Small wind turbine?

Astronut5

I have solar panels which are great but would like some generation when the Sun is not shining.
Is there any such device even if only 10 to 50 w ?
Any other generation ideas?

Reed_Richards

It's certainly possible to buy a wind turbine that generates powers in the range 10 to 50 W.  Suppose it's 10 W.  10 W for 100 hours is 1 kWh and lets say a kWh of electricity would cost you 35p.  If the wind turbine cost £1000 you would have to run it for 32.6 years to save the £1000 it cost you.  If you could buy it for £100 you would get your money back in 3.26 years.  Unfortunately the cost is likely to be nearer to £1000 than £100.    

Screwdriva

I looked into turbines. When quality and aftersales support are factored in, the SD3 micro turbine was hard to beat. Costs several thousand £ to install though.

I've played with the idea of repurposing a boat/ marine turbine (the kind installed on small boats). We live in a "wind funnel" so the result should be quite good. 

In the end, we decided that an investment in Ripple energy seemed like the least problematic way to augment our rooftop PV generation.

tacpot12

Small wind turbines are a bit problematic because of planning restricitions, which leads to the need for a professional installation, which leads into noise certification and proper foundations for the turbine mast. Have a look here:

Planning Permission: Stand alone wind turbines - Wind turbines - Planning Portal
Planning Permission: Building mounted wind turbines - Wind turbines - Planning Portal

Combine this with the need for batteries, charge controller and dump loads, and the costs rise to the point where only fairly substantial installations (say around 1kW) in good wind locations can justify the cost.

There are a number of UK suppliers other than SD Wind Energy including TESUP and Future Energy. I would only buy through an MCS accredited installer.