Comments on: 50kW wind turbine installation, Maple Honda, Maple Ontario

By: clewis4u

clewis4u — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:56:01 +0000

This thing is right near Canada’s Wonderland. I see it when I’m riding rides

By: ontarioguy2334

ontarioguy2334 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:50:02 +0000

turn down the volume =P lol!

By: scudlington

scudlington — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:39:26 +0000

Seems like an awful lot of expense and time to boil 20 odd kettles…when it’s windy.

By: uoitoffroad

uoitoffroad — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:05:40 +0000

maybe.. but assuming you can boil 2L of water in a 1000W kettle in 2 minutes (I am estimating here, havent done any calorimetric calculations), and this thing produces 50kW – that means on a windy day you can boil (60/2)*50*2 = 3000L/hr .. or in a normal workday of 8hrs you could boil 24000L of water … what do you need 24000L of boiling water for?

By: scudlington

scudlington — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:03:00 +0000

Just an observation and a bit of cynicism about the truthfulness of rated output. I find it difficult to believe that a breeze passing through this turbine would carry the energy equivalent to boil 3 tons of water in an hour.

By: Fox22

Fox22 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:19:56 +0000

This turbine has a rotor diameter of 10m or a cross sectional area of 78.5m^2. Assuming a windspeed of 40km/hr or 11.11m/s, thats a volumetric flow of 872m^3/s. Given the density of air @ STP is 1.2kg/m^3, the mass flow rate of air is 1046kg/s. Kinetic energy is calculated as Ek = (1/2)mv^2, then the kinetic energy passing this turbine is (1/2)(1046)(11.11)^2 = 64554J/s or 64.5kW.

By: Fox22

Fox22 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:30:13 +0000

The numbers are really not as impressive if you actually run them: Lets say you want to raise the temperature of the water from 22degC to 100degC or boiling point. Energy required can be calculated with Q=mc(T1-T2). Specific heat capacity of water is 4.18kJ/kgdegC. Given an energy input of 50kJ/s, 50/(88*4.18)= 0.1359 kg/s of water. (0.1359kg)*(60sec)*(60min)= 489L/hr. So its more like half a ton of water per hour.

By: Fox22

Fox22 — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:07:31 +0000

In any case, its enough power for about 17 homes.

By: scudlington

scudlington — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:01:14 +0000

Thank you Fox…you’ve gone to a lot of trouble with this answer although I have to admit that I don’t understand half of it…maths never really was my bag! Whilst I’m here, I wonder what your feelings are about the mass proliferation of w’turbines. Our UK government recently announced that it’s about to splurge £100 billion on them…seems absurd to me as it doesn’t take a genius to work out that they can only ever be as reliable as the wind no matter how technologically advanced.

By: scudlington

scudlington — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:29:05 +0000

Oh and just one other thing, I noticed a reply from you about electric cars. I would say that the problem with them is not so much the simplicity and lack of profit margin but more to do with range, a several hour re-fuelling stop, crap performance, battery degradation and looking like an idiot…well, at least the ones here in the UK.