In these times where the financial crisis has forced people into finding new ways to save their hard earned money. One way that is commonly used now is using alternative energy sources to power their homes. And one of the most popular methods of using renewable forms of energy is wind turbines, particularly low wind generators.
Vertical wind turbines, also known as vertical axis turbines are wind power generators that have the gearbox and generator placed at the base and the main rotary shaft installed vertically. This is an efficient wind turbine design as it can be a low speed wind generator that can operate on minimal amounts of wind currents. Though there are certainly advantages in using this design but there are also disadvantages.
The most obvious advantage that a vertical wind turbine has is that it does not need to be pointed at the direction the wind is blowing from in order to be effective. In places where the wind may come from a bunch of different directions this type of turbine can be very useful. This makes the vertical axis wind turbine very flexible in terms of where they can be installed. They don’t need to be installed in a wide open space or on a high mounting point.
When there are low wind speeds, the horizontal wind turbines can be hard to spin. However, this is not a problem for vertical wind turbines, with their long and curved blades that are designed to be able to be pushed by very minimal amounts of wind. So on days where the air seems still you can still expect the vertical design turbine to produce electricity for you.
Another great advantage of the vertical wind generator is that there’s no need to install it atop a tower. Since they can still work in highly turbulent winds they can be installed on the ground, making repairs and maintenance a whole lot easier since there’s no need to climb up a very tall tower.
The drawback with installing it on the ground is that the wind is slower, so the effectiveness of the turbine will also decrease. Though the blades can still spin in low speed winds, the electricity that is produced isn’t that much. And installing it on a tower will be difficult given its unwieldy design. Another previous disadvantage a vertical wind turbine has is the pulsating torque.
This happens when opposing winds are blowing on both sides of the rotator shaft. Since the blades are light, they will tend to go in the direction it is going, but if the directions are opposite each other then there is torque produced. This can reduce the efficiency of the turbine by damaging the blades. But the good thing is that in new models of vertical wind turbines this is no longer a problem.
So having seen the advantages and disadvantages of a low wind generator you can see that the pros of this type of renewable energy source far outweighs the cons. So why not give it a try? Everyone needs to save money anyway, why not you?