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Philippe Starck designs wind turbine for the rest of us
It’s about time somebody rolled out a windmill for you and me, and it took famed designer Philippe Starck coming out of retirement to do it. This simple-looking $633 thingamajig is said to be able to crank out 20-60% of the power needed in a house, but we assume that would be on a day the wind is blowing, and the house in question’s occupants don’t feel like baking a cake while chilling down the place to 65 degrees.
We’ve seen plenty of personal wind turbines before, but this one brings more power at the lowest price point yet. Starck’s turbine is looking great, too, decked out in stainless steel, signal orange or crazy transparent style. This is not just some spacey concept, either — the new electricity generators will be shipping to everyone in September. Let’s just hope it’s not too noisy, or the neighbors might generate a whirlwind of complaints.
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By wintermute at 1:51 PM ON 07/02/08
Pure form over function. Period.
By Al at 2:03 PM ON 07/02/08
How is more power at the lowest price "form over function"?
By IsoTek at 4:12 PM ON 07/02/08
Looks like a giant beater for a mixer. Choco Chip Cookies anyone? If it is really cheap I might bite but I would be more concerned with my kids trying to climb the thing than the noise output.
By bbphotova at 5:43 PM ON 07/02/08
Too bad it's woefully inefficient. VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbines) designs seem great in that wind coming from any direction will cause them to spin. Unfortunately, while one side's airfoil is generating lift causing it to spin, the other side is working against the wind and sucking energy away. VAWT designs do work, but the turbines built on a horizontal axis are much more efficient and get more energy for your buck than these eggbeater designs do.
By Tecknowolf at 10:59 AM ON 07/03/08
If you spend time looking at data for wind turbines, you will see that Vertical Axis turbines don't produce nearly as much energy as the standard Horizontal Axis. You can't place V.A. turbines as high, and they are less efficient at capturing the wind. They also have more wear and tear on the mechanism's.
It is nice to see the SCIFI channel offer gadget info, but this info is little more then a picture and a sound bite. Pretty much pointless and useless.
By Zerocarbonista at 4:35 PM ON 07/03/08
It's clearly designed by a designer not a wind engineer- I think that's the form over function thing. But with regards vertical versus horizontal windmills, there are some facts missing here. The blades on HAWTS are more efficient than VAWTs that's true - typical figures are 30% versus 15%. But HAWTs have had more development time. VAWTs are emerging now with 25%+ efficient blades, the gap is narrowing. And you don't need much height in a domestic situation, just above the roof - this supposed benefit of HAWTs is not. And last, don't underestimate the negative effect on HAWTs of the fickle wind direction in urban locations - it kills them. In fact that downside of HAWTs outweighs their blade efficiency advantage, by a long way. The future for domestic or urban wind is VAWT. I don't think it's this VAWT here though, not to look at it any way. Cheers.
By Fair Trade Works at 10:12 AM ON 07/05/08
It looks pretty unsophisticated when you compare it to the more efficient and more organic designs of wind turbine that are being developed in Japan.
The relatively straight lines of this design won't win any favours from people who live near this - it'll be far too noisy...
By jimpoir at 10:56 AM ON 07/05/08
Philippe Stark has added one more pseudo invention to his long catalog of stuff that titillates and does little else. His greatest invention is his eclectic persona capable of rousing emotions in the naive and the emotional. May he retire in peace.
By uriel235 at 2:44 PM ON 07/12/08
I've been all over the web looking for actual data regarding the wattage being produced at different speeds. This 20-60% stuff is vague to a point of being circumspect.
By jacob at 12:21 PM ON 12/12/08
wish I could say some complete BULL and get picked up by the NY Times like this guy. Anyone say PUBLICITY STUNT?! Its Dec...thought this was supposed to be for sale 4 months ago...yet...
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jacob:
wish I could say some complete BULL and get picked up by the NY Times like this guy. Anyone say PUBLICITY STUNT?! ...More »