B&Q Wind Turbines (Merged Thread)

adr0ck

anyone interested in one of these should read the following article

http://www.housebuildersupdate.co.uk/2006/12/eco-!!!!!!!!-award-windsave-ws1000.html

i think the following sums everything up nicely:

My view is that they are still experimental and have serious technical obstacles still to overcome. Buy them if you wish to support the research but not if you wish to save CO2

adr0ck

sorry link doesnt work...go to

https://www.housebuildersupdate.co.uk

and scroll down...its under ECO !!!!!!!! AWARD on the left hand side

[Deleted User]

justruth wrote:

With whole areas of the country without power due to the extreme gales I had to come back and re-read this thread lol, I guess this would be when you might want one!

Justruth, sorry but when you have gales like we have just had, these (and most other wind turbines whether big or small) windturbines will not work. They actually cut out and in most cases free wheel otherwise they would burn out.

They also don't work when you have no power due to a power cut, so again equally useless.

regards Freddix

Cardew

It really is worth posting the report referred to above!

Eco Boll**** Award: The Windsave WS1000
It is now two and a half months since I tried to buy a Windsave WS1000 wall mounted wind turbine from my local B&Q. Their surveyor turned me down because our house walls are timber, which isn’t regarded as a suitable material to take the strain.

One of the interesting things to emerge from me blogging about the experience was that Windsave themselves saw what I was writing and approached me with their comments. Firstly, Nathan Briggs, who describes himself as a consultant to Windsave, commented on my second blog piece (Oct 12th) that “I'm glad we didn't try to fit a windmill (to your house) and I hope you see the sense that we didn't. With just 5.1metres/second (m/s) I doubt you would have seen anything close to 1000kWh per annum so payback would have been terrible anyway.”

I replied to Nathan with the following observation. “My question back to you is this. My average wind speed, 5.1m/s at 10m height, according to the DTI windspeed database, is pretty typical of southern England and in fact is rather higher than most large urban areas. You are candidly admitting that at this windspeed my payback would be "terrible". So why are Windsaves being sold through B&Q across the country with the oft-stated suggestion that they could generate a third of your household electricity?”

But I never heard from Nathan again so the question was left unanswered. But a few weeks later, I received an email from Anya Gordon who is a sales manager at Windsave in Glasgow. She wrote: “As I am sure you can appreciate, being a new company launching an innovative product such as the WS1000 system into the UK market has not been without its trials. The product has been designed and launched on the basis that it will meet the requirements of the majority. As previously mentioned, we appreciate that it will not be suitable for every application.” Later in the same email, she added: “We have also noted your comments regarding windspeeds and effectiveness of the systems and we are currently upgrading our website and literature to further clarify some of the points you’re raised on your blog.”

There have been some changes to Windsave’s website. In particular a page has appeared called “Assessing Performance.” It says that the average wind speed across the UK is 5.6m/s at 10m above ground level. They also recommend “having our system installed in areas benefiting from wind speeds above 5.0 m/s.”

It’s hard to say what exactly this means. All places will get wind speeds about 5.0m/s at some point during a year but that is a very different thing to an average wind speed of 5.0m/s. Another critical factor that is often overlooked is the fact that the average wind speed data is given for a height of 10m above ground level. The typical Windsave will be mounted at less than half this height, in a location that is almost certainly going to prove to be turbulent. The projected power outputs are in reality amazingly low. They themselves are indicating that a WS1000 located on my house would have generated around 175kWh per annum.

Reports arriving from other sources suggest that even this sort of output is fanciful.
• The St Albans Eco House has a Windsave fitted. It’s first two weeks of operation produced just 500watts of electricity.
• Bill Dunster, the Bedzed architect and big wind turbine fan, has lived with a competitor to the Windsave, the Swift, for over a year and has yet to get any power out of it at all!
• The well-known green activist Donnachadh McCarthy found that his roof mounted turbine in London generated just 1.3kWh in two months. His comment to me: "It is a beautiful machine, it is silent but it vibrates and the output is miserably low. My view is that they are still experimental and have serious technical obstacles still to overcome. Buy them if you wish to support the research but not if you wish to save CO2.”

Which leads us to the big question that Nathan Briggs failed to answer back in October. It’s all very well Windsave selling a product of questionable provenance. But why, oh why, is B&Q pushing them out of its stores all over lowland England where they just will not work? Here is what it says on the B&Q website today: the Windsave wind turbine “could contribute to a potential saving of up to 30% for the average home if there is optimum wind speed at the site.”

It’s a very short step from that to “it can save around 30% of your electricity bill” which is what I was told in B&Q by an impressionable sales assistant. And an impressionable customer will of course hear exactly what they want to hear.

But it’s time they heard the real story. Unless you live in a very windy spot, a Windsave (or any other similar wall or roof mounted product) will not generate any meaningful power output at all. Come on, it’s time to admit that the roof-mounted wind turbine industry is a complete fiasco. Good money is being thrown at an invention that doesn’t work. This is the Sinclair C5 of the Noughties. As such, the Windsave WS100 becomes the second winner of my coveted Eco-Boll***s award.

It really is a disgrace that B&Q sell these things.

robbiemann

I have to say that to me its no surprise at all that B&Q are selling these. hye are alwaysquick to jump on the latest trendy band wagon and Eco energy is just that.

I have received planning permison for my windsave turbine at last and a waiting for he installers to get back to me with date the problem is that windsave are holding all the turbines to do a mod to the braking system so it could be another four to eight weeks.

As I said in my earlier post I am receivng over £1000 in grants to install the machine so hopefully in my eposed rursl site i may actually get some kind of payback in a reasonable time.

I will come back when i have more info.

Robbie

Blazeparadox

Have you considered this too:
Extra council tax as turbine classed as improvement to your home!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=432346&in_page_id=1770

gromituk

Don't believe anything you read in the Daily Hate Mail.

adr0ck

anything that adds value to your home could possibly increase your council tax

if you install a new bathroom suite or a new kitchen this could increase your council tax...the difficulty being for the VOA office is how they could possibly know you've done this work

with a wind turbine...they could possibly just see it...so in theory yes it could increase your council tax

the joy of tony

robbiemann

Fortunately I live in Scotland and we have a slightly different system up here. They are even talking about the council giving you a rebate as a reward for recycling/energy conservation. There is however an election for the assy this year so it could just be pre- election bull excrament.

Robbie

lonewolf946

Dear group

My first posting. I brought one of these B&Q supplied Windsave turbines and I am sorry to say it's useless. I live in a farm on the side of a windy valley. There is no obstruction to the turbine and if anyone ought to be able to make one of these things pay then it's me. Since the beginning of January 2007 (it's now 6th February) it has managed to generate 12 pence worth of electricity and that includes a very windy 2 week period. Mark Insulations who install the turbines contacted me a few days ago saying there had been so mnay complaints that they wanted to come round and change the inverter and tail fin as an experiment. I obviously agreed. It's a fantastic looking thing but it just furls around. I've watched it for hours and it rarely manages to keep rotating for more than a minute without either furling out of direction or just stopping. I'd love to hear from anyone else who actually has one to compare experiences. Direct e-mail is lonewolf946@btconnect.com

Ian