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Inventors of Omnidirectional Wind Turbine Win James Dyson Award (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A spinning turbine that can capture wind traveling in any direction and could transform how consumers generate electricity in cities has won its inventors a prestigious international award and ~$38,000 prize. Nicolas Orellana, 36, and Yaseen Noorani, 24, MSc students at Lancaster University, scooped the James Dyson award for their O-Wind Turbine, which -- in a technological first -- takes advantage of both horizontal and vertical winds without requiring steering.
O-Wind Turbine is a 25cm sphere with geometric vents that sits on a fixed axis and spins when wind hits it from any direction. When wind energy turns the device, gears drive a generator that converts the power of the wind into electricity. The students believe the device, which could take at least five years to be put into commercial production, could be installed on large structures such as the side of a building or balcony, where wind speeds are highest. Dyson, who chose the winners, hailed it as "an ingenious concept." He continued: "Designing something that solves a problem is an intentionally broad brief. It invites talented, young inventors to do more than just identify real problems. It empowers them to use their ingenuity to develop inventive solutions. O-Wind Turbine does exactly that. It takes the enormous challenge of producing renewable energy and using geometry it can harness energy in places where we've scarcely been looking -- cities."
O-Wind Turbine is a 25cm sphere with geometric vents that sits on a fixed axis and spins when wind hits it from any direction. When wind energy turns the device, gears drive a generator that converts the power of the wind into electricity. The students believe the device, which could take at least five years to be put into commercial production, could be installed on large structures such as the side of a building or balcony, where wind speeds are highest. Dyson, who chose the winners, hailed it as "an ingenious concept." He continued: "Designing something that solves a problem is an intentionally broad brief. It invites talented, young inventors to do more than just identify real problems. It empowers them to use their ingenuity to develop inventive solutions. O-Wind Turbine does exactly that. It takes the enormous challenge of producing renewable energy and using geometry it can harness energy in places where we've scarcely been looking -- cities."
https://newatlas.com/2018-dyso...
Seems a little premature to get excited about
The team, from Lancaster University, tested their prototypes with a hairdryer, which was enough to prove its initial efficacy and win the UK national Dyson award a month ago, before being announced as the global winner today.
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No. Wind blowing across the turbine on the outside of the roof moves the turbine blades and by design draws air out of an attic. There is no way thermal heat in an attic would move anything reliably. The only real difference between a roof turbine driven by the wind and this article is the expectation of "universal" power factor no matter the wind direction either horizontal or vertical.
http://www.winddriventurboventilator.com/use_of_ventilator.htm
Nope. At least not in general - there's a lot of vertical wind vane designs. In general though a vertical wind will not cause such a device to spin, which is something this is specifically designed to do, since unlike steady winds, turbulent winds among tall buildings can blow in any direction, not just parallel to the ground.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Is this device subject to the same problem, which is that at any moment half your vanes are moving INTO the wind?
This is the James Dyson award. It just needs to look clever, not actually work. He has made millions off of that.
If there are no further questions...
/ me puts forth that Chicago should be the 1st city to test implementation...
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== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
With that much money, they could afford to purchase both a Dyson fan AND a Dyson vacuum cleaner for each of their dorm rooms!
#DeleteChrome
That's what I thought, too. But actually take a look at the video. The design looks really cool. I'm skeptical it actually works and the video is real, but if it's for real then it's actually a pretty tight propeller design. The vertical wind vanes only are omni-directional in 2D. Theoretically this thing can harvest wind coming from directly above or below it too.
Nifty idea and I can see a lot of potential applications, especially when these are used in groups of small or medium size turbines.
Props to these guys for working this out.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
There's a link to a youtube video in the summary.
Mr. Dyson has made great, historic achievements in marketing and technobabble.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
At 25cm diameter, we can't really go calling it a Dyson Sphere.
This is the James Dyson award. It just needs to look clever, not actually work. He has made millions off of that.
His vacuum cleaners really suck.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
The alternative energy centre in Wales has had omnidirectional wind turbines for twenty or thirty years.
