New super efficient wind turbine prototype for Sweden

I am interested in information on the energy-ball-turbine, made by the Home Energy Swedish Company.  Please post information and my contact on this forum so that I can correspond with them.  Thanks in advance for your help.  JohnWahlsten

Unfortunately it looks like the HomeEnergy website is only available in Swedish (which is certainly not a language I for one speak).  But Google translations are pretty reasonable.

From that, I gather that the Energy Ball was designed to harness aerodynamics to generate energy from the rotating sphere.

Roughly translating the Technical Specs description, the site says:

Rotor design allows the Energy Ball to begin supplying energy at wind power as low as 2 m/s. The Energy Ball V100 has a rotor diameter of 110 cm and can be easily installed on a ceiling or mounted on a mast. An Energy Ball V200 with a rotor diameter of 198 cm can manage up to 50% of normal household electricity needs.

The Energy Ball is completely silent. It does not interfere with any other electronic devices. Its unique and patented design offers superior efficiency with its rotor diameter.

In terms of installation, it looks like it can be set up on a stand-alone mast, either attached to a roof or set up directly on the ground.  It looks like a plug-n-produce device for the most part and the site says that a typical installation takes only 2 people and about 4-6 hours (but it does look like Home Energy staff set up the unit...it's not a DIY project).

Here's one more picture of the Energy Ball attached to a roof:

It's pretty small actually...and man, if it can generate about 50% of the electricity needed for a (typical Swedish) single family home...sign me up!

Haha....oh man.  Typical.  I go through and mess around with the Swedish version of the website...

Well, apparently there is an English version.  It doesn't describe everything as fully as the Swedish version (or the translated Swedish version), but it's not bad.  It does have some more specific numbers on rated power, the rotor size, etc.

You can also find the Home Energy Americas website here.  They are the exclusive distributor of Home Energy products in North America (looks like they're based in Texas).

Is there any word on when it'll be available in the US?

I heard back from the manager/CEO of Home Energy Americas.  Apparently they'll be available in the US come the fall.

Yes, this Fall.

Please refer to our website: http://www.homeenergyamericas.com/ for all information available to the public.  Due to the complexities of construction, placement, and electrical considerations, you will need to consult an authorized and certified HEA distributor or dealer/installer.  We are in the process of establishing and training these companies and individuals on a national basis over the next few months. Their names and contact information will appear on our website as they become certified.   You may find the following article interesting and useful.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/080910-pf-energy-ball.html

Thank you for you interest and patience.

looks like this one died a decent & deserved death 

I actually just got a press release emailed to me from Home Energy Americas...

So I guess the Energy Ball is...alive?

It is unfortunately alive it does seem. The docs on their site at present are the same as before.

At the advertised cut in speed (from their site) of 2 m/s the energy output is zero - for both models.

At 5.0 m/s average wind speed which is the best wind speed most places can hope for (from their power curve) shows maybe 20 W per hour or less rated capacity - it is so far down the chart as to be off it. After the 20 Watts per hour multiply the rated capacity by .33 for capacity factor. Guess what you end up with - lots of expense and nothing else.

They look neat - if someone wants a conversation piece on the roof they are great. If anyone thinks they will ever payback or do anything for the overall energy supply - forget it!

Whether it is a ball, a rotor on a tower or a Darieus type - Betz's law applies. The swept area counts - not the shape someone puts into that space. If a company says they can do better than Betz's law they are relying on magic.

In special locations and in particular with a tall tower residential wind is a winner. In general and at roof top level it is worth than useless. The only thing green is what goes into the salesman's wallet.

Informative documents on wind power & in particular small wind power can be found at the sites listed below.

None are sales companies - that is not my intention and I am not associated with any company of any kind. I am retired with no commercial interests at this time. My interest is as a potential consumer. I am positive electricity will become very expensive in years to come. Today it is about 15 cents US per kWh here and will certainly skyrocket.

All home power systems (solar thermal, solar PV, wind) are expensive and before spending many 1000 USD one needs to be well aware of what they are getting into.

