Wind In West London

[martin]

 

[CeeBee]

I'm sure there is a much more recent BRE report which looked at urban turbines (I always want to call them 'turbanes')

"Urban turbine"? Sounds like a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band lyrics e.g. here.

"I'm the Urban Turbine, baby,
I've got speed..."
...
[can anyone compose the lines which go here?]
...ending
"I'm the Urban Turbine, baby, here comes the twist.
I don't exist."

Could become a Navitron anthem. It's got to be better than the only known Navitron Song so far.

[martin]

"I'm the urban teapot baby,
I'm all hype
I'm the urban teapot baby
I don't work
I'm a swindlesaving flop...........

I don't make current
I don't sound good
If you put me on the roof
I'd just fall off again
I'm the urban teapot baby
I'm a fiddle
I'm a bloody scam

I wake you every morning with a racket on the roof
My natural inferiority spills out all over the place
I'm the urban teapot baby
I'm expensive and cr*p
Know what I mean?

I always let my friends down
I've never made an amp
I'm a glossy apology
And advert for stupid
I'm the urban teapot baby, now comes the twist
I (sadly) exist..........."

[Stuboy]

Come on now lads, try and stay focused on the teapo.... no i mean job in hand.
Just been on the gadget show web site as they recommended a weather station (all the others weren't very accurate) but there are only picks on the site, useless!  Anyone remember which one they recommended, else its the £20 option and a cctv camera up yer pole. 
From the people i've spoken to PV is more expensive than wind?  Now I'm not trying to start a war here but what's peoples fealing on that knowing our rather poor sun record in the uk? 

[martin]

Actually, for where you are, pv is really cheap in comparison to wind...........
This will probably explain why..........it's an interview by Newsnight of the MD of Windsave, during which he admits that you'd be lucky to generate £10 worth of electricity per annum in an urban area with one of his company's teapots
http://epogee.co.uk/e107_plugins/ytm_gallery/ytm.php?view=WVo0WvuX7K0&p=1
Current cost of one teapot £1800 - therefore 180 years to pay back  - times 2 = 360 years (it draws around £5 worth of electricity per annum from the mains to keep the inverter running) - estimated life of teapot 10 years!
Then photovoltaics.........we don't get as much sun as Southern Europe, but in the South of England we do a lot better than a lot of Northern Europe
(a good general amateur's site all about pvs) - http://www.zonnepanelen.wouterlood.com/index_uk.htm
The point is that if you haven't got the wind, wind is by far the most expensive sort of renewable energy.........

[CeeBee]

From the people i've spoken to PV is more expensive than wind?  Now I'm not trying to start a war here but what's peoples feeling on that knowing our rather poor sun record in the uk? 

Certainly not a war! I think everyone on here is happy to give anything that works a go.

I've got PV but I've not got wind :-) So comments on the former more likely to be correct. You know pretty precisely where you stand with PV. For a given amount of panels (measured in kWp - kilowatt peak), obviously not shaded, the amount of energy you're going to get can be predicted fairly accurately. Approximately 900kWh per year for 1kWp of panels in the UK (less if you were located in some of the less sunny areas on Martin's map above).

Of course PV output is produced during the day. Perhaps irrelevant for a battery system. For grid-tie, daytime might not always be when you want the electricity yourself, but it's certainly when the country as a whole wants it, therefore might be valued more highly than wind in some sense (c.f. Economy 7 tariff).

[billi]

my windturbine  and my PV are both rated to be 1.6 kw
We are in a windy and sunny costa brava del Irland 
The windturbine is mounted on the top of a hill no trees and buildings  (anual windspeed 6-7 m/s)
It was costing three times less  then the pv , but donot expect to last as long perhaps half the time ?
Sure it is a cheapish canadian/chinese model 
for the last three month (thats the time it is up ) the performance comes nothing near to the PV
Sure its summer

But love it and think together they are a great team

I have a problem with all my neighbours and visitors  , they all think we only live with the turbine and cannot quite belive me about that black piece of an panel to produce 1.2 kwh -1.6 kwh an hour on a good day ( upto 11kwh highest per day yet)
and there has been a lot of good days ...
The highest performence of the windturbine was 1.2 kw (this not per hour cause it is so unsteady ) output is going up and down so fast ....

Any how the possibility of having PV for households all over the country could be possible
Having a productive windgenerator  is limited to a few houses


Billi

[Ivan]

How far from Bantry are you, Billi?

[billi]

Ivan

about 30 min drive 

I think you had a workshop there a few years ago ....

[AndyB]

I have both 1Kw wind & 300w solar & 30 tubes in a Rural area in Kent but turbine is a waste of time, does look nice though!!!

I'm going to be adding to both PV & another 30 tubes.

Andy

[Ivan]

Yes, indeed. We ran a solar workshop at the house of a good friend of mine. His house is straw bales, with turf roof - I'm sure you must know him!

[neil21]

If you're wondering about how much solar and wind energy you could generate, you could do worse than stick an anemometer up for a few months, and then compare the output to various manufacturers' power curves.

[dhaslam]

It should be possible to generate power from low winds.    The problem is that the area needs to be quite big and there also needs to be protection from high winds.    I am planning a vertical axis wind turbine with closable wings made from sailcloth.   The wing position will be be controlled by stepper motors linked to the wind speed.   Maximum collection area about thirty square metres.   The generator will probably have maximum output of 2Kw,  which is theoretically possible at 5ms, also 1kw at 4ms and .5kw at 3ms.    Because the wind speed is over 3ms here for 60% of the time  it should work.    The biggest problem is getting the design of the basic system as efficient as possible.      Unfortunately in towns wind speeds are rarely up to 3ms..   At my previously house in town the normal daily maximum was about 2ms.