home wind turbines

dogran_2

woollyjumper wrote:

also the literature that windsave had originally talked about payback in 5-6 years - but the price was going to be £1000 - now the price is £1500 so do your sums...
For some people it will be viable but on the flats of Norfolk - it ain't gonna happen ! Even though I can see huge windmills on the coast line from my bedroom window - oh well !

Yeah, the price is now £1500, but you should be able to get a grant of 30%, so that works out about £1100 (when you add on the 5%vat) conditions apply to the grant.
The grant schemes are listed here http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/funding/ The wind turbines are covered in the Low Carbon Buildings programme.
Ive just had my grant approved for Solar water heating, so that'll be going in soon - so enjoy the sun whilst it lasts. Knowing my luck, once I get the solar in we'll be into the next ice age!

woollyjumper

Dogran - glad to hear someone else having solar panels fitted.

The payback calculation on the £1000 was included which took into account the old clear skies and sell back using ROCs (sell unused electric back to the grid).. and it still doesn't add up. Unless you are an above average for windspeed - the volume isn't going to be that high. Check the BWEA (i think that is right) for the windspeed database, typically
Cornwall and the outer hebrides and your sorted - deepest Londonium isn't going to be beneficial.


Need to just look how to reduce the cost of my heating - which is oil , nothing out there is a viable technology even with grants.

Fenris

woollyjumper wrote:

For some people it will be viable but on the flats of Norfolk - it ain't gonna happen ! Even though I can see huge windmills on the coast line from my bedroom window - oh well !

I dunno; I've seen more wind in the eight months I've lived in Swaffham, than in the 20-odd years I was in Milton Keynes! If I weren't renting (and had £1500 to spare!) I'd get a turbine and save loads of squids!

IvanOpinion

For a while I was looking at installing solar panels however, where I would need to mount them would make then inefficient without paying out a lot of money on raising a roof height (not exactly environmentally friendly).

I then had a quick look at home wind turbines but they currently seem very limited 1kW wouldn't even boil a kettle. What developments are in the pipeline at the minute? I can get loads of information about large scale commercial windfarms but very little abouot home turbines.

Ivan

Fenris

There's a chap I know who runs a farm near Hunstanton. He has a lovely little farm shop and we always go there to get out veg. Recently he had a really tall (about 25' I think, if not taller) turbine installed; think it cost him around the £1500 that people have been saying. It now powers most of the cabin that he, his partner and their son live in! When I see him next I'll ask who he got it from as it's obviously one of the more efficent turbines.

gromituk

How much power it produces is nothing to do with efficiency - that just shows the size of the turbine. More powerful ones are larger, more expensive, and present more load to the structures on which they are mounted.

1kW is indeed not enough to boil a kettle, but who leaves a kettle boiling all day?

bugsonic

Well I live in the SW of England, on a high plateau and am looking at getting a Windsave unit installed.

I've previously considered solar, but the initial outlay and payback time is ridiculous.

The only concern I have about a turbine is that living on such a high open space what would happen in the event of a lightning strike?

IvanOpinion

bugsonic wrote:

The only concern I have about a turbine is that living on such a high open space what would happen in the event of a lightning strike?

A true MSE environmentalist would harness the power and sell it to the residents of Devon and Cornwall

Ivan

caroline1973lefty

Whilst i share the dream of my own 'off-grid' home, unless you live in a very isolated spot it is not neccessarily the best solution. Community-level, rather than individual level solutions are much more economically and environmentally efficient - a turbine (and/or solar system / etc) for every street rather than every home. It also means objections from neighbours much less likely.

Google for articles about the Welsh village of Machynlleth, which has done just this. If anyone wants to explore the options in not-so windy walthamstow, let me know!

Midas

Not sure if these guys are any good for you

http://www.provenenergy.com/

look a tad expensive, but lots of useful info on the site