| Small Wind Information Exchange Program (SWIEP) |
Website CONSTANTLY under development... Visit again for new information.
Keep posted for information about experiences among small wind turbine owners. The website will also act as an aid to new and past customers. An educated buyer will be a wise buyer.
HISTORY: This site was officially launched in May 2008 when a publication about my home, below, appeared in Home Power Magazine. The article was supposed to emphasize the need for a 'Consumer Reports' group about small wind turbines and that SWIEP was created to address this issue specifically. Unfortunately the paragraph addressing the need for SWIEP was deleted from the article in the final revision by the Editor of Home Power Magazine. This is unfortunate because buyers of small wind systems have a right to information about the reliability and servce record of systems they buy. Unfortunately the industry has been very slow in responding to this notion. I need cooperation of the installer, at least, to reach current owners. Perhaps the industry is worried that this site might just be a 'gripe fest site', however, I am a scientist interested in presenting only verified examples of service and reliability issues as well as examples of systems that work flawlessly. If the industry makes a good product, why would they be worried about customer feedback? Anyway, I promise to plug away at this issue for the next year or so to see if I get anywhere. So far, I have made some useful progress (see Publications and Links).
UPDATE ON HISTORY: 3 Aug'09 This site started as a consumer's report group but so far I have not had enough consumer input to post any summaries. So this site has morphed into an outlet for scientific studies. Enough consumers have agreed for me to use their turbines for research studies. So stay tuned for research results from 6 to 8 sites. I have 59 reports posted in 'publications'. Sometime soon I will have to orgnaize them into categories.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Professor Tyree,
Best of luck with SWEP. I too believe that this sort of information should be readily available to the public. In fact, just last week I created a Google Group called the Small Wind Alliance. http://groups.google.com/group/small-wind-alliance" from Paul L. Gay, Aerostar, Inc [former manufacturer of small wind turbines in the 5 to 30 kW size class, who has recently returned to market with a 10 kW unit; SWIEP has no reliability data on this unit]. See the SWIEP Discussion Group for Paul's full message. See http://www.aerostarwind.com/aerostarwindturbines.html
To contact the moderator of SWIEP click here: Prof. Mel Tyree
Net-Zero Energy House & Zero Emission House show below derives all energy needs from the sun and wind; an open loop geothermal heat pump provides heating and AC. Hot water is provided by an electric tank assisted by the geothermal heat pump. All other applicances are electric. Over the next 20 years this house will save $165,000 in fuel costs versus a conventional house. My home is heated and cooled by a Geothermal Heat Pump; To learn how well the GHP works and how it works click on my GHP Report.
