B&Q Wind Turbines (Merged Thread)

Ken68

Chance for someone to make a killing, at China prices, solar panel or domestic turbines. Just pitch it with a decent payback time and guarantee.Couldn't make much out of Google search.

overworked_underpaid

Deleted_User wrote:

Leaving aside the environmental and cost considerations for a moment,two things occurred to me

1) Was it just the mock-up, or will they have 'B & Q' plastered all over them?
2) Will planning permission be required?

I've just read on the Guardian website that the £1,498 cost for the Wind Turbine will include a home survey as well as help applying for Planning Permission.
http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,1883905,00.html

Article also mentions that B&Q will be selling solar panels to heat water. Apparently Currys is also selling Solar Panels!

Cardew

wowsavings wrote:

Surely having a wind turbine is not so much about saving money but saving the planet!

Agree with that!

Perhaps Martin should start a PlanetSavingExpert forum;)

Seriously, there is a thread currently running on this in the 'Green and Ethical Moneysaving' section and several other threads on Windsave.

halloweenqueen_2

What are the pros and cons -do you think they would power enough to warrant about £700? + the cost of fitting. Like to think it would make a difference to the environment as well as long term save money.

mikeywills

Not sure this is the case everywhere, but I have heard of them requiring planning permission?

Skiduck

mikeywills wrote:

Not sure this is the case everywhere, but I have heard of them requiring planning permission?

Any council not permitting sustainable (whether you agree with them or not) would be foolish to do so. If you are in a Lib Dem area, I would say with 95% confidence it would be approved and even approved retrospectively, as long as it is not a wind farm.
Most people will not benefit from wind turbines as their wind movements (excuse the expression) are irratic - no use in the city etc. But for many people living in the country, they can be of benefit.

I personally don't see the harm in any wind farms, they are awesome to look at and quite soothing to the soul to just watch, I'd prefer that than an oil refinery any day - but I'm talking about wind farms and not household sustainables, back to the point then.
Small turbines (upto 1kw) are the size of a weather vein but make less noise.

owen2k

you are probably looking at around 1000 pounds in total then thats including the goverment handout. (without that it would be more)

they generate a maximum of 1Kw on a very windy day, some days you will get nothing other days a few hundred watts on average you´ll probably get around 300Watts a day which is around what a standard (CRT) Computer monitor would consume. which isnt really that much power.

considering a kettle takes 2kw and your fridge/freezer will probably consume more than the turbine will generate on most days,

overall it will probably save you around 30p a day which equates to around 108 pounds per year which on that calculation including installation will probably take around 10 years to pay for its self before any savings can be looked at and by or before then it would have probably needed maintenance meaning more outgoings, i for one wouldnt risk it.

g4jnw

One point to factor in regarding planning permission, they may assist in the application, this may be just providing the forms with an explanation leaflet but I doubt they will pay the planning permission fees. The cost of the planning permission extends the payback time.

I for one would have one of these on my house, am on the edge of the Solway firth so wind is plentyful.
I'll throw the gauntlet donw to B&Q, yep you can have as many logo's as you want on the wind generator, all you have to do is match the prices quoted on here from China :rotfl:

Thommo1_2

B&Q are the first big retailer to even contemplate offering wind turbines and solar panels. The price is high as cost only comes down when products go into mass production. The government recently quoted that 10 million homes in the uk will have to be self sufficient with regard to energy production, and we all know that we will have to pay to lower our co2 emmissions. People that are worried that the turbines will not be cost effective should go into B&Q and find out for themselves. Windsave who manufacture and install the turbines do a site survey to assess whether the property is in a location that will benefit from a turbine and whether the property itself is suitable for a turbine.
At the end of the day, if it takes 10 years for the turbine to pay for itself, surely it is still worthwhile as any energy production that these turbines make is reducing the need for coal and oil fired powerstations.
Good on em for sticking their necks out and trying to go from orange to green!

raymond

If you are thinkin about one of these then do some very very careful study first. The glossy leaflet and dvd presentation look great and its all very enticing, but if you look deeper you will find that the rated 1kW output is at 12.5m/s .... looks ok ... but there is a simple reason that they use m/s and not mph ........ 12.5m/s is almost 28mph which is one helluva strong breeze to say the least.

If you live in the highlands of Scotland or the top of a mountain somewhere then you may get close sometimes.

Also be aware that it will (probably) not generate any electricity in the event of a power cut as it needs electricity to work.

If you get a lot of wind, enough to generate 1kW of electricity my bet is that it will NOT last 10 years, more like 2 years 1 day

If you do the maths, you will never actually save enough in electricity to actually pay for it even assuming you live in a wind tunnel.

This is a company who intends to clean up quick with the help of B&Q and disappear with a couple of million in the very near future (Including our taxes as the dim witted labour govt will actually give us grants to be conned)

If you want to be "green" I would suggest that you walk to the shops now and again as the amount of energy required to manufacture/install/run/recycle these windmills will probably be much higher than any energy they produce.

Go solar if you want, but forget windmills on the side of your house.

Besides, go take a look at how horrible houses look with small relatively inconspicuous satellite dishes stuck on the side then imagine every other house having one of those monstrosities up ABOVE the roof level.