vert.windmill $ 400 / 40kWh - plugs in

[Cd]

I found something very interesting on page 34 of the latest Popular Science magazine : Clarian Technologies Clarian Technologies: Jellyfish Wind Appliance
is going to offer for sale ' next year ' a 3' vertical windmill that will power up 40 kWh of electricity a month, and just need to be plugged into an outlet to power the house.

Here's hoping that it is not vaporware.

Wow. Sounds too good to be true !

[Ryland]

You can't get tax credits or any other government money without the generator having a rated output, so far no vertical axle wind generator has been able to do so, mariah power tried a number of times and ended up giving up because they could not prove that vertical axle turbines work, yes it spins, but how much does it produce in normal wind? I can make a paper pin wheel that will spin in the wind and I can tell you that it will produce power, I can even show you a video of it spinning! but you would be a fool to give me money.

[Cd]

Yours is the first negative comment that I have ever seen regarding vertical windmills.
They are several times more efficient that traditional ones.

Vertical Windmills - Popular Mechanics

As far as tax credits on a $ 400 windmill, pppth I'll just bite the bullet.
I just commented on what was printed in the magazine. I trust that a major magazine like Popular Science is not going to print something without researching it first.
In the magazine, it states that the " The 36 inch turbine generates up to 40 kilowatt hours monthly, enough to light a 3,600 square foot home. "

[cfg83]

Cd -

If you go for it, I would love a status report. I have someone that has been hen-pecking me about this. He lives on a hilly grade at the beach, so I think he has good ocean-breeze access. The "plug in" part is insane (in a good way).

CarloSW2

[Cd]

I live in an apartment .... but my parents do not. I would be buying them one for sure.

I hope they actually make this thing and stick to that price !

[Ryland]

I get my information and opinions from people who work in the industry and from articals like this one in Home Power magazine, I'm not saying Popular Mechanics is not a fun magazine to read, but they don't tend to do their own research beyond interviewing the people selling the product.
When someone who has told me to my face that he would like to own a vertical axle wind generator and has been in the industry for longer then I've been alive, I tend to listen to them when they say start articals with "not a single vertical-axis turbine was reviewed in "How to Buy a Wind- Electric System," for very good reasons."

I have seen these kind of "generators" in person and have yet to see one that has a rated out put, partly because I have yet to hear of one that works, unless you define working as simply spinning, I can make the wheels on your car spin while on jack stands, it will go really fast too! but how fast will it go when you want to go some place? how much work, in real life will this turbine do? light your house... one room... with an LED... I made a wind generator when I was 15 that could do that, it cost me less then $20 to build.

[WisJim]

There are NO vertical axis wind machines that work well enough to spend any money on. All of them that have been subjected to 3rd party testing have failed to live up to expectations, or even work at all. Here is a bit about one that was installed near Madison Wisconsin. MGE's Urban Turbine It hasn't produced anywhere near promised output, and it is probably 4 times the size of the one mentioned in Pop Science.