Wind home turbines?

katie279 · 11 May 2022 at 10:03

Hi all,

First off you've all been great as always helping with solar ideas, so I've got 7.2kw of panels and 19kw of batteries being installed shortly!

My next thought is those cold and dark winter nights when energy use peaks and if anything can be done to reduce the bills - especially as it appears we'll be paying £400 per kwh by then....!

Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on domestic wind turbines? We live on a village halfway up a hill and we get an average of 7 m/s wind speed according to this:

Maps

www.rensmart.com

That said, it's not really reflective given winds are much higher during winter when I'd want to offset energy as much as possible.

There's various turbines like this that look quite interesting:

ATLAS 7 Wind Turbine | TESUP UK

Meet the new TESUP ATLAS 7, the World’s most preferred vertical wind turbine! It’s more powerful, durable, ergonomic and stylish than ever. With its new generator, it can generate up to 7 kWh of electricity per hour.* It’s designed and manufactured by TESUP, World’s leading household wind...

www.tesup.co.uk

Any thoughts most welcome!

sovietspybob · 11 May 2022 at 10:38

I'd be interested in this too, i have briefly looked into it but from what i saw they were all very expensive for quite a low output, like 600watts in a domestic property, nothing like the one you linked.

I think you might need planning for most of not all wind turbines though?

It seems like such an obvious choice on the face of it though being a windy island and in the darker months when you need electric the most is when it's the most windy.

booyaka · 11 May 2022 at 11:30

Expense and planning permission are your two biggest concerns to start with.

After that - cost to return ratio... How long till it's paid back etc......

katie279 · 11 May 2022 at 12:28

Yes, cost appears relatively low for the output (obviously dependent on the wind). In Scotland they appear either a bit more relaxed or progressive about this - seen a few around the village.

Might enquire around a bit and see what's out there!

katie279 · 11 May 2022 at 12:30

Actually appears relatively relaxed in England too in the right circumstances:

Planning permission for wind turbines - TheGreenAge

General guidance for wind turbines Planning permission for wind turbines depends on which region you live in the UK. If you live in England or Scotland, then certain wind turbines are permitted without planning permission, but they require adherence to strict conditions. In England...

www.thegreenage.co.uk

theone8181 · 11 May 2022 at 19:59

15m/s seems like quite a strong wind, how often does it blow that strong?

Welshman · 12 May 2022 at 06:44

People keep saying about pay back and how long that would take.

Theres only one thing that pays back more, is im paying for my eneergy, not paying someone else for their energy.

THATS THE PAYBACK

katie279 · 12 May 2022 at 08:31

theone8181 said:
15m/s seems like quite a strong wind, how often does it blow that strong?

Obviously depends! Average windspeed around us is 7m/s, so enough to generate (much like solar panels rarely are full generation - indeed even in the Sahara, solar panels are at best half their total as they generate nothing at night - unlike wind, so average needs careful translation), but through the winter months a 30mph wind isn't really that unusual to get max generation?

I particularly like the oppositional sense of this - ie when it's cloudy (and my solar is likely to be poor performing), it's much more likely to be windy. In summer, solar takes over, in winter the wind kicks in...

katie279 · 12 May 2022 at 08:36

This might be handy:

Weather Plymouth - Wind Summary

Local weather data for Plymouth Devon UK. Realtime weather and Lightning data updated every 10 seconds. Local 7 day weather forecasts updated 5 times a day using local data and model data. History of weather data from Jan 2011 including rainfall totals, wind, snow depths,frost, solar and UV.

www.bearsbythesea.co.uk

For is every month of the year eclipsed this comfortably as an average max.

One other thought is that wind is very different to solar as it 'gusts', so solar gives zero at night and gradual increase through the day, wind would give constant surges 24/7 with hundreds of peaks and troughs, so need to think about that a bit differently.

eddiemcgarrigle · 12 May 2022 at 11:08

Living at the top of a hill, these would be quite suitable for me. Relative low price compared to solar, just depends on the cost of fitting.

gc123 · 12 May 2022 at 15:09

funnily enough looked at the advert posted the other day for the tesup. then saw rip off britain today with a guy in congleton complaining about his wind turbine and lack of service from.....you guessed it tesup hmmmmm

mind you the best one was the lady who only had half her solar panels connected up and then only the north facing ones so generating 25% plus battery not connected and when complaining the company sent a engineer out who took the battery away for ...ahem a couple of days and never returned shocking service and quite scary when you think about the number of folk looking at solar and wind.

