OK, I watched Eco Tech on the Science Channel (pls see previous posts alluding to me being a geek) and watched a bunch of guys in overalls build their own wind turbine that powers their house. Something tells me the NYC Department of Buildings would not be much appreciative of my wind-turbine-building skills...
Nevertheless, I remain intrigued about how to generate power, any kind of power, for our building. We have some experience with Solar PV (will be discussed later) and I'd love to be able to 
supplement that with a wind turbine. First things first, our architect Ellen Honigstock is a LEED Accredited Professional and she turned us on to the MyWatts Estimator. This tool gives you a Google map overlay with wind and solar exposure information, charts what your energy generating potential is and details the current state or federal incentives in place. Very Cool!
As you can see, we're just on the edge of the "Average" rating for the average wind speed/consistency. Not great, but if it's just as a supplement to Solar PV, should be worthwhile to explore. To me, any power generation is a good thing.
Next step is to find a wind turbine that doesn't look like a man and bird killing Cuisinart. And that wasn't easy. Just like rain barrels, aesthetics seem to be lagging a bit in Green Products. With some work, we found a number of interesting options:
- Helix Wind - my favorite
- Oregon Wind - in prototype only
- Renewable Devices - eh
- PacWind - Jay Leno approved
I rang up Ken Morgan, at Helix Wind. I was promptly deflated when he told me that the product wasn't yet nationally certified. That means no rebates, and most importantly, no permission to grid-tie it to Con Ed. Argh. Looks like #4, PacWind Seahawk is our best bet. Pricing to come...
UPDATE: see Update - Wind Power for our Brownstone
[where: 10032][where: Harlem][where: Sugar Hill]
1 comments:
I give you the first in a series of any "greening" I find around the web: http://www.gogreenexpo.com
Post a Comment