's a good looking 20w turbine that I would be happy to have on my roof: http://wind-kinetic.com/index.php/other-products/polar-20w-3.html http://wind-kinetic.com/index.php/other-products/polar-20w-3...
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    My memory is a bit hazy on this, but I think that turbines place a lot of stress on buildings that they were not designed to handle. Retrofitting the required strength into the building will be expensive given what our tradies charge.
vishalzone2002 11y ago
http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall is somewhat doing that?

Rooftop solar has really taken off here in Australia, and around 20-25% of houses have a solar inverter. Is it practical to build a cheap rooftop wind-power harvester that plugs into the inverter?

desdiv 11y ago

http://www.australianwindandsolar.com/wind-turbines http://www.australianwindandsolar.com/wind-turbines This is the first google result. There are many others like it as well.

andymurd 11y ago
Yes, I should have been more specific - I was thinking of something much smaller that could sit along the roof-line of a typical suburban house. The site supplies separate wind inverters too. I guess that means that the turbines supply very different power to solar panels.
- NamTaf 11y ago
  The vertical turbines are quite small. Here's one at a house in Brisbane near where I live: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.50561,153.05533,3a,75y,163.9h,84.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKNMKf64oUjHfy7pvAxTQUg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.50561,153.05533,3a,75y,1... I suspect there's issues attaching it to the house itself, but for houses on the top of a hill such a setup can work well. That thing gets spinning really quickly some days.
  - andymurd 11y ago
    That's a great example - is it in a particularly windy area? I will look into installing something like that.
    - NamTaf 11y ago
      It's on top of a relatively large hill in the suburbs, so it gets a lot of breeze. Scan around behind you and you'll see the extent of it. The traffic lights are just about at the top of that hill, so that house has at least a 180 degree view of the east, which is where the bay/ocean is and thus where breezes often blow from.

danieltillett 11y ago

The killer here is likely to be planning restrictions. The other problem is wind is actually more efficient when centralised. The large turbines that our PM hates so much are much more efficient than small turbines.

andymurd 11y ago
Agreed on both points. With planning restrictions, I hope that something small and noise-free could please the nimbyists. Something(s) the size of a Dyson fan on the roof-line would look cool. With regards efficiency, I think it's not about replacing the large centralised turbines but augmenting the house's existing solar. A typical single solar panel that generates 200w peak makes about 500Wh/day (on sunny days). If (big if) a turbine can generate 20w average over 24 hours, that's 480Wh extra. But as @desdiv correctly points out - the idea is nothing new. Here's a good looking 20w turbine that I would be happy to have on my roof: http://wind-kinetic.com/index.php/other-products/polar-20w-3.html http://wind-kinetic.com/index.php/other-products/polar-20w-3...
- danieltillett 11y ago
  My memory is a bit hazy on this, but I think that turbines place a lot of stress on buildings that they were not designed to handle. Retrofitting the required strength into the building will be expensive given what our tradies charge.

vishalzone2002 11y ago

http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall is somewhat doing that?