Firestar_3x · 12 May 2022 at 15:40

gc123 said:
funnily enough looked at the advert posted the other day for the tesup. then saw rip off britain today with a guy in congleton complaining about his wind turbine and lack of service from.....you guessed it tesup hmmmmm

mind you the best one was the lady who only had half her solar panels connected up and then only the north facing ones so generating 25% plus battery not connected and when complaining the company sent a engineer out who took the battery away for ...ahem a couple of days and never returned shocking service and quite scary when you think about the number of folk looking at solar and wind.

Good find.

BBC One - Rip Off Britain, Series 14, Episode 9

Featuring the family home devastated by floods of the very worst kind.

www.bbc.co.uk

26mins onwards.

Simon · 12 May 2022 at 20:39

Welshman said:
People keep saying about pay back and how long that would take.

Theres only one thing that pays back more, is im paying for my eneergy, not paying someone else for their energy.

THATS THE PAYBACK

But you pay the person making wind turbine instead ? The maths need to work still

a1ex2001 · 13 May 2022 at 06:37

Simon said:
But you pay the person making wind turbine instead ? The maths need to work still

Exactly unless you are doing it primarily to be green you need to work out the break even point ie how many years will it take for savings to match the outlay in what ever system is installed? Then you need to consider will the system will be working we’ll beyond me that point and will you likely still be living at the property! Only then can you see if it is worth the hassle/expense!

BUDFORCE · 13 May 2022 at 08:09

I wonder what the maintenance or operating period is?

You've got moving parts, I guess things can wear especially as this country you are subjecting them to wet/dry and what -10c to 40c (give or take).

Solar panels, I mean it's possible they can break if they got hot by a stone or something, but unlikely and they have a 25 year efficiency warranty, I'd imagine if you keep them clean solar panels would work indefinitely, or at least as long as you'd likely ever need them to.

If you have X cost for a turbine install, and then you have to change bearings every ten years, or the dynamo (?) wears out, you also have to factor costs in like that.

theone8181 · 13 May 2022 at 10:57

BUDFORCE said:
I wonder what the maintenance or operating period is?

You've got moving parts, I guess things can wear especially as this country you are subjecting them to wet/dry and what -10c to 40c (give or take).

Solar panels, I mean it's possible they can break if they got hot by a stone or something, but unlikely and they have a 25 year efficiency warranty, I'd imagine if you keep them clean solar panels would work indefinitely, or at least as long as you'd likely ever need them to.

If you have X cost for a turbine install, and then you have to change bearings every ten years, or the dynamo (?) wears out, you also have to factor costs in like that.

I bet maintenance gets heavily glossed over by a lot of companies.

katie279 · 13 May 2022 at 12:49

Good points here - will continue digging.

That said, only a matter of time before we start chatting about cable management and LED lighting on these solar and wind solutions.....

Simon · 13 May 2022 at 13:13

theone8181 said:
I bet maintenance gets heavily glossed over by a lot of companies.

But it’s ok as ‘your aren’t paying someone else for your energy’ apparently

BUDFORCE · 13 May 2022 at 14:21

Simon said:
But it’s ok as ‘your aren’t paying someone else for your energy’ apparently

Yea I have no idea what that guy was on about either, but each to their own.

Welshman · 13 May 2022 at 17:26

Simon said:
But it’s ok as ‘your aren’t paying someone else for your energy’ apparently

Correct, your not paying someone for your energy…..you’ve made a one off purchase of a wind turbine, which will then be used to harvest your own energy, therefore no further payments to a third party for energy costs.

unless you have taken out a loan to buy said wind turbine, then you would have onward payments to the loan company, but hopefully the OP wont need to do that.