A chart I found on wind power [Archive]

Butcher

10-05-2009, 05:32 PM

http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/windchrt.htm

To be honest I have no idea how accurate it is, which is partially the reason why I posted it. I realize that there are probably a lot of variables other than wind speed and blade diameter, and that its efficiency depends on how well constructed it is.

For any of you who might be knowledgeable in this area, would you say this chart is good enough for a rough estimate?

whocares123

10-05-2009, 05:47 PM

with nothing to compare these numbers to (like over time how much does a coal power plant produce? or a natural gas generator one?) they don't mean a whole lot.

how big is a 10,000 watt generator and what does 730 kilowatt hours do for how many households?

Butcher

10-05-2009, 06:03 PM

with nothing to compare these numbers to (like over time how much does a coal power plant produce? or a natural gas generator one?) they don't mean a whole lot.

how big is a 10,000 watt generator and what does 730 kilowatt hours do for how many households?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowatt_hour#Examples

BoilingLeadBath

10-05-2009, 07:16 PM

I don't trust charts which give incorrect units.

Kilowatt hours is a unit of energy, not power, so unless a huge windmill only produces 1000 kwh (80$ of electricity) in it's lifetime, this chart doesn't make any sense...

Here's an equation which looks familiar to me, though: P = C*E*A*v^3
Where, apparently, C = .6 and Efficiency = .5
(A = area, v = velocity of wind, m/s, P = power, W)