So B&Q have started selling windsave wind turbines on their website and in the their larger stores. They cost £1,500 which includes a survey and fitting. You can't buy for self install. Their claims about money saving seem quite high, I'm not convinced that everyone will see their money back before the end of the turbine's 10 year life.
However I think this is a great move, and I'm sure the price of turbines will drop, when some more competition move into the marketplace, so the payback period will improve in the future. I think the law also needs to change to relax planning permission, allowing turbines like these to be bought like any other appliance, with 'Do it Youself' fitting (something I'm sure B&Q would welcome!)
Personally I'd like to open a small wind farm with some much bigger turbines, but sadly I lack the space. Perhaps I'll put some in the local park instead. It's either that or a domestic nuclear power station.
Wind turbine on B&Q
7 comments:
well, the payback on solar panels (which generate electricity) is around 12-15 years, whereas wind could be as low as 5-7 years.
But I guess it depends on what you have space for, and what you have more of: wind or sun. I guess up in the north it's going to be wind!
Solar panels are great for heating water though, and you could power a water heater directly with a wind turbine (no need for an expensive inefficient inverter) so with the combination of the two you could get loads of hot water.
BTW, there's a nice comparison here:
http://www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk/What_you_can_do/windandsolar.html
And I'd be interested to hear how you get on with your project Dan!
I am learning some very technical things reading this blog thingy.
Dan
Photo voltaic cells charging a battery is a very inefficient set up, the losses through an inverter and a battery are quite high.Far better to use wet panels and store hot water. Also by the time you think that you may break even the battery needs replacing.Richard the same losses are there for wind generators also,the idea of putting the power directly into hot water is good.I have seen windmills working they do make a lot of noise.If you look at the energy curve for wind generation you will find that the power kicks in at the top end of the speed of the rotors.The company that installed the wind farm on Scroby sands off Yarmouth have just admitted that they can only achieve 30% of the power the expected.
An idea that is a more serious proposition but labour intensive is a cheap diesel generator from Macro running on cooking oil housed in a sound proof shed with its cooling water going through a heat exchanger for water and central heating,CHAPS combined heat and power.
I was reading about a wind generator to power a computer in Micromart magazine a few weeks ago, and it did sound quite cool.
However, there's an article in this week's New Scientist magazine that says that small scale renewable power schemes aren't that great, apparently they only supply 5% of an average household's annual energy, and that's without extra inefficiencies caused by turbulence, apparently the turbine should be mounted at least 11 metres above any obsticle within 100m.
The article continues by saying that the buyers of the turbines will be annoyed by the lack of return, and the neighbours will be annoyed by the lack of noise.
The article has similar doubts about solar panels. It recommends instead to reduce CO2 emissions, and to make use of renewables, that offshore windfarms make much more sense than small scale schemes.
On a personal level, it would be better if we reduced the amount of energy we used (grow, or buy local, drive less, fly less, choose low power appliances etc.) It would be good if the government offered us some carrots, or sticks, to change our habits, but as they're in the pockets of big businesses who have no desire for us to stop consuming, it's just left to us all to try our best. I'm pessimistic, green issues have been on the horizon for ages now but apart from all talk there doesn't seem to be much action. Nothing will change until the brown stuff really hits the windsave turbines.
Using a wind turbine on your house which goes directly to a kettle element type heater in a water tank will save how many millions of electrical storage batteries from being made?
Use a hot water tank to store the energy, use the water tank as a storage battery.
Converters, batteries complicated switching units and who knows how many other bits of kit would then be unnecessary for millions of homes up and down the country.
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