Saving Energy with Wind Power

A question about : Saving Energy with Wind Power

Martin, I do not know if this is a money saving idea but it is a world energy crises saving. Have you heard of the yes2wind campaign?

https://www.yes2wind.com/

and using NPower Juice for wind energy.

https://www.npower.com/greenelectricityand50pounds

It seems they are not allowed to advertise this new source of energy so we have to do it for them.

I would really like to know that you are not just showing people how to save money but also how to save our planet. With Wind Power it could be powering homes with clean renewable energy that does not pollute the air or contribute to climate change.

How about an article on saving energy?

Debbie

Best answers:

• Check out this link as well. I like the sound (and look) of the Swift turbine.
  https://www.hie.co.uk/aie/wind_power.html
  https://www.hie.co.uk/swift-rooftop-w...rgy-system.pdf
• I would love one of those electricity generating windmill thingys. I Live right at the top of a hill, and can see for miles from my bedroom windows. I am sure with one of those generators I could seriously cut down on the amount of fuel I would use, just for my own house. Then I will only have to work out how I can cut down the amount of times my house needs re grouting over a period of years, and I would be sorted.
• Oh wow I'd love one of these Wonder how much they cost??( Website doesn't say)
• The website say they will cost Ј7,700 now in the development stage, and Ј1500 installed when they get into full production, can't wait to get one, we also live on a hill, we got wind in bucketloads!
• I don't think a home turbine is going to be economically viable for a domestic customer. Do it, if you want, for other reasons, but not because it's a good investment of your cash.
  We stayed in a holiday cottage which had no mains electricity, and just a wind turbine. We had NO power out of it in an entire fortnight, because the wind was either non-existent or blowing the wrong way.
• No wind for 2 weeks is poor luck, but I agree you can't count on a turbine for elecy all the time. However, the Swift turbine isn't being touted on the basis of replacing your mains electricity 24/7 in order to be economically viable.
  As I understand it, the way it pays off is that when it is windy, you have surplus elecy, which feeds into the grid and you get credits for it. The credits offset your usage of grid elecy when it isn't windy. Plus you get paid some incentives, because the power you are feeding into the grid is from renewable sources.
  They reckon that the average British house gets enough wind over an average year to save about Ј400 on your elecy bill. If that is right, you would pay for the Ј1500 installation cost in about 4 years, and you are quids in from then on.
  That's what is so appealing about this. Not only are you helping slow down global warming and pollution, but you are also saving money in the long run. And you are partially self sufficient, if there's a power failure like the one on the US Eastern seaboard, a while back.
  Got to say that I do wonder if there is some sort of catch, but haven't seen one yet. I'm hoping to get one this summer.
• I'm all for renewable and environmentally friendly energy but wind turbines, as well as having eviromental costs in terms of birds and landscapes also havve dodgy ecenomics if you factor in whole life costs (eg production, siting) and the requirement to keep backup capicity available at short notice due to vaguries in the power source. I'm not saying it will never work but please find out the details before embracing something for its greenness.
• I wonder how easy it would be to build a DIY wind generator. Not impossible, I suggest.
  The basis of my thinking is:
  - the propellor design would be the most technically challenging aspect. Perhaps this element can be bought at half-reasonable cost, or made from fibreglass once you have a design
  - the propellor would then go through a simple homemade gear box, to drive a generator producing up to 12 volts to charge one or more car batteries.
  What else could the high-tech companies add to their products? I would hope that a DIY vesion might have a higher return on investment, even if it was only half as efficient, for some reason, as a commercial version.
  Regards
  George
• I swithced to Npower Juice, it is cheaper than British Gas and the power is generated by one of those windmills. Saves me money and saves our earth. By switching over I voted for a cleaner and healthier earth.
• you are not helping the enviroment by "going green", instead you are paying for a free service.
  By 2010 all suppliers have been set legislation as to how much of the energy they produce is re-newable (in scotland it is lower as scotland is smaller than england). therefore, the extra that you pay for the "green" is just more money for something that they have to do anyway.
• I've been thinking about a little home wind energy project recently. The side road running past my mum's house is a dumping ground for abandoned cars. My plan was simply to grab the alternator, reg/rec and battery out of one of them and then hook it all up to a homemade wind turbine of some description. Then I could wire it in to a cheapo inverter from Maplin and use it to run her telly or something. I doubt it's produce much power overall, but given that the total cost would be the price of the inverter and whatever I use to make the turbine (I'll grab the necessary wire from a skip) I still think it'd be worthwhile from a monetary point of view. Since the car parts would probably be crushed by the council otherwise, I can't see how it could fail from an environmental perspective either.
  I just need to read up on the regulator/rectifier side of things. I suspect that I might have difficulty persuading the alternator to spin fast enough for it to start taking a charge.
• Well if anyone does rig up a wind turbine thingie in their back yard, you can sell the excess power to the national grid. Probably not viable in my urban mid-terrace yard, though! There always putting a solar power thingie on the roof to collect energy, there are quite a few 50% grants around for that. Still quite pricey though. The council in my area was doing a pilot project were people rented them for heating their water, I think it was only council tenants that got to take part in the pilot project.
• Hi,
  I have no experience with this company but noticed that they were going
  a turnbine for Ј995, that plug's into your ring main...
  The device generates 1kw as 12ms and will in the near future have a grant from the clearskies project - installation is around Ј250 - Ј300
  The device has an Renewable Obligations Certificate - generating a revenue of Ј60 per year before any advantage from the renewable energy
  The device is likely to save the average houshold 1/3 off their energy bill
  https://www.windsave.com
  Regards