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Started 5 months ago by News
Latest reply from hugh59

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News
Columbus Underground
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University District man wants to put up 75-foot-tall wind turbine behind his house
By Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch
Thursday December 15, 2011 1:38 PM

A University District resident wants to erect a 75-foot-tall wind turbine behind his King Avenue house in what could be the first of its kind in a center city neighborhood in Columbus. David Murchie, a software developer, said he wants the turbine to generate power for his house, a garage he wants to build and a rooftop greenhouse.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/12/15/University-Area-man-wants-to-erect-huge-turbine-tower.html

Posted 5 months ago #
Analogue Kid
5th by West-Northwest
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I love green energy and wind power in general, but I'm honestly not sure how I would feel about a turbine in my neighbors yard. Hopefully this installation will go forward and provide some real world experience as to how they work out. My main concern would be ice fall in the winter. Another issue is noise, but I've found most monopole designs are really whisper quiet. The lattice structure turbine at Glacier Ridge Metro Park has a very weird resonance that I would find quite annoying if I had to live next to it.

Posted 5 months ago #
rus

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Have to make sure the brakes work...

Get the Video Player

Posted 5 months ago #
howatzer

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Yeah, it's super green to build a wind turbine next to your new 3-car garage.

Posted 5 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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howatzer said:
Yeah, it's super green to build a wind turbine next to your new 3-car garage.

Maybe it's ok if he owns three hybrids? ;)

Posted 5 months ago #
hugh59
Aboard the ultimate power in Olde Towne East
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Wow, nice garage!

Posted 5 months ago #
pedex

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auditor's picture of house

Posted 5 months ago #
howatzer

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Walker said:
Maybe it's ok if he owns three hybrids? ;)

Or he's using his wind turbine to recharge his 3 chevy volts? This would kind of make sense, as it would take a long time to charge them from a turbine: thus he can drive one while the other two are charging. Brilliant!

Posted 5 months ago #
pedex

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howatzer said:
Or he's using his wind turbine to recharge his 3 chevy volts? This would kind of make sense, as it would take a long time to charge them from a turbine: thus he can drive one while the other two are charging. Brilliant!

economically he'd have to live more than a lifetime to cover the cost and break even probably

Posted 5 months ago #
howatzer

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pedex said:
economically he'd have to live more than a lifetime to cover the cost and break even probably

Yes, but what more noble way to blow all that money but on a 75-foot long, green energy phallic symbol in your backyard for all your neighbors to envy.

Posted 5 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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rus said:
Have to make sure the brakes work...

I'm sure that if the guy wanted to just build a new garage you'd post a video of a garage burning down as a warning, right?

Posted 5 months ago #
cbus11

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He could probably slip it by code enforcement if he used a bit of camouflage.

Posted 5 months ago #
rus

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Walker said:
I'm sure that if the guy wanted to just build a new garage you'd post a video of a garage burning down as a warning, right?

For someone who advocates for government to dictate what private property owners can do with their property ( see: urban planning, forced density, etc. ) I'm surprised you're not advocating for government to regulate private property with regard to windmills.

A better example, rather than a simple garage, would be a tank of LNG or propane to feed a generator. Then you'd cite the stored fuel as an explosive risk, concerns for public safety, etc.

Guess this guy gets a pass because it's "green".

Posted 5 months ago #
pedex

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howatzer said:
Yes, but what more noble way to blow all that money but on a 75-foot long, green energy phallic symbol in your backyard for all your neighbors to envy.

not the windmill

the windmill plus 3 chevy volts

the windmill will likely pay for itself, chevy volts not likely

*******************************
being off the grid or even threatening to when in a city is something our system simply isn't set up for and most municipalities generally will fight it tooth and nail

without enough debt slaves locked into the system it runs out of money

many towns and cities actually by law require energy consumption whether you like it or not, dunno if Columbus does but many require refrigeration or you can get nailed for a health/safety code violation

as energy rises in price in real terms we will see this become more frequent especially as many get priced right out of the game

Posted 5 months ago #
Rockmastermike
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howatzer said:
Or he's using his wind turbine to recharge his 3 chevy volts? This would kind of make sense, as it would take a long time to charge them from a turbine: thus he can drive one while the other two are charging. Brilliant!

a tower that size can easily support one of Bergey Energy's 10 kW turbines. The power pack on a Chevy Volt is 16kWh. Use google. Do the math. Charging times of 3-4 hours assuming a 10kw turbine even when the turbine is nowhere near peak and assuming charge efficiency losses. Use a 5kw turbine and perhaps double the times and you get a comfortable overnight charge.

It's fine with me if you wish to be "against" any kind of wind power on whatever ideological basis you care to invent, but there's no reason not to just do some simple math and appear sorely misinformed.

Posted 5 months ago #
SusanB
Hungarian Village, Columbus' fastest growing Gayborhood!
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Columbus just requires water and a way to heat it. Rental properties are required to have some kind of "heat" as well.

Posted 5 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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rus said:

Guess this guy gets a pass because it's "green".

well, and because turbine towers rarely fall, and are regulated and insured as a MUCH lower risk than a large regulated AST of regulated flammable liquid (I'm very familiar with Ohio tank regulations, I have Ohio BUSTR installer cert.). Come on, rus, you're *really* stretching the point on that.

And, btw, building codes already regulate engineering standards for towers regardless of use, and commercially available turbines (they sell 'em at Lowes now, did you know that?) have built in overspeed protection on their very lightweight blades. Even given an overspeed failure, i'd rather have my house get hit with a 20 foot plastic or (better) carbon fiber blade than the shrapnel and fire from a LP tank blowout.

ed: here's an example: http://www.bergey.com/pages/excel_info max design windspeed 134mph.

Posted 5 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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rus said:
I'm surprised you're not advocating for government to regulate private property with regard to windmills. Guess this guy gets a pass because it's "green".

I didn't say anything either way about whether or not I think this is a good idea. That's beside the point anyway.

I just found it predictably amusing that your response to someone wanting to build a wind turbine was reminder that a wind turbine exploded once on video. That's got to be at least 100 times more dangerous than a lifetime of daily bacon consumption.

Oh no watch out!

Posted 5 months ago #
StormKing
Knolls West
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Will this be taller than the trees in the area? If not, the owner will not be generating much electricity. Mature trees are often taller than 100 feet.

Posted 5 months ago #
howatzer

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Rockmastermike said:
a tower that size can easily support one of Bergey Energy's 10 kW turbines. The power pack on a Chevy Volt is 16kWh. Use google. Do the math. Charging times of 3-4 hours assuming a 10kw turbine even when the turbine is nowhere near peak and assuming charge efficiency losses. Use a 5kw turbine and perhaps double the times and you get a comfortable overnight charge.

It's fine with me if you wish to be "against" any kind of wind power on whatever ideological basis you care to invent, but there's no reason not to just do some simple math and appear sorely misinformed.

Wow. "Math" done in the style of a true geologist.

The energy capacity of the battery does not equal the charging rate. To calculate that you would need the voltage. I'm assuming the generator will be on a 120v = 8 hours for a charge (assuming it's windy). If it's 240, then you could get down 4 hours (assuming it's windy).

If there's no wind, he'll need the other cars.

What I like about geologists is they know a little about a lot of things. What I don't like is that they pretend to know a lot.

ETA: And if poking fun at someone who's spending a substantial sum of money to build a monument to his green awareness next to where he parks his 3 automobiles is ideological.... guilty. Once we've lost our sensitivity to the absurd we have become absurd.

Posted 5 months ago #