(Note – this post is from March 2008 – things have changed. Please see the bottom of this article for links to more recent wind power posts )
Don’t look now but it appears residential renewable energy systems and wind power technology are getting cheaper. California based Freetricity’s E2D Windmaster is a roof-mounted small residential wind turbine that comes with an affordable price tag. Though it sports a small propeller that could prove hazardous to hummingbirds and the like (though its size and roof mounting will reduce bird and animal interactions) and it doesn’t look like it could withstand hurricane-force winds, the price and benefits may make it worth exploring. (some comments below indicate otherwise)
From their press release (via: newswire)
“Freetricity introduces the all-new WindMaster, a roof mounted micro wind turbine that can generate enough energy to turn your electric meter backwards. Reasonably priced the WindMaster is small enough to be used in urban areas yet powerful enough to lower electric bills 25%-50%, or more.
WindMaster is available in four different power packages. The Grid Connects unique design is the most convenient system and supplies the most kilowatt-hours of power of all the packages. Simply mount the wind turbine to your roof, wire it to the grid connect inverter, and wire the inverter into the supply panel. The power generated by the WindMaster is supplied to your homes supply panel first; however, if it generates more power than you are currently using it will spin your meter backwards. Your electric company will then give you credit or cash for the power you generate.
The 12-Volt, 24 and 48-Volt packages are battery-based systems. They charge the battery first then supply the users home with the stored voltage and current through a DC to AC inverter. The 12-Volt Basic package is the starter system and because it is easy to regulate the output of the WindMaster, it can be upgraded to any other E2D system. This upgrade ability applies to all system packages and is unique to the renewable industry.
The WindMaster is weather-resistant and constructed of high-impact, powder-coated steel and comes with a five-year warranty. This unique system can also be used as a stand-alone backup system for electrical blackout and /or brownouts.”
The larger 48volt model produces 300 to 400 kwh per month with 6 hours of 12mph wind a day. Models range in price from $1,399 (12v) to $2,299 (48V) @ freetricity.com
Note: There have been some questions by readers regarding this company’s business practices – see comments.
Related: altcon posts on wind power
powerhouse wind’s single blade residential turbine
small wind – Finland’s Windside Off-grid Turbines
Swift Wind Turbine- quiet rooftop windpower
Windspire – affordable wind power
aerotecture international – urban wind power
RSS
Back to the original thread as to efficiency-doubling the blade diameter doesn’t double the area, it quadruples it. Remember Pi R Squared equals area? So it’s not a linear function going from 32 ft to 100 ft.
Also, watts is a RATE of power production. Usage is measured in watt-hours (actually kilowatt-hours), so you have to multiply the output times the generation hours to get the usage. As an earlier poster stated, a household uses about 800 kw-hours per month. Varies widely however.
Wind is a pretty darn variable resource, too. And guess what-when do you most need electricity? On the hot, nasty, humid days in August when there isn’t a whisper of a breeze. The windmills are just hanging there on those days.
So, yeah, windmills are a resource, but not cheap to build, not reliable output, require a lot of space for the meager output. Go ahead and build them, but realize they won’t be anything but a supplement to other generation sources. Which, unfortunately right now, is mostly heat engine based.
I bought a skystream3.7 it did not produce much power at all maybe 40KW per month it quit aftre 6 months and SWWP will not stand behind it stay clear of these you will regret buying it
She has more energy than one turbine has in a month. All she has to do is open her mouth and somebody inserts themselves and who knows what will happen.
Wow! Alot of educated comments, and alot of comments from those seeking an education…As several commenters said, ‘wind power (and other alternative power sources) can not currently replace the “grid”, but only supplement it and reduce our dependancy. But every little bit helps. I have a friend who invested over 15 thousand dollars in a combined wind and solar system to power his VERY small and energy-efficient home. He also supplements winter heating costs with a wood-burning appliance. He has yet to achieve total energy independance from the local electrical utility company; but has reduced his annual electrical consumption by over 70%. Still, the payback on the investment will be over 25 years (in his particular case). I admire him for his contribution to ‘clean energy’, but economically speaking, it makes little sense at this point in time.
