Anyone got any experience of wind turbines

Money_Bunny

We're very fortunate in that we have about an acre of land, no near neighbours and the capital sufficient to fund a wind turbine to generate electricity.

Anyone got any experiences to share.

We were thinking of about 5KW. Although it always feels windy here, we're told that the level of wind is actually only slightly over average.

We already have solar hot water. We mused about solar PV but thought, bearing in mind we have both the land and the money for wind this might be a better bet.

Ken68

Only this Bunny....http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7763816.stm
happened near to relatives.
Though doubt 5kw would do this.
Have you gone into grants/incentives?

zeupater

Money_Bunny wrote: »

We're very fortunate in that we have about an acre of land, no near neighbours and the capital sufficient to fund a wind turbine to generate electricity.

Anyone got any experiences to share.

We were thinking of about 5KW. Although it always feels windy here, we're told that the level of wind is actually only slightly over average.

We already have solar hot water. We mused about solar PV but thought, bearing in mind we have both the land and the money for wind this might be a better bet.

Hi

Check your 10m windspeed data here ....

[STRIKE]http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/wind/onshore/deploy_data/windsp_databas/windsp_databas.aspx[/STRIKE]
http://tools.decc.gov.uk/en/windspeed/default.aspx

... if the average is below ~5m/s then it's probably not worth anymore consideration. Above this threshold the site still needs to be evaluated for local topography and any obstructions ...

HTH
Z

gornalboy

Thought you might be interested to hear my energy saving experience.

Following advice from various sources including yourselves we decided to increase energy efficiency within our home.

Last year we:

renewed our double glazing with the latest A rated well respected double glazing profile and argon filled glass units
renewed all old electrical appliances with A rated ones
installed a log burner thereby substantially reducing usage of the central heating
replaced two old radiators
mainly used our slow cooker to cut electric usage
insulated roof and walls under bay windows with Celotex insulation
our loft complies with latest insulation requirements
our central heating boiler settings remained unchanged on medium setting
we have trv fitted to every radiator
we have energy saving light bulbs throughout

Guess what………………………………

Our Jan gas bill shows we used 1 unit MORE than same period previous year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We used a lot less electric BUT……………. with price increases our electric bill was higher!!!!!!!!!!

(previous year we even left the central heating on overnight on a low setting during cold spells last year we didn’t)

I am at a loss to understand all of this as it seems to contradict a lot of the advice we have been given.

We are now several THOUSAND pounds out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

Where are we going wrong????

I am a disabled individual and cannot afford these bills.

EricMears

gornalboy wrote: »

Thought you might be interested to hear my energy saving experience.

Following advice from various sources including yourselves we decided to increase energy efficiency within our home.

Last year we:

renewed our double glazing with the latest A rated well respected double glazing profile and argon filled glass units
renewed all old electrical appliances with A rated ones
installed a log burner thereby substantially reducing usage of the central heating
replaced two old radiators
mainly used our slow cooker to cut electric usage
insulated roof and walls under bay windows with Celotex insulation
our loft complies with latest insulation requirements
our central heating boiler settings remained unchanged on medium setting
we have trv fitted to every radiator
we have energy saving light bulbs throughout

Guess what………………………………

Our Jan gas bill shows we used 1 unit MORE than same period previous year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We used a lot less electric BUT……………. with price increases our electric bill was higher!!!!!!!!!!

(previous year we even left the central heating on overnight on a low setting during cold spells last year we didn’t)

I am at a loss to understand all of this as it seems to contradict a lot of the advice we have been given.

We are now several THOUSAND pounds out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

Where are we going wrong????

I am a disabled individual and cannot afford these bills.

It is of course possible that you have made a saving - but that this years weather was worse than last year's.

Have you asked any near neighbours in a similar house with similar usage but without your improvements how their bills compare with last years ? If (say) their gas bills are all up 10% but yours has stayed same then you saved (almost) 10%. Similarly, you know electricity usage has reduced so your improvements are showing some effect.

zeupater

gornalboy wrote: »

Thought you might be interested to hear my energy saving experience.....

... We are now several THOUSAND pounds out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

Where are we going wrong????

