Blog

Diminutive windmills featuring spectacular colour-changing LED lights are being used to enliven the streets and boulevards in the US city of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

But they’ve been designed not only to generate beautiful, vibrant light, but also to extol the virtues of clean, renewable wind energy, so says their creator, Ann Arbor Lawyer and native of Jackson, Timothy Jones.

The imaginatively-named WhirlyDoodles, are small wind turbines with LED lights attached to their blades.

They’re capable of generating enough electricity to power their LEDs, and the colour and intensity of light created varies according to the direction and magnitude of the wind.

Jones, a 50 year-old part-time inventor says that he stumbled on the idea for the WhirlyDoodle completely by accident. He said, “One of the theories of invention is you see a need and solve a problem. I’m kind of the reverse.”

Jones invested a considerable amount of his own money into the brilliant project and, with the assistance of Energy Programs Director for the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, Dave Kronkle, the innovative little WhirlyDoodles were installed all across the city on street lights, rooftops and at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, which specializes in interactive exhibits designed to enable children and adults to better understand science through experimentation, exploration, and education.

“I think that it really helps people to understand clean energy and some of the possibilities,” Jones said.

And from the favourable feedback Jones has received on his website, it appears that’s the general consensus!

Now Jones is looking to get the go-ahead for a temporary public-art installation with the intention of installing thousands of the windmills on a hillside where, during the day, they will remain invisible and at night create a fantastic tourist attraction. According to Jones the devices could later be sold in order to minimize costs.

“It’s simple, it’s safe, it’s been a tremendous amount of fun, and people enjoy it,” Jones concluded. “I think it has potential for changing people’s opinions.”

True to Tim Jones’s words, many more people are now beginning to see the sense in switching to environmentally friendly sources of energy and light. Wind and solar power are becoming ever more prevalent, as are energy efficient LED lights.

They produce exactly the same Lumens of light intensity as their wasteful and inefficient fluorescent and incandescent counterparts, and they do it for a fraction of the cost.

For instance, one particular Dimmable GU10 LED COB Bulb produces the same 860 Lumens as an 80W traditional bulb, yet requires just 9W of electricity, which equates to a 71% energy saving!

If you’d like to emulate the spectacular, colour-changing illumination the WhirlyDoodles create, you might like to invest in a reel of LED tape, or even better, an LED strip light kit.  They’ll astound you with their versatility, wow you with their effects and stun you with their energy-efficiency!

Barring mechanical failure, the WhirlyDoodles will continue to provide efficacious and educational enjoyments to Ann Arbor Residents for many years to come, thanks to the LEDs’s incredibly long lifespan. Indeed, at 50,000 hours, wind permitting, they’ll shine brightly for a whole decade!

LEDs are also fully recyclable so, unlike fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, the WhirlyDoodles shouldn’t end their lives as landfill, and Tim Jones’s great ideas about providing renewable energy sources will have spun full circle!