Vertical (VAWT) vs Horizontal (HAWT) For an Urban location, the main difference between vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) is their response to turbulent winds. A VAWT is better suited for Urban locations, where other buildings and trees cause the wind to be more turbulent (gusty, with severe direction changes). Both types of home wind turbine will function better with smooth air, but a VAWT does not need to rotate into the wind like a HAWT. HAWT tend to produce more power with a smaller size, but historically have produced more noise. Modern designs have greatly reduced the amount of noise produced. You can normally mount a HAWT higher and thus get access to faster and smoother air (and therefore more power). Guyed towers take a lot of physical space. VAWT have been advertised as friendly to birds. It's a myth that large commercial wind turbines are bad for birds, unless someone erects one inside a migration path. For small home wind turbines, I would not have a bird feeder on my property. And yes, the local cats will kill many times more birds than a small wind turbine.
Honeywell places the generator along the outside edge of the blades. As a result, their home wind turbine will start to produce power at light winds of just 2 MPH. Honeywell states that their wind turbine can be mounted VERY CLOSE to your rooftop. We know the wind speeds just at rooftop level are both slow and turbulent.
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