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66 Comments
- DiggMasterJ, on 01/07/2009, -2/+35For a spokesperson, that guy sure didn't have much to say.
- jboitnott, on 01/06/2009, -1/+19Apparently he is really into that stuff and has several of them. Also birds get scared of these and stay away from them, from what Jay has said.
- ironhide, on 01/07/2009, -0/+16Ed Begley is a good man to speak about the environment. He's been walking the walk WAY before "green" was cool. He's also very pragmatic about it. It's been a big money saver for him over time.
- trogdor282, on 01/07/2009, -0/+16As far as killing birds, windmills are NOTHING compared to domestic cats.
- dystra, on 01/07/2009, -1/+14harness the power from that chin and we'll talk.
- WibWobble, on 02/02/2009, -0/+12Levitation? Dugg!
- borez, on 01/07/2009, -0/+10Maglev wind turbine bearings, what a superb idea.
- bousquetcm, on 01/07/2009, -0/+9Birds will get use to it... look at the pigeons in nyc. They don't move for anything!
- inactive, on 01/07/2009, -0/+92/3 reduction in grid power is not too shabby for his buildings. Imagine if each household made the investment?!
If it wasn't so damn expensive to do, I would install a few in a HEARTBEAT! - johnomaz, on 01/07/2009, -0/+8Giant wind parks cost a lot more than an individual wind turbine on each house. Plus you need a lot of land for the giant wind park. If you could have one or two turbines on your roof, or on a pole in your back yard, the free/cheap energy wouldn't have much of a foot print on the land and still be very useful. Don't forget, those devices feed power back into the grid so if its windy in one area, and not another, it still benefits everyone.
Also on the large wind parks, they are quite expensive to maintain. One of those things goes out, its not a simple fix that cost a lot of money. Small turbines with small parts that dont' break down as much is much cheaper in the long run. - bazzz, on 01/07/2009, -1/+7I'll take an enercon E-126 (6-7 MegaWatts) over this any day :) Because you know... it tends to be ALOT more windy when 300ft - 500ft above surface...
Build giant wind parks (e.g. with E-126) not individual solutions for each home...
http://tinyurl.com/2cbvjx - Stepoo, on 01/07/2009, -0/+5"So MINE is bigger than Ed Begley's. Ha ha ha ha ha!"
- xieodeluxed, on 01/07/2009, -1/+61.5 kilowatts at 28 mph? I was hoping it would have been stronger..
- nofx1510, on 01/07/2009, -0/+5If a bird doesn't land on your roof it will land in a tree were it should be.
- inactive, on 01/07/2009, -0/+4I took one from the streets and i have one as a pet. its name is Penny.
- WiretapStudios, on 01/07/2009, -0/+4I don't know, why DOES he say the same thing twice like he's stuck in repeat?
- gabbagabbahey, on 01/07/2009, -0/+4I think the point of maglev is not having to replace bearings not reduce drag, they seem to focus on the drag but it's really to reduce maintenance.
- UselessTrivia, on 01/07/2009, -0/+4I don't think the magnets are there so much for friction reduction as for maintenance reduction. If you extend the lifespan of the machine, you decrease its cost per kwh.
And it may take energy to maintain magnetic repulsion but it's not taking ELECTRICAL energy, since they're permanent magnets and not electromagnets. - elTito, on 01/08/2009, -0/+3They're not using electromagnets. There was a thing on the Discovery enviro-whatever it is channel the other night about these turbines. The magnets are just strong permanent ones, not electro.
Also, these turbines are designed with the intention of being installed on rooftops in cities, where the wind is disturbed by the buildings and conventional turbines don't function well.
Rooftop installation is also one of the main reasons for using maglev. Traditional turbines vibrate too much and can apparently collapse roofs over time due to excessive vibration. - c8h8r8i8s8, on 01/07/2009, -0/+3I built one of these for a project in freshman engineering. Cool stuff.
