Domestic wind power

Benny2020

Got solar panels but wondering about domestic wind turbines, are these practical on a small scale as i never see anyone post about them?

Spies

Because they don't really work and they're impractical. 

Roof mounted turbines end up transferring vibrations through the building and they're too small to have a noticable difference.

Ground mounted turbines can be noisy as well. 

For the cost, they're really not economical. 

Benny2020

Fair enough, might add a few more panels then, any other ideas for self generation?

Coastalwatch

Benny2020 said:

Fair enough, might add a few more panels then, any other ideas for self generation?

You could have a look at Ripples wind offer!

NoobSolar

Although that is not generation in the sense that what you get out of it is money off a bill, not actual energy.

Reed_Richards

I would love to have a wind turbine but the power you get increases in proportion to the swept area and the sort you might mount on your roof don't generate much power (although unlike solar panels they can work equally well throughout the day).  Maybe something with long vertical sails mounted on top of a flagpole could do the job?    

Magnitio

Domestic wind turbines are also expensive considering their output and have maintenance costs. However, they're great for off-grid houses on hills.

paul991

a lot of the alternative lifestyle people in America seem to have these but have very few appliances great if you live miles away from your neighbours but not  good in a city
i think someone remarked on the turbines b and q sold for a while and then had  to withdraw  due  to poor performance 
I would love  to embrace the technology but just does  not stack up in small scale the open university has a free course on renewables and if i remember the output  squares for every added foot of turbine length   

QrizB

paul991 said:

i think someone remarked on the turbines b and q sold for a while and then had  to withdraw  due  to poor performance

Probably Martin1981?

Here's a post of his from 2016 talikng about exactly that:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71489510/#Comment_71489510

The small domestic wind turbines, house mounted turned out to be complete failures, often referred to as 'swindlesave' as the promised earnings turned out to be little more than £20 or £30 quid, and that's before the leccy consumption of the inverter that is always on. Net earnings could be zero, vibration excessive if mounted directly to the house, and wear and tear is high particularly on bearings.

Martyn1981

Thanks QrizB I've been looking for the vid, in the very next post, for a while now. Hard to explain, but absolutely brilliant when you see it. By the 4min mark, it's incredible to watch, and shows just some of the problems faced by on-shore wind when you get really big.

C&C trucks carrying wind turbine blades to the mountaintop

Reed_Richards

paul991 said:

... if i remember the output  squares for every added foot of turbine length   

The output increases in linear proportion to the swept area.  The area of a circle is Pi*r*r   So a turbine with 2 foot blades will have 4 times the output of a turbine with 1 foot blades; 3 foot blades 9 x the output, 4 foot blades 16 x the output etc