This may well be superior in some way or ways, but which ones? To what degree?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
First decent design in quite some time.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Dyson is an innovator, not an inventor. He invented none of the things that make his famous products possible: the bagless vacuum, the bladeless fan, and the airblade hand dryer all existed previously. What he did was made them practical and/or apply a little design and turn them into premium products. Kind of what Apple did with the iPhone.
I'll say this for his vacuums though: we've tried quite a few different bagless designs from various A brands (we provide them to our tenants and we wanted the most maintenance-free option), and so far I would only give the Dyson a passing grade. With many of the others you will spend more time cleaning the air filters than doing any actual vacuuming.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
It's obviously revolutionary - it's a turbine! Wouldn't be much good if it didn't revolve.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
No. Wind blowing across the turbine on the outside of the roof moves the turbine blades and by design goes "squeak squeak squeak" very loudly. They are extremely efficient in converting wind energy into irritation.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
PR not bad for this award regardless of its merit. The other entries might have been less marketable. Lava lamps has their run.
yeah yeah, externalities
like fucking batteries that wind and solar need but are not counted
(or like needing a normal power station to be idling for when the wind drops or a cloud rolls over)
with wind or solar all the external shit is ignored, the fact that you have to pay more than twice over for unreliable power is ignored by green loons..
Looks like this design uses an awful lot of material. I wonder if that really scales, both physically (weight) and economically (cost).
Are you kidding?! I have had three Dyson vacuum cleaners, one or two of those “bladeless” fans, and one other piece of his garbage. They are crap, don’t last, and really just have a bunch of extra plastic to try to look cool. Everything died within 2 years, but the fans take the cake. Simply no way to clean the high pressure fan, so in a dusty environment it gunks up internally in a couple months and becomes useless.
As for the vacuums, give me a Miele any day; the bags are a feature, not a bug.
Spinning Chimney Cowls
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Gotta love how the Brits make out like James Dyson is a living Einstein or Newton. He makes vacuum cleaners. Overpriced vacuum cleaners.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
So they cause humans to vent hot air?
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
5 years to commercialize!
OK so their 1st product will be... wait...wait...wait...wait...wait
DYSON produces the ARTIS CAP for chimney's that SUCKS. thanks to who? It will greatly fix fireplaces that draft poorly or not at all.
wait...wait...wait
The original inventors will not go into electricity
This product looks unprofitable due to inertial mass above the rotational bearing point.
So this thing takes up 3D space to collect 2D air. Doesn't sound like anything that is going to scale up, it's going to top out at a pretty small size. Propeller efficiency is a very well studied field and this certainly isn't a top performer.
Are you kidding?! I have had three Dyson vacuum cleaners, one or two of those “bladeless” fans, and one other piece of his garbage. They are crap, don’t last, and really just have a bunch of extra plastic to try to look cool. Everything died within 2 years, but the fans take the cake. Simply no way to clean the high pressure fan, so in a dusty environment it gunks up internally in a couple months and becomes useless.
As for the vacuums, give me a Miele any day; the bags are a feature, not a bug.
Don’t know what you’re doing wrong but I bought one of the animal cordless Dyson vacuums on Amazon as a refurbished unit. Cost me like $150 and it has been going strong for over 5 years.
I had an Animal. No, it would not break, it was indestructible. However, it quickly (6 months) hit a "smashing point" where its ability to actually pull dirt and dust up from the floor was a joke. Cleaning out the dirt compartment was a mess, and you had to wash it periodically. Got a Miele canister, which was half the physical size and weight as the Animal, better suction, no mess with emptying, and quieter.
Oops, missed you were talking about the cordless. Had one of them too. Battery crapped out after a year or so, not enough charge to clean up an 800SF apartment, and useless when it came to carpet. (In fairness, it was a vacation place, so only there once a month and that was understandably harder on the crap battery charger.)
Also replaced it with a Miele.
That's what I meant. I'm glad someone got the joke.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
No. Wind blowing across the turbine on the outside of the roof moves the turbine blades and by design draws air out of an attic. There is no way thermal heat in an attic would move anything reliably.
This is correct, it's not the heat or hot air coming out that causes the blades to turn, it's the wind passing by. The turbine rotates and draws air up and out.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...