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World: r3wp

[Tech News] Interesting technology

GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5983]
Amazon's talk of region isolation was clearly not true.
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[5984]
Houses here don't have cellars anymore, because, as anyone knows, 
electricity is always there...
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5985]
Don't most Dutch houses have wind mills on them for power?
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[5986x2]
Just a few farms
And besides, they run the machines that cut out the wooden shoes
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5988]
and the wooden shoes are burnt to make steam?
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[5989x2]
When a hunger winter comes, yes
That's when we eat the tulips
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5991x3]
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/noiseswt.html


search for Chiu to find out about the wind turbine I had on my house 
:)
And here's a picture of my turbine http://www.compkarori.com/images/air403.gif
I have an inverter so that I could use the power from the 12V batteries 
to power my server
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[5994]
It says you still have it but it will cost you tonnes to turn it 
on...
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5995x2]
I don't have it anymore .. the company took it away :(
The threat of a $200,000 fine was a little too oppressive for me
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[5997]
How big was it?
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[5998x2]
not very big .. just over 1m span I think.  Made lots of noise energy 
only!
I think they use these on small boats where if the neighbours complain, 
you just sail somewhere else!
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6000x2]
:-) Yeah, I've seen those in recent years
So they make too much noise because they're too small?
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6002x2]
yes
well, because they spin so fast
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6004x2]
That's the case with CPU fans, as well
Size matters. The bigger the better
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6006x4]
to shed energy ( so that they blades don't fall apart ), they undergo 
fibroelastic shudder
which creates vortices and lots of noise
flutter
here's a picture from the roof .... http://www.compkarori.com/images/karori403.jpg
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6010]
I've been riding my bicycle under those really big ones in a big 
storm. Pretty impressive
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6011]
I thought I would be far away from the neighbours .. but clearly 
I was not
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6012]
It looks quite close. The noise of small fans is very high pitched. 
It annoys the hell out of me, too
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6013x3]
I was going to short it during the night which basically puts a break 
on the whole thing.  And leave it going during the day
Even with the turbine shorted .. it still spun quite fast in a strong 
wind
One of these days I'm going to cover my roof in Photovoltaic panels
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6016]
The longer you wait, the more efficient they become :-)
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6017x3]
True ... there's a lot of research in this area
I think you can even create tiles of the PV panels and use them to 
cover the roof
And I think I've seen flexible ones that can wrap around objects
Kaj
23-Apr-2011
[6020]
You could have clothed you wind sculpture with them ;-)
GrahamC
23-Apr-2011
[6021x4]
To maximize the benefits from PV panels you need to track the sun 
and not the wind!
Most passive sun trackers use an inert gas which vapourises and condenses 
elsewhere changing the balance so that the whole thing pivots with 
the change in weight redistribution
A bit like a sun flower I guess
or a tulip?
Reichart
23-Apr-2011
[6025]
I'm planning on VAWTs.  Make little to no noticible noise.  Work 
from any direction, so less parts.
GrahamC
24-Apr-2011
[6026x2]
And sadly the Savonius design is very inefficient.  I helped my child 
build one for her science fare though .. still got it.
I looked at these years ago http://www.windside.com/technical.html#WS-4C
but deemed them to be too expensive
Reichart
24-Apr-2011
[6028]
Electricity in Maui is .33 per kw...  All alternative power options 
are "worth it".
Maxim
24-Apr-2011
[6029]
ouch... here its .075/kwh
GrahamC
24-Apr-2011
[6030x2]
With all that sun .. I'd go for PV panels
Pity we can't harness the power of tsunamis
Geomol
25-Apr-2011
[6032]
It could be interesting to compare prices of electricity around the 
world. Also the prices, Reichart and Max give, are they total prices 
incl. all vat, tax and distribution?


In Denmark, where I live, we pay around DKK 2.00 in total per kWh, 
that's USD 0.39 per kWh. 1/5 of that is vat (danish: "moms"), almost 
half is a special tax on electricity, and the rest is split in actual 
price of electricity and its distribution. See pie diagram here:

http://www.dongenergy.dk/privat/El/omelprisen/Pages/om elprisen.aspx


In Denmark 25% of our electricity comes from wind mills, many located 
in the ocean. If some of you pay 0.075/kWh, that seems very cheap.