Comments on: Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power

By: tgez70

tgez70 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:10:27 +0000

gooood

By: Alkin

Alkin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:12:05 +0000

Yes, very dangerous for birds.

By: Lowell Hayes

Lowell Hayes — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:48:04 +0000

It’s alwaysgood to see more alternatives to the usual generators. Hard to judge just how good this one may be but compact is definitely good.
Nobody, however, seems to be concerned with the visual polution that bright and white objects make in the visual environment, especially the natural environment. Made things need to blend in order not to further reduce our aesthetic experiences with the Earth. Do you speak visual?
Lowell Hayes

By: dacmrc

dacmrc — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:11:04 +0000

I want one

By: Wind Generator

Wind Generator — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:47:39 +0000

Well. If you look at the design of this thing it couldn't be more mechanically flawed. The turbine weight is leveraged so far from its support. It may look nice as a asthetic design but it's just not very well balanced. Think of the strain of 25 years on a bearing with that poor balance, This is a novelty, not a design that will sustain the test of time and real world trial. It's really obvious at a glance.Small Wind Turbines Contact Us!

By: Guillermo

Guillermo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:54:01 +0000

To JunkkMale:

I was looking at the design and thinking the same thing, and also that it would wear more evenly if there were supports on both sides. My guess as to why there is only one bar is that putting another one on the other side means creating unnecessary friction, which reduces efficiency. You’d think it’d increase the life of the mechanism by reducing side-to-side grind on the pivot point, though (like what AlphaBob was discussing). But who knows. Maybe that’s just the style the makers thought looked the best. I won’t pretend to be an expert!

By: Eletruk

Eletruk — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:10:31 +0000

According to the schematic on their website, they tie to the power with an inverter, just like a solar array. So that means that you probably can tie to any grid with a properly selected inverter. Since I really don’t read Swedish, I don’t know if the turbine outputs AC or DC, so I wouldn’t know the actual type of inverter needed. But as in any home power project, you would need an inverter to get a real usable power output anyways.

By: GreenTV

GreenTV — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:54:02 +0000

This is Lori, CEO of GreenTV. Can anyone help me find one of these to test and validate at our GreenTV research center? If not, other micro wind turbines that we can help promote?

My best to all and, in advance, thank you!

http://www.greentv.com/

By: AlphaBob

AlphaBob — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:11:40 +0000

If you check the design of the blades, they are NOT symmetrical, so it has a definite orientation requirement.
My guess is they studied many blade designs and picked that one as most efficient given a mount that allowed the turbine to swing.

Anything that is mechanical is a problem. The mount looks very complicated and I wonder how well it will work after 5-20 years of use. I agree with you that eliminating that pivot point would be great. It may be that a redesign with symmetrical blades would allow for efficient horizontal rotation and no need for a movable joint.

This is one of the reasons that I am a fan of solar — no moving parts = fewer parts to break, vibrate, etc.

By: bivaterl

bivaterl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:29:38 +0000

Why create a horizontal fix for the device? Wouldn’t it operate unidirectionally if the anchor point were on the top of the pole and it rotated horizontally instead of vertically? Then you could simplify most of the moving parts, leaving only a ball that would work under any wind. Am I way off base here?

By: mak2662

mak2662 — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:15:13 +0000

Hopefully, it will be cost effective and efficient.

By: CID

CID — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:36:51 +0000

I am looking for a wind turbine that can generate 1 kw to 10 Kw per hour and will start turning its blade at a very low windspeed of 2 kilometers per hour.

Can this wind ball turbine meet my requirement. If so, how much will it cost to install a complete system that can generate 1 kilowatt , 3 kilowatts 5kilowatts, 7 kilowatts, 10 kilowatts?

Pleae send reply to my email address.

Thank you.

CID

By: Eugene

Eugene — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 09:37:33 +0000

Far from being a bird blender, it looks a bit like the devices my neighbour makes to scare the birds away. Make it the right kinds of shiny colours and no birds should come near it.

By: Gazza

Gazza — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:52:36 +0000

Hmm The americans can just bomb another country for its oil to use in the conventional methods of generation.

By: worldisone

worldisone — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:19:30 +0000

@hagbard,

Yes, I am cynical and, no, you’re not being an a@% but CTGuy67 explicitly states “That is great, but until it is available to those of us in North America…what good is it?”

I say that it is good for the bulk of the world who do operate on 50Hz…if it indeed is as efficient as it claims to be.

I posted (perhaps harshly) at the end of a long day but my sentiment / argument still stands.