Wind Power?

Question

Wind Energy?
"950W of power at 45km.hr winds
Delivers 100 Kw / hours a month at an average wind speed of 5.4 m/s
Adjustable voltage (12/24/36/48V)"

Can someone please tell me what that means? And my question is would you be able to indefinitely power a small fridge, a TV and other things on that wind turbine which costs $3 000? I'm posting this many times because I'm not satisfied with the answers I already received. People are just not making it simple enough to comprehend. Its all spanish to me.

Answer 1

Somewhere on your appliances there should be a label indicating how much power they require to run. If the wind is blowing at a speed of 45 km/hr, the windmill can provide 900 Watts, so you can compare that to how much power your appliances require. You also need to take into account how windy it is where you'll have the windmill.

A kWh (kilawatt-hour) is the number of kilawatts (power) provided in an hour. So they're saying that if the wind averages 5.4 m/s over a month, the windmill will provide 100 kWh over that time. As there are 24 hours/day and 30.5 days/month, that means the windmill will average 136.6 Watts over the month. So on average at any given time the windmill will generate 137 Watts of power.

So it's important to know how windy it is in the area. If the wind only blows about 5 m/s (18 km/hr) most of the time, you'll usually only be able to generate 130 Watts, which won't power much. If it's often very windy (45 km/hr = 12.5 m/s), then you can usually get 900 Watts of power.

Or if you get batteries, you can store up some of that energy when you don't need it, and use it when you do need it. Batteries can be expensive though. Another thing to take into account is that windmills can be quite noisy. You and your neighbors might not be too happy about that.

Small windmills aren't terribly practical because of these reasons - you need consistent wind and good batteries, the noise can be annoying, and they still don't provide a whole lot of power. If this is a newer design rather than a standard windmill maybe it solved some of those problems, but those are some things to keep in mind before you take the $3000 plunge.

Answer 2

I've had similar problems, not the least that these new fangled people use m/s instead of good old miles per hour.....

but having set up my sailboat with a wind generator, and beginning the research to put in wind generators to run a 75 unit condo complex in St Thomas VI here it is in English.....

first wind generator output goes up rapidly as the wind increases and its not a fair curve.... you might get x output at 5 mph, 3x at 10 mph, 6x at 15 mph.get the idea? So, look very carefully at any output data a wind turbine manufacturer supplies. Your example says 950 Watts of power ( enough to run 9 and a half 100 Watt light bulbs) at 45km.which is 27 miles an hour.....how often does it blow nearly 30 miles an hour at your place?

Secondly, go to the National Weather Service ( or the equivalent) nearest office's web site and see what your average annual wind speed is....failing that, buy a cheap wind speed measure from a marine supply store and start keeping records. "Yeah, today was about average for wind speed and duration..........". My research so far seems to say that anything under an average of 14 MPH ( 7.7 meters a second) is marginal for wind power.

and that is 14 MPH 20 hours a day, not a peak gust every now and then of 14!

NOW, here's the important part. Every electrical device has a plate on it somewhere that says volts, watts and amps. Think of watts as how many gallons an hour the appliance uses
( AND STOP CRINGING, all you engineers out there!). Add up the TV; the lights ( a 100 Watt bulb uses 100 watts an hour, or a Kilo ( thousand) watts in 10 hours; a fridge that uses 500 watts draws 500 x 24 or 12,000 watts or 12kW in a day..)

Add all that up and see how many Watts you need.

The example you gave is 100,000 Watts a month, so, 333 Watts a day........not good.

You also need, as was said, a battery bank to accept 12 or 24 volts from the wind generator ( that's the adjustable voltage part of your example), and then an inverter to convert 12 battery power back to to 110 volt house power........

Answer 3

A typical 16 cu ft fridge will require around 120 kilowatts over the course of a month, a colour TV around 50 kilowatts.

Your turbine won't be able to drive anything that requires more than 950 watts to power it, but would be suitably powerful to drive the TV, assuming you have enough wind.

In order to use the turbine, you will need to store the electrical energy it creates in a battery pack - and that could be expensive.

Answer 4

Yes, it's enough power, although you can't run a whole lot more stuff than the small refrigerator (about 400 watts?) and the TV (about 100 watts?). You'd need to be careful about what you hook up, use good light bulbs, etc.

You'll also need batteries for the electricity you need when the winds don't blow. The windmill charges the batteries.

As an alternative to batteries, in some places you can connect your windmill to the power company. Then you can use their electricity when you need to, and even be paid for excess energy you generate when you don't need it. That takes some electronic stuff (another $1000?).

You'll need to be sure your site is suitable, and that local laws let you put one up. The cost to put it up on your site may be more than the cost of the windmill.