Until the large utility companies decide to invest in ‘green’ energy on a meaningful scale, and until more money is directed at research and development of alternative energy production, the costs for the average homeowner to produce their own power will remain high. And that’s not going to happen until the powerful business lobbies are stopped, i.e… the coal industry, oil industry, nuclear industry, etc…Don’t forget, they want to keep us all ‘hooked-up’ to the system.
It’s all about the profit baby!
I don’t know if this was stated before, because I got tired of reading people’s posts that were just used to beat up on other posts, but this is supposed to be about the product. If you don’t agree with something someone else posted, skip it and move on. You guys are wasting everyone else’s time by arguing back and forth. It would be nice if we could get on here and just get responses to our questions from people who already have the product and can tell us if it is worth the price or not. I couldn’t care less about the formula used to decide the size I need until I am ready to purchase.
We are interested in marketing your products to West African countries. Pls send us details of various products or preferably, your website for our further review.
Best regards
I’m an electrician starting a business installing renewable energy sources. The simple facts are: You get what you pay for, and a wind turbine is a motor, of course it will need maintenance. Have you ever heard of a motor that runs full time and never has a problem or needs maintainence. For the most part, you’re gonna get what you pay for. It’s capitolism, if you make a better product, you can sell it for more than the competitor. Bigger wind mills tend to put out more electricity because of the technoligy used. Wind is the way to go, solar panels are more costly and don’t work as well. I would suggest making your home independent of the grid asap due to the new energy taxes to come. You can expect your electricity bill to go up 80% in coming months and theres only one way to get away from it. You also recieve tax cred. for installing renewable energy sources.
To the person or people who have purchased the residential wind turbine, could you please tell me what type of savings you are getting and what wattage it is producing in what span of time. Thanks
I ordered a windmill and grid tie unit from Freetricity. I got the windmill, but not the grid tie unit or the pole or anything to install it with. It has been almost a year and I have begged for Carl to give me the unit or my money back. Cathy Toso 818-679-3696 If anyone is looking into this, please let me know.
I recently purchased 6 new 6 bladed 59″ wind turbines . They are Wind Scorpion Light Breeze Wind Turbines and per the manufacturer generate energy at 3.5 mph. They also claim to produce 1000 watts at 58 mph. I am in a low wind zone that averages about 5-7 mph but frequently have fluctuating wind gusts. Their graph would indicate approximately 50 watts of power at about 10 mph. I am assuming I will create a little less than that to be on the conservative side. Anyone out there have experience with this model and is approx 200-250 watts an hour a pretty safe assumption? I am going to use Missouri Wind and Solar. The product can be seen on their website at MissouriWindandSolar.com
It seems as though Freetricity is now working out of a home in hemet, ca….and is involved in several lawsuits. They have also been listed on a few consumer complaint sites.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/344/RipOff0344451.htm
Oh, BTW Freetricity BBB rating is “F”…but hey Barak just loves these alternative fuel source proprietors, so its all good.
http://www.la.bbb.org/BusinessReport.aspx?CompanyID=100038657
We have a Skystream 3.7 near Sacramento, CA. 70′ cable tower. So far here are the #’s. March:268KWH, April:320KWH, May:415KWHrs, June:748KWH.
You’ve got a nice tall tower. Looks like the wind is picking up. What has been the impact on your electric bill?
May I have more information on the roof-mounted turbine?
Will it withstand hurricanes?
OK I know I have stripped the hide right off this poor dead horse. However I promised to report court happenings and the fact is that these post help keep Carl Vettes, Carl Vetts, Glenn Hunt, Linda Vettes, Freetricity, and now American Home Wind and Solar on the first page of the search engines so maybe anyone smart enough to do a little checking will not be taken in by this criminal.
In an effort to put off the court action I had filed against him, Carl trumped my case by filing one of his own in a higher court. He got exactly what he wanted. A big delay. This morning that all finally ended with Carl once again showing his true colors. The case he had filed was dismissed as he failed to show up in court for the second time. Yep despite all his ranting in here he just no showed. Of course it remains to be seen what he will do about the cross compliant that I filed. I am not sure what part of “I will never give up” he is having trouble with. Keep your eyes open Carl changed the name of his golf scam at least four times.
