B & Q Wind Turbine

[kevallsop]

The obvious thing would be for each B&Q store to have one installed, coupled to an in-store display showing real-time and historic output data.

[Dave Liquorice]

This is very true. The hark on about loft insulation, HW tank insulation, double glazing, LE lamps, and make some paltary grants available if you qualify (generally meaning you have to be on state benefit of one form).

If they where really serious they would ensure that every house was

*properly* insulated and draft proofed with correct attention paid to ventilation. But loft insulation isn't sexy and doesn't show, you don't get many votes from it.

[Harry Bloomfield]

These types of stores are usually built where there is a great deal of open space or at least large car parks, such that the wind would be less turbulent than it would be if installed at a typical semi. Air turbulence makes a big difference to the efficiency of a windmill and none of this seems to have been taken into account.

Therefore it would not be a fair comparison of likely output once installed at a B&Q customers site.

[Dave Liquorice]

Quite likley. I spotted a small, very much B&Q like, turbine on a house near us this morning. I've not seen it before so I fairly sure it is very new. Now this house is just above the 440m (1440') contour and directly exposed pretty much all the way from South to North via West. Superb open views across the South Tyne valley just like us.

This morning at the time I drove past (0745) my anemometer (at 1400') was giving a mean speed of F6 Strong Breeze 25mph NW'ly gusting to the mid

30's mph. This turbine was hardly rotating. Now I don't know what the design RPM is for these things in that sort of wind but I should imagine it's a little more than the 20 or 30 RPM (2 sec or more per revolution) that this one was doing. It looked to me as if it was being braked, I don't think the blades were feathered.

I half know the people who live there I shall have to enquire... Note that this house is probably in a pretty ideal location, so if it isn't making a decent amount of power most of the time a similar turbine elsewhere just isn't going to do anything useful, at least as far as energy generation is concerned.

For us F0 to the start of F6 Strong Breeze (25mph+ sustained) is not windy at all. F6 is a "little windy" but nothing out of the ordinary. "Windy" is F7 Near Gale (32mph+ sustained), in winter any decent Atlantic depression will produce winds to that level (5 in Nov, 9 in Dec, 4 in Jan so far...). "Very windy" is F8 Severe Gale (42mph+ sustained), just 4 in the last couple of months. Gust speeds are generally 10mph above the sustained speed with the odd half dozen/hour 15 to 20mph above the sustained speed. Vistors nearly always comment on the wind and unless it really is blowing a Gale our reponse is normally "What wind?"...

[Tony Bryer]

Google the "Merton Rule" being enforced by numerous planning authorities - new schemes to get 10% of their energy from renewables. AIUI use 100 units, 10% from renewables, fine. Redesign to cut the usage to 90 or less, no renewables, no good.

But gesture politics is nothing new.

[kevallsop]

Fair point, but it would at least show whether the things worked at all. Perhaps the manufacturers should enter into a deal with some domestic customers, supplying and fitting instrumented turbines in typical locations at reduced price. In return they would be supplied with output data.

[David Hansen]

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:00:28 +0000 (GMT) someone who may be "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote this:-

Debatable. Some, certainly.

While there are undoubtedly people who want to show off, just as people once did with television aerials, I suspect that the majority of people who look into such things do so in rather a less shallow way. They would then come across government advice on the subject, such as

says

"If you?re thinking about investing in a wind turbine, a solar panel or another micro-renewable technology, make sure you?ve limited your demand for energy first!

"If you have a well insulated home and have reduced your demand for energy, you may be able to reduce your home?s CO2 emissions if you add micro-renewables"

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You have a rather more charitable view of folk than me. The very fact that B&Q sell them will give many the idea they will work in the area that store serves. After all twerps like drivel set great store on who sells electronic scale 'preventers'. Argos - at one time at least - wanted your postcode before selling you a FreeView tuner, since they won't yet work anywhere. Yet it's easy to find out which areas are covered. I'm sure you can think of other examples.

If that's the real quote it's poor English. 'Energy' is missing between 'renewable' and 'technology'. Although it's a Freudian slip - things like wind generators on the vast majority of domestic premises *will* need renewing long before they've paid the initial investment.

At least that bit *may* be correct. The jury is out on whether it reduces overall CO2 emissions rather than just at the point of use.

[meow2222]

Why would any company do something that would a) cost them money b) wipe out 99% of sales ?

NT

[Aidan]

Maybe they'd put it on the wrong house.

[Stuart Noble]

Just off to hang the washing out. The wind may not drive a turbine but it will do the same job as a tumble dryer for free. I doubt if any of it really needed washing anyway

[Peter Parry]

One was fitted on a school around here about 12 months back amongst a flurry of the usual greenwash propaganda. The suppliers made a condition of contract that the output data would not be supplied to anyone outside the school.

I wonder why?