| By :
Roger Brown
Since you are taking the time to read an article like this, you are probably pretty informed already and know a lot about your options. In this article, we will go into the 4 main types of verticals and why they aren't right for your home yet. To calibrate our perspectives though, there are 2 general types of windmills to be aware of: 1. Vertical-Axis 2. Horizontal-Axis When you compare them head-to-head, verticals aren't that competitive for home power production and here's why… The devil is in the details, and verticals aren't ALL bad. So, let's compare verticals and horizontals in the critical areas… 1. Efficiency - Vertical wind turbines aren't as efficient as horizontals. In fact, horizontals can be up to 50% more efficient. 2. Cost - Verticals cost a lot more than horizontals. (3-4 times as much) 3. Looks - The faster frequency of verticals causes them to have a hypnotic effect and studies indicated people like to gaze at them like waves at the beach. 4. Footprint - Vertical wind turbines take up less space on the ground. That means they are much easier to find a place for and easier to get moving. 5. Maintenance - Although there are more stresses on verticals due to the chaotic wind lower to the earth's surface that they operate in, they are easier to access and maintain. In terms of their primary purpose of producing power efficiently, verticals lose. In any event, these are the vertical wind turbine designs that should be understood: 1. Darrieus These are the turbines that look like an eggbeater with narrow helical blades. The cyclic stress the towers of this type experience is significant. This "torque ripple" can be diminished by using more blades. This improves the stability under motion. While they're low mounting height makes them easier to access, they need to be because they require more maintenance attention. Furthermore, most won't begin turning without a powered assist. The Darrieus wind turbine requires the additional push of either a smaller Savonius turbine or other external power source to get the blades started.. 2. Giromill Giromills are usually 3-bladed and they are really a Darrieus-type turbine. They have lower maintenance costs and usually have the advantage of being self-starters. The Giromill looks a lot like a cell tower - shorter, vertically-oriented blades at the top of the shaft. 3. Savonius These turbines began as water wheels hundreds of years ago. They look like a cut in half drum and scoop the air rather than lift the blades. They are very inefficient - on the order of 5-10% - but easy and cheap to construct and easy to work on. 4. Rotational Sail Relatively new and beginning to be used a good bit in Europe. This is a very clever design where fabric sails are used instead of blades. These windmills are very light weight and cheaper to replace if they break.. Speed is controlled by a magnetic counter that expands or contracts the sails as needed to compensate for changes in the wind speed and direction. In conclusion, verticals are attractive now to buyers because of their aesthetic and philosophical appeal - these devices are easy to install on a roof on the ground with a tower. Because of the efficiency and cost issues, though, verticals will probably never be as popular as horizontals. If economies of scale kick in and prices drop, they do have a potentially huge market in urban areas that could never tolerate horizontal wind turbines due to space constraints. If you are contemplating buying a vertical wind turbine for the home now, you probably need to stay from verticals until prices come down. Their inefficiency and cost is just too great to justify taking them seriously yet.
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