subject: Rooftop Wind Turbine: 3 Reasons Roofs Rock [print this page] The rooftop wind turbine is the future of residential wind power production worldwide. While that may seem like a reaching statement, I think it stands because of the advantages that our roofs have over other places we might otherwise install a wind device.
Of course, there are other places that you can install such a device that will achieve a lot better efficiency and make more power for you. The problem is those locations have other issues that you will have to deal with and resolve before you can locate a wind turbine there.
There are several reasons you'll want to strongly consider your roof as the location of choice for your wind power generator:
The roof is a strong source of wind. Roof Effect is a phenomenon whereby the geometric obstructions that form the roof actually help to accelerate airflow in a concentrated fashion in the direction of the highest point, or eve. This in turn will allow you to locate the turbine there and increase the amount of power that you can extract by a factor of 3 in some cases.
So, although the roof may not be the perfect place to put a wind turbine, it is a very workable and energy-rich environment.Also, the roof is a huge source of urban and rural real estate that's really out of the line of sight of most of your neighbors. This is a big factor because many people have a problem with living next to a house with a wind turbine. This is largely a carryover from the past when wind turbines were more unsightly.
However, if you want to do well in the permitting process, it makes sense to design your wind turbine to attract the least attention and that is usually the case if you locate yours on your roof.Wind turbines for this application are designed ornamentally. Unlike many horizontal wind turbines, the vertical axis wind turbines used on roofs are typically designed to blend in with their environments better. That is not to say that a horizontal wind turbine is impossible to locate on a roof, but usually the efficiency advantages that you gain with a horizontal wind turbine are not worth the aesthetic challenges they will present.
For the future of dispersed renewable power generation the roof holds the most promise as a place to locate a rooftop wind turbine. As we become increasingly dependent on our own local sources for power, placing wind turbines on our roofs should be our first choice.
