Have you seen those roof ventilators, that spin in the wind & suck air out of the roof system? The bearings often wear out, presumably from excess energy with nowhere to go..
So, the idea is to attach several small vertical-axis wind turbines with generators, to the roof of a house. Charge batteries for your off-grid system or for emergency power. Decorate your abode & flaunt your green-ness. Let the Jones keep up with that!-- afinehowdoyoudo, Jul 11 2007 Ok Solar http://www.oksolar....home_wind_large.gif [skinflaps, Jul 11 2007] The kind of wind-driven fan you're talking about. http://www.indiamart.com/realmspl/Right? [jutta, Jul 11 2007] Rooftop-mounted turbines in general http://www.wind-wor...oofTopMounting.html [jutta, Jul 11 2007] One recent product in this area. http://www.renewabledevices.com/swift/ [jutta, Jul 11 2007] Vertical axis wind turbine http://club.cycom.co.uk/vertAxis.html [skinflaps, Jul 11 2007] Aerotecture http://www.aerotect.../products_510V.html [Klaatu, Jul 11 2007] Mounting wind turbines on top of roofs is an existing area of research - you can get some products for that, as well as horror stories about vibrations and material fatigue. Integrating turbines with wind-driven fans is new, but I'm not sure it's what you're suggesting!-- jutta, Jul 11 2007 Near where I live, a $15000 wind turbine that, according to the manufacturer, can produce $400 worth of electricity per year was recently placed on the roof of a government building. The purpose of this public-funded folly? To assess its viability. True story.
There are a lot of costs involved in generating useful power. Small scale projects represent an admirable attitude, but often do not withstand closer scrutiny.-- Texticle, Jul 11 2007 Of course if it was reliable and they placed an order for 500 units which were manufactured in China, it would then cost $5000.
Also, remember that 2005 was the year that micro-generation outstripped nuclear power in terms of global output.-- wagster, Jul 11 2007 I think it was manufactured for $5000. The other $10k was for installation and integration with existing electricity supply.-- Texticle, Jul 11 2007 Micro generation is often defined as being 100kW or less. That is considerably larger than most domestic systems, and therefore likely to be considerably more worthwhile.-- Texticle, Jul 11 2007 random, halfbakery