| By :
Roger Brown
With the advent of residential wind systems worldwide, the technology involved in these products is increasing on a parallel with that of the personal computer. As more and more these devices get out in the field, people's experience gets fed back to the manufacturers, who end up improving their devices and making them a lot more market ready. Why do we need residential wind turbines anyway? It is because fossil fuel reserves are shrinking all over the world at a very alarming pace. No longer can we count on Middle East oil reserves to supply all of our needs or large companies to take care of all of our energy needs in the capital markets. These are some of the new technologies that you need to pay attention to… Vertical wind turbines - while these devices in their most basic form of been around for a long time, the most current iteration of the vertical wind turbine is finding its way onto urban roofs all over the country. Although it is very inefficient from a purely mechanical standpoint, it does allow the urban dweller to take advantage of the wind where they are. Although that wind can be considered chaotic and difficult to make energy out of for sure. Horizontal wind turbines - while this is not new technology at least in concept form either, it is being developed at a very rapid pace. These devices are extremely efficient at converting wind to mechanical energy and then to electricity especially when the wind source is higher up in the atmosphere. Now when I say higher up, I mean at least 30 feet over the height of the tallest obstacle around. Of course 30 feet is gives enough obstacle clearance to be almost guaranteed there will be a steady stream of wind there. Grid tied systems versus batteries - this is a very robust and fruitful area of research and new technology. With net metering capability now, we have the ability to carry on this complex calculation of how much energy is actually being purchased by the consumer versus how much is being exported to the greater grid by the renewable energy system. Beyond that, a battery pack will allow you to store energy when it is not available from the wind. This allows residential wind turbine owners to be able to deplete their battery reserves almost any time day or night and run more 24/7 appliances like freezers off of the system. In summary, there are a lot of new devices out there, but the residential wind turbine is becoming a very accepted way of producing energy at home and almost a common household item these days.
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