1. American Wind Energy Association – many resources including #5 below

http://www.awea.org/resources/resource_library/index.html

2. Small Wind Electric Systems

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy07osti/42005.pdf

3. Wind Turbine Buyers Guide - is super!

http://www.homepower.com/view/?file=HP119_pg34_Sagrillo

4. Apples & Oranges – Choosing a Home-Size Wind Generator 

http://renewwisconsin.org/wind/Toolbox-Homeowners/Apples%20and%20Oranges.pdf

5. Wind Web Tutorial

http://www.awea.org/faq/index.html

6. Historical wind speeds across the US

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/avgwind.html

7. Small Wind Turbine Basics - is super & goes over Betz's law

http ://www.otherpower.com/windbasics1.html

Hi, can you provide contact details of this company. I would like to get in touch with their sales division.

thanks, Ravi

Nowhere near as efficient as the "energy cube" which is completely solid-state and creates energy from the presence of  - well - just about anything, really !  All you do is connect it to a fully charged battery and let "Invocube" technology do the washing-up. Super !

   Old fashioned Physics holds that "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" - but that, of course, was before the discovery of Schmirnov !

Just a cursory opinion, based of the photo above, is that Gyroscopic Precession will have this apart in very short order...  The bearing mounted on the trailing end of the rotating shaft appears to have a Moment Arm, (as a ratio, perhaps 6 times the load of the rotating Mass running true and perhaps 50-100 times that with a sudden change in direction by the wind)  that will result in failure.

Much like the vaunted power cell, if there was indeed something to them, don't you think anyone who could afford $250,000 Recreation Vehicle would have one in the place of their noisy piston engined generator?,

"... When things don't make sense...  Follow the money trail... "

Just a departure...

The principle of a Hybrid vehicle is to store energy from a small engine in a 
medium that can be released at some multiple of the stored rate to make it 
behave like a large engine.  By way of example, a 20hp engine storing energy for 
20 minutes effectively stores 400hp in a perfect world. 
 
What is missing from this is the fact that all of the currently available 
'hybrids' are boosters run in parallel to the combustion engine, so the 
efficiency of the engine is no better than a conventionally powered car, but he 
smaller engine appears more efficient simply based on fuel consumption per mile. 
 
In a true Hybrid, the engine size would be determined by the top speed of the 
chassis.  The heavier the vehicle or higher the top speed, the bigger the engine 
would have to be.  At top speed, the engine output, the drive system and the 
chassis demand would be at equilibrium. 
 
The upside of this is that at anything other than the top speed, the chassis 
would consume a percentage of the stored energy, while the fuel consumption was 
halted, and at some predetermined point, the engine would roar back to life, 
consuming fuel at peak efficiency to recharge the medium, then shut down once 
again. 
 
Given very real chassis dynamics, the engine might be running at some 10% of the 
time at the nominal 32 Miles per hour of the chassis lifetime average speed, and 
roughly 50% at twice that speed.  This is consistent with the adage in racing 
that doubling the speed of a chassis demands quadrupling the horsepower to 
achieve that performance. 
 
The real dilemma is that electric vehicles, or those having batteries in their 
drive system simply cannot cycle power rapidly enough to be a series or true 
Hybrid. 
 
I believe that teaser should be sufficient to stir discussion...  I will close in
saying that while I am convinced that compressed air IS the solution, but the 
MDI/Tata motor design is fatally flawed... 
 
Kevin E. vonMoses, 
Glendale, AZ 
 
(And yes, there is an alternative...)

Wow. This wind turbine design is so unique. Such an unusual design and a cool name too..."Energy Ball".  want to know a lot more about this kind of a wind turbine design... Can it produce the same energy as of those other home wind turbines designs?

Just want to inform you guys that there is a new Wind Turbines Community Site. You might be interested on this... Here's the link to the site... Just Click Here ==>  Wind Turbines Social Network

It's weird where these figures come from. the v100 is a 100 watt unit. You would need a 1500 watt turbine to cover enough energy to make the exercise worthwhile. 

My home uses 7-9.5 KWH per day. This is a small amount compared to the average here in Australia and we are small energy users for a western country.

This thing is cute but would barely run your lights and a toaster.

100 watts of generation at 10 metres per second (a stiff breeze) = 10 hours of generating to make a kilowatt hour of energy. A typical vacuum cleaner is what? 1500 watts?. So if this thing works all day and into the evening, you can vacuum for about 40 minutes...

Much less energy generated at a more typical 4-5 m/s at your average residential site here in Aus.

This is a good generator for a boat. As for the v200, we are still about a thousand watts shy of what's needed for a home in a WINDY spot.

Well how neat is that? Now for Art it is the bomb, however for that price I'd buy a Monet, He He. And just how efficient could it be? We do not need neat only we need Neat, low cost and very efficient. 

Here you go, what a beautiful example of genius! It seems that thisturbine will be able to receive even the strongest winds.