Slashdot Mirror
Living Inside A Giant Wind Turbine
A reader writes: "New Scientist has an article about buildings that incorporate numerous wind turbines. These neat office blocks can generate much of the own energy and the design of the building actually makes them more power efficient that regular turbines."
AFAIK, wind turbines generate considerable low-frequency noise. Unless this problem is seriously addressed, such a building would be somehow uncomfortable.
Though, wind flowing through a thight agglomeration of skyscrapers generates noise anyway %-)
Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes
Traffic in cities would also drown out most of the noise, he suggests.
Right. And I would suggest he's wrong. Traffic might still be the prevailing noise, but I sincerely doubt that the sound signals are such that the sum of the sounds will be the same as the traffic by itself. It may not be overtly noticable, but this would increase the baseline noise in the city.
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
What I would like to know is, if we adopt wind turbines wholesale, what the effect will be on the local climate?
A good wind turbine takes up to 45% of the kinetic energy out of the wind. In built up areas, just think, the lower winds would result in increased build-up of pollution from vehicles.
What will it do to weather patterns if we significantly alter the flow of air around the place?
The presence of wind generators near vehicles will result in the vehicles having to expend more energy to displace the air around them since the wind turbines will be causing extra resistance. Since no system is 100% efficient, more energy will have to be expended by the vehicles than is reclaimed from the turbines.
What will happen to passers-by if one sheds a blade?
Will any country ever build buildings that large again in light of recent events in the USA?
This isn't a troll or flame. I would just like some answers...
I'm out of my tree just now but please feel free to leave a banana.
I believe this would be a great design for a New World Trade Center. It's beautiful, energy efficient and large. Definitely almost looks like the WTC (twin tower type design....). It would also prevent power outages from taking out your whole building. It would be a great way to get people and companies to put offices in these buildings.....advertised free or discounted electricity.
I do not fear working in a tall skyscraper because working in a tall building is not what killed these people. I believe it would be impossible to build something that can take the force of these type of blasts. If you do fear working in these type of buildings, well then the terrorists have already won. They want you to be afraid of them and you need to be strong and show them you are not afraid of them.
Gorkman
Furethermore I believe multiple small fans would be more efficient. Now, IANAAE (I am not an aeronautical engineer) but the total airflow through a large fan's housing is much greater than the amount of airflow that actually pushes the fan (obvious). Many small fans could fill that area more completely and harvest more of the total airflow.
Any thoughts?
As I've maintained for a long time now, we as a species need to start looking HARD at alternative energy. Geothermal, fuel cells, solar, wind, biomass, whatever! The article has some good ideas, maybe they won't be directly used, but they'll contribute to better ideas later on.
Big oil continues to keep us on her teat, it's a bond that we must one day break. When the wells go dry, heaven help us if we don't have a means to capture the energy around us.
The pitch of the props can be adjusted to have a minimum crossection, and can be made strong enough for any wind speed lower than that necessary to destroy the building.
Buildings focus the wind anyway- it's a major concern in many buildings. Careful design near the ground will obviate the problem. Arguably this building may be less problematical in this regard- the building will be slowing the air rather than just diverting it around the outside.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"If the twin towers were to appear tomorrow, I would gladly work there.
I cannot say I was really attached to NYC, until Tuesday morning seeing the attack from a bus window approaching the city.
I finally made it in Wednesday and would have been back on Thursday had I not had a previous appointment. Though I am not critical there is just no way I will not try to be in every day I can.
On the other comment - the wind turbines may require a large building, but the heat retention in Manhattan might make the air cooling a positive factor with respect to summer air conditioning. The latter is very expensive in both energy consumption and charges. Moreover, sites are not locked into grids, since lower Manhattan is not set out in that manner.
When I was in college I had a job working as a custodian. Picking up discarded cigarette butts and soda cans outside of the building was bad enough work. I can't even imagine having the job of picking up bird bits from the sidewalk.
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.