wind turbine plans!

bionic_banjo

Thanks for your helpful replies.
My smallholding (no house) is on the edge of a village but the Electricity people were expecting me to pay £15k to join up a new barn to the grid - plus legal costs for crossing/ excavating third party land, traffic lights for the lane and costs for materials and plant hire etc. They said that the junction box in the village would need upgrading etc etc as it was at its limit already (yeah right!!). They were unwilling to negotiate, so I decided to do it the green way -and have a large turbine installed backed up by a generator. I was lucky enough to come across a local BT man with a 2.5 KVa Rutland in his back garden serving his house with a garage full of batteries. He reckoned he could run the whole house off it for a couple of days when the wind stopped before reverting to the grid - so I was inspired to pursue the development - i mean all I want is barn lighting and to use the odd power tool!

Now I need to get costings in for the new barn and a few calcs - but have been too busy to get on with this project (I work full time a good commute away & run the smallholding...exhausting. Plus I'm a bit skint - but start a new job in a few weeks - so maybe things will get better!!!

bazzapurple

Hi All,

I've read a lot on here, and other sites about turbines, not all of it favourable, yet somehow I still feel this is the way to go.
So, just who has one?
How much did it cost?
What size is it?
Have you saved money?
Did your neighbours try to have you slaughtered?
Has it fallen over?
Do you get chopped up birds all over your lawn?

Let us all hear the facts from those who have them, not just sums, propaganda and opinions.

So, who's going first?

bazzapurple

What nobody???

geordie_joe

bazzapurple wrote: »

What nobody???

I'm sure people do have them, but if they admit to that they'll also have to admit they are not worth the money.

KathrynPenguin

My nextdoor neighbors have one, its huge AND its mounted on top of a container (one off a container lorry type container). He also has it in his field which is behind the house and far enough from any buildings to have a good clear windpath. When he first put it up his own SONS wanted him to have it down as it was sooo noisy, he has changed something now and its quieter but on a windy day it still whistles quite loudly.

This doesn't really answer any of your questions but he originally wanted it to cover the costs of heating 1 room (he did it all himself following a bet with a mate) and he reckons it does that plus some but their 5 bedroom property still requires some bought electric.

Cardew

I take it you have waded through this thread?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=273400

Although it starts off with the Windsave it moves on to other turbines. There are a couple of really knowledgeable people who contribute; Yakky58 has a turbine and has provided some excellent and objective data and information.

I have also looked at lots of publications on turbines and I have yet to see any serious claim that they are money saving.

Surely anyone with any sense will do exactly as you are doing - carry out research and seek opinions before buying. The problem being that any research will inevitably mean people do not buy, if their intent is money saving.

I believe also that the least objective opinions are often from people who have bought appliance X. There is something in our psyche that hates to admit we have bought a 'pup'. Look at the people who buy magnets to put on the fuel line of their car and swear it gives them 20% more MPG! Their solar panel that saves £hundreds etc etc.

magyar

The bottom line is that if you have £2m then one of these



is a good investment and will give you a return of 10-20% on your money depending on the wind speed.

If you have less than that, then as an investment wind turbines are more or less a waste of time.

belfastgirl23

There seems to be a consensus that whilst wind turbines produce clean electricity, they are in no way shape or form moneysaving for the individual domestic electric consumer. And in terms of their green credentials it is also worth thinking about the resources that go into building them. I'd say they should be the very last thing on your shopping list personally...

Zebedee69

Ye I think you'll be wiser to just get the best deal on your electric bill....

magyar

Zebedee69 wrote: »

Ye I think you'll be wiser to just get the best deal on your electric bill....

... and reduce the amount you use.

Plus you can go on a green energy tariff of course, if environmentalism is your main drive rather than cost-saving. Most of the utilities don't charge any more for it anyway.