Can I have a wind turbine on my end of terrace? 17 January 2022 at 10:38PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 22 replies 870 views

matelodave

https://mcscertified.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/INSTAL1.pdf

Spies

I think there's a reason we dont see these bolted to the gables of houses.

Reed_Richards

shinytop said:

https://www.tesup.co.uk/

I have no affiliation nor knowledge of this company or its products but it came up on another forum.    

Some of their advice is easier said than done:

This wind turbine has one of the TESUP's highly developed performance generators in it. Once a hurricane scale III (50–58 m/s) or above occurs, please cover wind turbine blades. Once the wind turbine blades are covered, they can not catch the wind and this will protect the wind turbine from the hurricane.

Verdigris

Spies said:

I think there's a reason we dont see these bolted to the gables of houses.

Yes. Failed prime minister Cameron had one...

...for a few months.

Coastalwatch

Verdigris said:

Spies said:

I think there's a reason we dont see these bolted to the gables of houses.

Yes. Failed prime minister Cameron had one...

...for a few months.

Yes, having perused over the very matter for several months, historically small turbines have not been financially viable and often requiring an awful lot of maintenance. So when Ripples offer came along I thought that'll do nicely!

Spies

I like the idea behind Octopus Fan Club but I'm not in an eligable postcode area.

Verdigris

Even relatively large "domestic" turbines can be quite problematic. I remember visiting a site that had two fairly substantial turbines (lattice towers - probably 10kWp each) and the owner had had to take one down because of noise complaints from a neighbour (you couldn't see the neighbouring house from the turbine site) and the other was out of service because of over-speeding issues.

A lot of money spent and the FiT meters weren't moving.

Martyn1981

Verdigris said:

Even relatively large "domestic" turbines can be quite problematic. I remember visiting a site that had two fairly substantial turbines (lattice towers - probably 10kWp each) and the owner had had to take one down because of noise complaints from a neighbour (you couldn't see the neighbouring house from the turbine site) and the other was out of service because of over-speeding issues.

A lot of money spent and the FiT meters weren't moving.

My sister hoped to put up a 2kW unit on her smallholding and we did some research as their property is in a reasonably windy area and the house is at the crest of slopes, so turbulence could be managed with say a 10m mast getting it clear of hedgerows and far enough away from buildings and tall trees, but even then the economics at about £10k plus maintenance wouldn't work, and she opted to go bigger on the PV.

I think Cameron got one of those small WT's that ended up getting their name modified slightly to swindlesave. They barely generated enough each year to cover the consumption of the inverter.

I so much wanted to get a small WT, but was firmly discouraged by those that had them, such as off-gridders, about a decade back. The solution as CW points out is to invest in a windfarm or three, and that's worked well to assuage some of my imported leccy guilt.

Verdigris

By contrast, back in the 1970s, some friends made a turbine from a blade, carved from a bit of 4x2, a car dynamo and a scaffold pole. Combined with a couple of old car batteries it provided lighting, from some low voltage strip lights and music from an 8-track player (remember those?). Simpler times.

JKenH

QrizB said:

Just to add: this page has a map of wind speed for the UK. You want to be in a darker blue bit.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/wind/windiest-place-in-uk

It is interesting to note that the largest onshore wind farm in the UK (Keadby) is in the 8-10knot zone. The reason for the location is proximity to superb grid connections.