- specialbuddy1, on 01/07/2009, -1/+4I love how Jay Leno actually uses wind and solar on his house but people like Al Gore don't.
- jasdf, on 01/07/2009, -2/+5If you noticed, toward the end of the video he concedes that this particular model is does not levitate.
- nitesoIja, on 01/07/2009, -0/+3i like how he says turbin instead of turbine
- Ramble, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2No he didn't - he said in a larger model the casing will also levitate. This one does levitate, you can see the magnets.
- deliberatelife, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2He's Canadian.
- inactive, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2I've seen those, but the upkeep can nickle and dime you
- djodorg, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2That's really interesting.
- UselessTrivia, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2I thought he said 3 kilowatts for that one and 5 for the bigger one?
Even at 1.5 it's not bad, and if it really requires little maintenance it could have a longer shelf live which will reduce the cost per kwh
Plus I'm guessing since it's both small and has low friction it is probably fairly quiet, which is a big problem with most wind turbines. - tecratour, on 01/07/2009, -1/+3Canadians are soo chill
- hoodedrobin, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2Thats ***** nasty -brooklin accent
- ZippyV, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2Size matters in this case.
- awesometastic1, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2you can build wind turbans to power your house (and the power company will pay you for the excess power) for under $200 (see instructables.com). They are easy builds too.
- sinembarg0, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1It's not an ad, its a clip from Leno's website. They have the same type of thing fairly often, a recent one was about an air distribution system for home garages (so you can use different tools that run on compressed air without having to run hoses across the floor), they had another about a porsche clutch. They aren't ads, they're more of this is what the product is, and some interesting things about it.
- MCA2142, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1It says Wind "Turbine," but I was thinking Wind "Tunnel."
Must be the cars. - pilot3033, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1its good the birds are scared off, as opposed to not caring and becoming minced bird
- ngmcs8203, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1I couldn't find a cost. How much?
- haikuFU, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1Those things are expensive. But, if you look at the raw parts that go into them, you can actually build one for fairly little cost. There's a site somewhere out there that has free plans on how to build your own. It tells you how to wind the coils, what materials to buy, etc. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to use these same concepts to convert it to a vertical shaft generator, and then just build the turbine portion of it based on the design of the one in this video. It looks to me like the turbine in the video is just 3 flat circles with metal bent about halfway around them and tapered down to a point.
It would take less than an hour to build the turbine portion of it with a plasma cutter and a welder. - WiretapStudios, on 01/07/2009, -1/+2From the article comments:
#14 posted by Lobster , January 6, 2009 4:59 PM
It'd probably be more efficient if they located it in front of his mouth. - veijeri, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1It doesn't cost electrical energy as UselessTrivia said. I believe I read regarding the power-plant sized theoretical maglev turbines, taking friction out of the equation means you need very little wind to maintain a fast rotational speed. You constantly produce energy as long as that thing is moving, and you aim to produce an average amount of energy, since it won't always be turning at the same rate.
- tgc1, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1Funny how they never bring up statistics on localized pollution and the effect on birds, and well... every other living thing. How many deaths are related to that? Nobody seems to keep track of those things. But windmills... oh they're murderers you see. Evil things.
/s - dbzssj44676, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1This should be under Technology/Hardware not "environment".
- inactive, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1researching these a few months ago, I couldn't find anything under $3500 ++++INSTALLATION
- BotchaMcCoola, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1Wait, do celebrities like Jay get a free one for speaking about it on camera?
- davidg11, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1It's not a public company.
If you want to invest in a publicly traded company that produces wind turbines in the
1MW - 2 MW range, look at CPTC at .29 a share
http://www.compositetechcorp.com/ - Nerolus, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1I don't know, why is it Jay Leno has to say everything twice like he's stuck in repeat?
- shiddysmurf, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1VAWTs are not a hazard to birds since they don't spin nearly as fast as vertical turbines.
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