What did you coat yours with
With fuel costs going thro' the roof & not wanting to be dependant on the grid more than I need to be, I was thinking about a couple of small
wind turbines. I already have a 4kW grid tied solar array on the original max tariff, paid for itself long ago & now makes me around £2k a year in
payments & savings getting bigger every year & am thinking of adding more PV off grid, but obviously in winter PV doesn't do much, hence
why I wondered about wind
There is an amazing & confusing array of stuff around
Has anyone used one of these cheap £100ish Chinese things off Ebay? Will they genuinely generate 400W?
Further, there is stuff on Ebay that claims 8000W (yes, 8kW) from a small turbine - now that has to be ridiculous & quite surely, untrue, but what
does the so called 8000W jobby actually produce & is it significantly more than the 400W ones - the price really isn't that much different,
for instance if it made 800W instead of 400 then the difference in price would be well worth it
Any info welcome, thanks in advance
Stupid question but what happens when your not using the electricity? I too have been considering a wind turbine as my garden is very windy and almost
always from the same direction. My concern would be getting replacement parts, it's bound to go through bearings, even blades in storms. If you
bought a cheap one from China, would you be able to fix it if it broke??
Glad to hear you have started making money from your solar panels.
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
Glad to hear you have started making money from your solar panels.
I can't comment on the current stuff available but from a few years back when I was doing a lot of work on construction of new retail (mainly big
food supermarkets) there was quite a bit of work done on add-ons that at least gave the impression that the brand was being eco friendly and wind
turbines were one of the most obviously visible options as on most big shed retail units solar thermal or PV are out of sight. The conclusion we came
too after lots of analysis by the designers and consultants was that anything smaller than 15m high would never pay back either in terms of its
capital vs revenue costs or in terms of paying back its embodied CO2. i.e. the smaller ones were CO2 positive. Some of the retailers went ahead and
fitted them anyway to give the greenwash impression and there are some that were wired up so the blades were being turned around by motors as some
customers had said they had never seen them turning even on windy days...
A small town next to mine invested in two 10m high ones and found the same. Even though it was a windy location they were barely producing anything. 5
years later they quietly removed them.
Depending on location 15m tall just about works.
For any real benefit they need to be huge. Hence why offshore is the way forward and no complaints about the tip noise either.
Kind of related but not, am I the only one that thinks wind turbines look amazing? They are such graceful giants and when they are spinning I just can't help watching them.
quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
Kind of related but not, am I the only one that thinks wind turbines look amazing? They are such graceful giants and when they are spinning I just can't help watching them.
I looked into this year's ago as I had a cunning idea for a new turbine design that would easily fit to houses. Turns out the earth has to much drag, you need as others have said to be 15m up. I did work with someone who has ground based turbines on his land. He said he made money, but he was also always right so doubt if he'd admit they didn't.
I have used narrow boats for about 12 years for the first few years lots of boats had wind turbines now you are lucky to see any most private
narrow boats have solar panels now
Graham
quote:
I've been in Scotland over the past few weeks, and they're everywhere... it could be said that they disfigure the landscape - a valid point - but as a techie I'm impressed.
I've looked into DIY solar panels and just getting my Leccy mate to do the consumer unit bit.
I know I wont get the feed in tariff, but at £3600 for a 6kw kit plus I am a high user due to the wife's hot tub being switched on all year round
I think it's a no brainer.
Have you actually coated the hot tub? When we had it's I think I worked it out as 50 to 100 per month.
Ours is in a fully insulated summer house and works out at £25 to £30 a month.
What did you coat yours with
Argh, predicted text. Coat/ cost.
Having it inside a building will make a massive difference, ours was outside. Inherited with the house. When I finally disposed of it I discovered the
mice had taken a liking to ours. Guess it was warm and safe inside with walls with all that insulation even when turned off.
Feed in tarrifs, now called Smart Export Guarantees are pretty poor these days, about 3p per kw. I think the whole system is a bit of a mess these days, I’ve spoken with someone who is a small? generator using methane from landfill sites. The price he gets paid continually varies according demand, sometimes being negative so it will cost him to put power into the grid.
quote:
Originally posted by Schrodinger
quote:
I've been in Scotland over the past few weeks, and they're everywhere... it could be said that they disfigure the landscape - a valid point - but as a techie I'm impressed.
I live in the highlands and they are all over the place, one problem with them is that they only have a 25 year life and the "towers" are made of "plastic" which as we know is made from oil so they are not really that green. There are already questions being asked about decommissioning them and the only suggestion I have seen so far is that they could be cut up and used in children's playgrounds as slides etc.