Well the BBB issued a warning about freetricity almost a year ago:
http://www.la.bbb.org/GIReport.aspx?NewsID=164
It’s safe to say that they were not a good company to do buisness with. I’m posting to further warn people about American Home Wind and Solar which is another alternative energy company that originated in Hemet California and at one time Linda Vettes (Carl’s wife) was listed as a company representative.
AMERICANHOMEWINDANDSOLAR(dot)COM was registered on 9-19-08 which was the after much negative publicity surfaced against freetricity and soon before the BBB issued the warning I linked to above. The company was originally said to be located in the same city as freetricity. The wife of freetricity founder Carl Vettes works (worked?) for American Home Wind and Solar. These facts taken together make me suspect that anyone doing buisness with A.H.W.S. should expect no better results than if they were dealing with freetricity.
WE PAID PACWIND $11,175.00 IN FEBRUARY 2008 FOR A WIND TURBINE AND NEVER GOT IT. AFTER FILING A LETTER OF DEMAND THROUGH AN ATTORNEY WE GOT A CALL IN JAN. 2009 APOLOGIZING FOR THE DELAY AND OFFERING A $1000.00 REFUND FOR THE DELAY AND PROMISING DELIVERY IN A FEW MONTHS. I NEVER RECEIVED IT NOR DID WEPOWER ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY AS THEY BOUGHT OUT PACWIND. PACWIND DOESN’T RETURN CALLS AND I FILED A COMPLAINT WITH THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IN CALIFORNIA. I AM WONDERING IF I WILL GET A RESPONSE. THIS CLEARLY IS CONSUMER FRAUD. LIVING WITH ED AND JAY LENO WHO PROMOTED PACWIND ON THEIR TV SHOWS DID NOT RESPOND EITHER. ED BEGLEY JR HAD AN EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT TO PROMOTE PACWIND AND ON HIS RECOMMENDATION FROM HIS TV SHOW I FELL FOR IT. I FEEL CHEATED.
Hello, I am a newly retired and disabled police officer (line of duty injury) and I am new to this technology but my family and I have decided to move from Michigan to Oklahoma and are interested in getting off the grid. I am currently looking at a large piece of land (300 acres) and a working ranch. With that size of property how much of investment in money would it take to power a 3500 sq ft house and the 4 out buildings with power that would come from a wind turbine or turbines and or solar energy. What is the best combination and how do you store the energy for calm cloudy days? Any advice or direction is appreciated and I do not know if the email will post but here it is in case you want to send something. We are going to try and and be completely self suffiecient after our move thus we are buying a place with livestock, huge canning shed, stocked ponds and a river, and plan to do some farming on the land as well. The bottom line is any range you may think I should budget for wind/solar energy program or setup so that while we are attached to the grid we would use none of it or close to it. We are putting in a wood burner that heats the house, barns, pool, and garage and that was not terribly costly and we are going to use the timber on our property as we have about 80 acres of it and just continually replant and add more to another section. We just do not want to rely on a government that seems inept anymore.
thanks and I look forward to hearing your ideas and information this is a great forum to have.
Dana
If you have been scamed by Glenn Hunt aka.. Carl Vettes of American Home Wind and Solar. Lets come together and send the scum to jail.
for the price I have had really good luck with hurricanewindpower.com products
We put in a wind turbine from Earth Tech Energy Systems this summer. I am wondering if anyone has used them or had any problems with any service issues. Ours has been down for almost a month and they are telling us it is an inverter problem and they are working on this. Anyone else have any problems with them?
Thanks
I’m so disappointed at all the SIMPLE_MINDED posts here!
Clearly – it is evident Folks are starving for information, facts and any success stories.
Information should be : what you used, how much it cost you, how much energy generated and how much you are saving.
RULE: more information is (always) better than less.
Yes, it is nice to know who the crooks are but be brief and stop crying for being STUPID and wasting so much space and time!
It is sad to see I have learned nearly NOTHING from this site!
Look at the heading of this site….is this garbage within the definition of the heading?!!!