Anybody have their own domestic wind turbine?
 

As I live in the middle of a windy field I was consdering whether one of these is practical, possible or sensible?!

Has anyone done it or know someone who has done it?

Government grants would seem to mitigate the initial investment. For me a five year TCO would more than get back the ownership - apparently.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Plenty of domestic wind, just no turbine :eek:;)

No but i have my own nuclear reactor chugging out a few watts in the basement:)

Here's a few thoughts:

- are you planning or expecting to stay in the same location for the next five years?

- will having the turbine increase or decrease the value of your property, and does that affect the economics? (Free power vs eyesore)

- how much energy is used to manufacture the turbine in the first place? How much environmental benefit is there in building one and running it over the course of its design lifetime?

Proven, are one of the leading manufacturers in the world and are based in Scotland. The grants arent that great for England. I worked out youll be looking between 5-10 years to recoup you money. Have you got the average wind speed for your location, they start rotating at about 4m/s for them to produce enough energy. Have you considered battery storage or selling the excess back to ther grid?

Noise aspect, if they are more than 30-35 metres from your or anybody elses property, then are virtually silent. Visual aspect, I think they look quite neat and if you did decide to move you could take it with you;)

Thanks - Proven are the guys I have been looking at.

I have around ten acres of land and so it can be located a long way from any property. It also means I can get a large enough one to sell back to the grid to recoup the investment.

All at the investigative stage at the moment.

Oh, and yes there is plenty of wind, especially in the winter when I need the power most.

I see quite a few out here in the West Country so they must be worth having I suppose. Don't know anything about them myself though.

Les

Did you get your turbine?

Read something in the paper about B&Q are going to start selling wind turbine's and solar panel's , it mention a price of under £1500 , :D

Do you want to do it to save money or out of a desire to know you're being green, or perhaps a desire for other people to see you're being green?

If the former then it's far more cost effective to spend the same money on power saving measures. These domestic turbines have ridiculous pay back times in the 10 to 20 years. That's never going to make sense. The slightest set back, slightly less windy than you planned, a single mechanical failure in say year 4, will wipe these savings out immediately.

Don't know if you're aware but even the largest wind farms only make commercial sense because of the huge subsidies being paid by the government so there's no way a small domestic one is even going to come close to being economic.

If you want to have a warm feeling that you're doing something for the environment (although knowing rationally inside that it doesn't really make sense) then go for it.

http://www.niesmart.co.uk/dchp.htm

:thumb:

Plenty in Bradford with Turbans.:D