Renewable energy

[Murphyv310]

Thanks Nick.
I'll be mounting it behind my shed with a galvanised steel pole cemented into the ground and supported at roof level to the shed. There will be ample clearance and in a good position to get good wind flow.
We are at one of the highest points in Kilmarnock which guarantees its never really calm here.
We can see Whitelee wind farm from the upstairs windows very easily.
See here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitelee_Wind_Farm

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
The turbine arrived on Wednesday. I'm impressed by the build quality, everything fits perfectly and the cover is well sealed from the weather. At 9kg it's not overly heavy. I've got a local engineering shop to sort out the pole and mounting. The charge controller takes the battery volts to 14.4v above that the output from the three phase motor are shorted effectively stopping the rotation. Once battery volts drop below 13.5v it restarts. That's ideal for me as the solar goes to 14.6v as a boost so the wind will stop at this point on a dull day and with current drawn over the charge rate will make the turbine kick in if its sufficiently windy. We will see how this all pans out once its up, hopefully next week.

Looks like a very good buy for the money, feedback on them looks promising.

[Diabolical Artificer]

I've been trying to save energy and water for years, but my 12 year old daughter is undoing all my good work mainly by taking long showers and now she wants a tumble dryer!! My lekky bill has nearly tripled since Xmas due to fitting a shower. We rent so no panels unfortunately.

Andy.

[Murphyv310]

We rent too Andy but I've 4 panels on the shed roof that is not an apex type and at the best angle for the sun.
The turbine is under the size for planning requirements in Scotland.
It may be an idea to speak with your landlord about solar as the government want people to go green plus it will increase the value of the property.

[BusyBee]

Good idea Trevor. I was thinking back to a conversation I had with my next door neighbour. He has been working with these sort of things and did mention that they could be put on a garage roof or even in the garden. Don't forget these solar farms have the panels mounted in fields. Perhaps the system could be removable such that you could take them with you if you move. A non permanent fixture would maybe circumvent any planning permission issues too.

I can understand your daughter Andy. I love showers too and would have one several times a day, which I do when on holiday. That's one reason why I am happy we don't have on lol.

Tracy

[Murphyv310]

Absolutely Tracy.
There is a distinct possibility that I'll relocate to Kenya within the next two or three years and the Solar and wind will go along with the Panda in a container amongst other items. Yes these items are not a permanent fitting.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
The wind turbine has been up just around a week. Strangely for here it's been very calm but yesterday the wind rose up. The forecast stated wind of 14mph and gusting to 26mph.
The result is very poor indeed, turbulence is the issue (which is a known issue in built up areas) the generator swings around madly with little blade movement. I'll give it another week as it's to be windy and see.
If no good I'll remove it and sell it oon ebay etc along with the pole. Someone will get a bargain but I'll stress it needs an open space to operate properly. All in including the pole and welding it to the flange plate it came to £180. I'd probably accept £120 although it would have to be collected.
We will see what a week does though.

The other issue is the Scottish draconian planning regs, confusing and illogical, in England there are no restrictions with exception of height and size of generator. Technically here you cannot install a kids experimental wind generator of even a face fan (working as a generator) as a permanent installation without permission. Strange as this part of the UK is renewables mad!!!

[BusyBee]

That's not good Trevor. I can understand the turbulance issue as I have issues with the way the wind blows down the drive at times. During the autumn leaves collect in certain places in the garden as the wind blows down the drive and circles round the back, funny gusts also catching the garage door unawares. Do you know if the turbulent area goes very high? Another point, which I know nothing about but is a thought - would addition damping on the rotation dampen the wildness such that things are improved, even down to fixing the direction of attack to the predominant wind direction?

I can see that a lot of turbulence would make it very inefficient though.

Tracy

[Murphyv310]

Yes Tracy.
Some good points you have raised.
I too feel the rotational side is far too sensitive, a damped bearing would help and yes a fixed position is a good idea.
Our winds in the main are southwest but can be easterly too.

[Nick]

Height above ground is very important - raising the turbine above the turbulence is vital.

These small generators are borderline on cost/effectiveness. We have a pretty "green" house - when designing and building it, we spent some time at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) at Machynlleth in Wales.

Even though our site is on top of a hill in one of the highest points in Kent, plus we have pretty much uninterrupted views from the South clockwise to the North East (the prevailing wind is SW, so clear access there), CAT stated that it was more cost-effective for us to forget photovoltaic and domestic wind turbines and to just buy electricity from renewable sources from a commercial supplier who can do this on an industrial scale. Yes, you lose that "warm feeling" of visibly doing your bit, but when you take a cold hard look at the numbers, including ALL the costs associated with doing this stuff yourself, going to a commercial supplier is generally far greener and more effective.

I should also point out that I used to work for a company whose owner also owned one of the largest domestic wind turbine companies in the UK, so I could have got a very cheap/free turbine... but the guy had installed one of the turbines at his own house (a rather magnificent Queen Anne house on top of the North Downs) and even he couldn't get it to work consistently and reliably! It was removed after a few months...

So we currently purchase off of Bulb (my referral link) which guarantees 100% renewable source electricity and use a ground source heat pump plus other green tech.