I am a disabled individual and cannot afford these bills.

Hi

I'm a little stumped too ..... if you have a logburner now, and are using it, but didn't last year, then you should be putting considerably more heat into the house without taking the other improvements into consideration ...

One major difference between this January and last will be the average temperature .... last year the CET database recorded Jan as being 5.4C, this year will likely be around 2C lower, so working on an averaged internal house temperature of 18C (?) you would expect to have used somewhere around 16% (2/(18-5.4)) more energy ....

HTH
Z

jamesingram

For those interested in monitoring thier energy use and the effect of energy efficiency improvement can I suggest
http://www.imeasure.org.uk/

free, simple , useful

"Good energy monitoring needs to take into account weather conditions. iMeasure automatically incorporates weekly heating degree-days to help your household accurately monitor energy use seasonally. This information is presented clearly to you, and so will need no prior knowledge of degree-day analysis to get the full benefits of energy monitoring."

I've used it since 2008 , it shows clearly reductions in energy use with various improvement I've undertaken.

rogerblack

gornalboy wrote: »

renewed our double glazing with the latest A rated well respected double glazing profile and argon filled glass units

Likely to have little or no effect on bills. The amount of heat lost through windows is small in most properties, due to their small area. Replacing single glazed with double may pay back in some extreme cases - replacing double glazed almost never.

renewed all old electrical appliances with A rated ones

This only makes sense to do with the most energy using ones. Replacing a D rated appliance you use 10 times a year is a bad investment.

installed a log burner thereby substantially reducing usage of the central heating
If this actually results in you having the heating off more, and does not result in losses due to air going up the chimney.

replaced two old radiators
Generally will do nothing at all, perhaps negative if it means the house is warmer.

mainly used our slow cooker to cut electric usage
Cookers are not a large, though can be significant if your bill is very small.

insulated roof and walls under bay windows with Celotex insulation
our loft complies with latest insulation requirements
our central heating boiler settings remained unchanged on medium setting
we have trv fitted to every radiator
we have energy saving light bulbs throughout

Many of the changes you mention may reduce electricity use.
Unfortunately, in many cases, heating remains the largest use.
This is for a very simple reason.
Heat loss is proportional to area * heat loss.

Insulating relatively small areas to a slightly better level, or even lots better does not significantly reduce your gas bill.
The only thing that has a real effect is to insulate _large_ areas of the property - floor, whole ceiling, whole walls.
Topping up insulation where you can easily reach is not usually quite pointless - but if the rest of the property is not insulated - it may be hard to measure.
Or to turn the heating down.
With a properly setup system without TRVs, the rooms will be at a similar temperature.
With TRVs, if you leave the rooms set to the same temperature - the cost will be exactly the same.
You need to drastically reduce the temperature in many rooms to see a big saving.

Who advised you that the above would pay back in the short term?

rogerblack

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Check your 10m windspeed data here .... http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/wind/onshore/deploy_data/windsp_databas/windsp_databas.aspx
... if the average is below ~5m/s then it's probably not worth anymore consideration. Above this threshold the site still needs to be evaluated for local topography and any obstructions ...

HTH
Z

Above link is dead, due to stupid noddy '.gov' wholesale replacement.
The DECC site is now smashed into a dozen brief pages, with the rest dumped on a useless general search engine.

http://tools.decc.gov.uk/en/windspeed/default.aspx

gornalboy

many thanks for comments. I will look into imeasure. My rather crude way of assessing energy savings after improvements has been to keep gas boiler settings on the same setting we normally use as this is the lowest comfortable setting and keeps living area around 20 degrees C. I then checked usage for same period to determine whether there were any significant differences after improvements. I am now checking with neighbours to determine if my bills are excessive. I am disappointed because I hoped all the measures we have taken would at least reveal a better insulated and warmer home. Log burner has indeed given us a wonderfully warmer living area BUT at some cost!!! Obviously I didnt do enough reserch. Lesson learned. I would be interested to hear of similar experiences.

gornalboy

Dear Roger
Energy Saving Trust give masses of advice along with Glass and glazing Federation etc etc. I wasnt expecting miracles just a measurable improvement!!