B&Q Windmills?

[leeglf]

my dad has got a wind generator at his house that charges a bank of old forklift batteries (24v) and the power from that goes through an inverter and powers all the lights in my parents house!

my dads well into alternative energy he absolutely loves his hybrid car!

[Funkstar]

i'm hoping that in a few years this becomes far more wide spread. By that time i'd be looking to moving into a larger place, hopefully somewhere with it's own roof and garden so i can seriously consider these technologies.

[Bluecube]

Forgot to add. You do need planning permission but in Scotland at least it's supposed to be a mere formality unless it's going up on a listed building.

[Rave]

there was something on the news yesterday about them. They were interviewing a guy that has panels and a turbine and actually made £20 last year on exporting electricity to the grid

Wow- £20! How much did the panels and turbine cost him? Any chance of him breaking even in the next 100 years? (assuming the panels are still working then, which they won't be ).

Sorry, but right now in this country photovoltaic panels are a complete waste of money and effort, unless you live somewhere so far 'off grid' that hooking up a mains connection would be £20k+. We just don't get enough sun for the panels to repay their installation cost within their working lifespan. That could change of energy costs continue to rise, of course, but right now- no.

As for the turbine- it's a good idea, but really whether it's worth it depends on its overall overage power output. If it can manage an average of 100W over the course of a year then that's approx 20p a day at current electricity prices, or ~£70 a year. At £1500, that's over 20 years to breakeven. Originally on the product's site it quoted a price of £1000- is the difference all B&Q price gouging?

[BlindMelon7]

Somewhere it is claimed they pay themselves off in three years, I'm thinking that might be an "up to" situation. I do agree with Rave about panels. This is england right? As for wind... depends where you are. I think the future is in big windmills if people would stop complaining about "the noise", whichI find quite calming, and "how horrible they look". I think they look amazing personaly.

The people who object are just fascist OAPs who dont care because it wont effect them and who enjoy complaining about them because they have nothing else to do.

[Funkstar]

Wow- £20! How much did the panels and turbine cost him? Any chance of him breaking even in the next 100 years? (assuming the panels are still working then, which they won't be ).

The £20 was the surplus after powering his family home. I have no idea how much he saved a year on his electricity.

Solar panels do not need direct sunlight to produce electricity, ambient light is fine. Efficiency is going up all the time and costs are coming down.

[greektony]

Rave = party pooper

[Rave]

Rave = party pooper

Hey, if you want to rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish thousands of pounds on a photovoltaic installation that'll never repay it's installation cost, and may not even generate as much energy as was used to manufacture it, be my guest. Just be under no illusions that it's a sensible idea.

In this country, wind power, on both a macro and micro scale, is an excellent idea. In fact I'm so keen on it that I'm thinking of trying to build my own micropower turbine. Solar water heating is also a good idea, which could well repay it's installation cost within 10-15 years. Photovoltaics- really not worth bothering with. In southern Europe, Australia, California etc. they're viable, here they're not.

[Waka]

I replaced my old combi-coiler 2 years ago with a 'state of the art' condensing boiler. At that time I was told that a new type of boiler was about to be released that was 'so efficient' that it would generate all the electricity you need and more so you could sell some back to the electricity companies.

Good job I didn't wait then. :-(

W.

[BUFF]

At that time I was told that a new type f boiler was about to be released that was 'so efficient' that it would generate all the electricity you need and more so you could sell some back to the electricity companies.

probably micro CHP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroCHP

[Rack]

It's incredible that there are not many large solar farms in Australia, and we have huge areas with 300+ days of blistering sunshine. It's rediculous.

Same here though, bring on the wind farms.

*did someone delete my other post? I'm sure I wrote one the other day in this thread...

[KBeee]

Ecologically sound reasoning going on here...
"We'll use slave/child labour to dig the minerals - then a ferociously polluting plant to extract the usable materials - then we'll ship these "pure organic" elements to the first world where with just 3,000 units of electricity they can make a panel that produces 1kWH per day...."
That'll save the Planet....

[TheAnimus]

photovolatics are getting better thou!

an amp with a 1kW raiting won't use anything like 1kw, if its badly designed 400W tops. (has a little rant about how power raiting on amps is as moronic as bi-wiring, and how it goes to show most HiFi people are just really ignorant about electronics)