Urban wind generation

[nicnaim]

Newbie first post, so please be gentle with me. 

I've just come across this excellent site recently, and I have been ploughing through a lot of the old threads.  It strikes me that from What Martin has said in particular, that there seems little hope of successfully generating wind energy in an urban setting, which means that people like me are scuppered.

Is there anybody out there who has managed to find a solution to using turbines in an urban setting, or is it really a non-starter? 

I've actually got as far as applying for, and in fact received planning permission for a turbine on my house.  I was not sure that I would get it as I live in a conservation area.  However the more I research the topic, the less feasible it seems to be to come up with a turbine that is worth installing, to generate power rather than simply parade my "Green credentials". 

I've got the message about Windsave, and it would seem that the Swift has a few problems too!  Is there anyone who can offer any encouragement or advice.

Regards

Nic

[Alan]

Welcome Nic

Urban environment and solar electric / water or a  Heat pump with bore hole is the way to go. Wind generation not the way to go.

You came to the correct conclusion with out help required

Regards

Alan

[nicnaim]

Alan,

Thanks for the welcome, and the rather sad news that wind energy may not be viable for me.  Are there any other views, or is this likely to be the view of the the vast majority?

Regards

Nic

[martin]

I think you'll find all the chocolate teapot companies are now rapidly back-pedalling as their ludicrous claims have been shot to pieces - 6 months ago, a certain company was claiming that one of their rewound washing machine motors could generate a third of the average home's consumption, in an average town
A couple of weeks ago, we saw the MD of the company admit on Newsnight that the true figure was £10-worth pa in a town! (and I reckon that's highly optimistic!)
I think the bubble has burst at long last  - I am no longer fending off innumerable 'phone calls from people wanting the blessed things!
If you still have doubts, get yourself a cheapie weatherstation, and bung the sensors where you were thinking of putting the turbine, and collect some proper data for a few months - at a tenth of the price of a teapot!
For decent chapter and verse, I can't recommend better than the Danish windpower site  http://www.windpower.org/en/tour.htm
I think you'll find that everyone who actually does know about wind and turbines will tell you exactly the same!

[martin]

ps, particularly this page! - http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/obst.htm

[Paulh_Boats]

Now that the bubble has burst turn your attention to realistic professional wind farms:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/vids/naturespower_broadband.html

After watching that sign up (AT NO EXTRA COST) to Npower Juice to get 100% of your electricity from the North Hoyle offshore wind farm:

http://www.npower.com/At_home/Juice-clean_and_green.html


Its a no-brainer really. Hurry because numbers are limited.

cheers
Paul

[martin]

I'm too busy flogging turbines to people who DO have a viable site on which to erect them!

[Paulh_Boats]

I'm too busy flogging turbines to people who DO have a viable site on which to erect them!

That's excellent news Martin, keep up the good work!

[nicnaim]

Gentlemen,

Thank-you for the informative replies and links, which I will look at in more detail tomorrow. 

Paul, unfortunately I had a bit of a bust up with Npower last year, after switching to them and being fed a load of garbage about reducing my bills, which left me well short of actual total I needed to pay, based on their advice for setting up my direct debits.  Without going into all the details I ended up having an erroneous transfer agreed back to my original supplier.  I am not sure they would welcome me back, and they were more expensive anyway.

Martin, I am delighted to hear that business is booming, just sorry that my location is not suitable.  I visited an off grid system last Friday using a Whisper 100, where the wind was so strong that it was in permanent furl mode the whole time I was there!  No problems with turbulance at that site, and a really interesting set up using solar and wind that was inspiring.

Regards

Nic