Abstract
Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing, held May 20-23, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and organized by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, University of Texas at San Antonio; Includes bibliographical references; Energy harvesting using horizontal wind turbines is investigated and a performance analysis is done and compared over a period of time using identical rooftop wind turbines. In many buildings, especially high rises, air ventilation systems are operated non-stop with a constant air speed. Real time applications are mainly used with vertical wind turbines, but they have limited efficiency due to wind airflow distribution. Small modifications on wind turbines and ventilator systems can improve the airflow of the vent systems as well as the efficiency of the wind turbine. Using ventilator systems can eliminate weather prediction modelling due to constant airflow and non-stop operation of the ventilator systems. This study shows that even though wind airflow may be stronger at various times during the day, the average power production using a ventilator system is quite large. The ventilator systems can be named a new renewable energy source due to their constant energy production possibilities