• LemmyExpert@lemmy.zip
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    9 months ago

    Frezik is right, there are plenty of small wind turbines. As I alluded to, the tech naturally involves moving parts & has been prone to breakdowns. They’re getting better all the time, but the small ones don’t produce heaps of power. The big ones do; there is a bigger residential one in my community & it outperforms the solar panels 8:1. It also broke down in the first year of operation, and a crane had to come in & take the turbine down, to be shipped to TX for (thankfully under warranty) repairs.

    I like to see everything getting better, I think I feel more comfortable with solar panels & reducing needs, increasing insulation.

    I can’t Google what I remember seeing, but they’re working on very efficient & tough ones that just spin in place. Mounted to the roof of your house. It’s kind of like that vid posted below, but not, the fins looked like 2 ribbons.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I saw some that had spiral turbines used on the side of the highway somewhere years ago. That type of design would be a lot less space constraining. I doubt my HOA would be cool with me installing an enormous fan in my front yard. There might be some alternative designs that would be acceptable though. I’m going to look into it. We’re completely off the grid except for electricity & internet, so becoming self-sufficient with our electricity needs would be awesome!

      • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Much less reliable for a number of reasons. There are a lot of weird mechanical stresses I’m not smart enough to understand.