All, Wandering around the local shed today I notice that they have started doing wind turbines for £1500 inc. installation and VAT.
The bumf says the following:
1) The turbine generates (up to) 1kW 2) It will save me (up to) 30% of my electricity bill 3) Planning permission is (probably) not needed - it equates it with a satellite dish. 4) The UK Government will (probably) stump up 30% of the cost. 5) It will pay for itself in (around) 7-12 years.Any thoughts?
Z.
unless you live on a cliff top you are not going to have enough wind to get even a tenth of a kilowatt.
The message from Zoinks contains these words:
You'd have to be amazingly gullible to expect item 2 to happen. Unless you live on a beach.
Great, one of the first of many ill-conceived green band wagon commercial money spinners, preying on those with less than adequate IQs. Net effect: further degradation of the aesthetics of our island and bugger all contribution to our carbon foot print. So long as it makes a buck and alleviates the guilt of your average 4x4 driver then that's okay then...
Yes. Take a look through the archives for this group and you will discover that this subject was done to death about 2 weeks ago, with the conclusion that you would be better off spending the £1500 on Lottery tickets.
Alternatively you can send it to me via Paypal where I promise that it will be put to better use than B&Q could make of it. Your return on investment would be the same in both cases.
Does he need to send you regular cheques for maintenance costs too?
Or Norfolk ...
Mary
This topic has been done to death earlier.
It will in winds that we get for about 5 days a year. It will generate about enough to make a torch bulb occasionally glow in usual circumstances. Work out what 12 meters a second is. And it does not decrease in a linear manner so 6 meters a second is not 0.5Kw, but just a few watts.
This claim is patently fraudulent.
Very doubtful and will probably cost £200 to get, if they allow it.
The thing has a stated life of about 10 years. It will generate about £60 a year if it's unusually windy.
As above
6) How to cope with neighbours complaining about the noise? Don
You're quite a few days behind us...
Economy with the truth, unless you live on an exposed hill/island it will be a fraction of that.
Do the arithmetic.
But it might shake the house a bit.
I'd like to see that in writing.
I think it has a projected life of 10 years.
Better that the more poluting Prius owners install them, they're more likely to be the target anyway...
The bumpf also says (from memory) and not my emphasis...
draw your own conclusions about the effect on return.
Jim A
Erm I think we did this a couple of weeks back!
Indeed it might - but fat chance of it doing so in the vast majority of urban environments.
Translated it will save less than 31% - no risk in that statement then.
Not if you stick it on top of a 30m tall tower, which is probably what would be required to get anywhere near to the claims in 1)
Aha! and there we have the whole reason for its existance!
Yeah, right.
No - UP TO ...
It's not here.
You don't have to have it on the house.
I think that's something to do with Blue Skies grants. I think they're being discontinued ... but are very restrictive.
I suspect there's a bit in small print about terms and conditions applying ...
What, me? Sceptical?
Yes.
Mary
Oh no. BACS would be fine. I hate dealing with paper cheques - waste of time.
Maintenance business on this kind of product would be a nice earner because there's no way to tell if it's working or not.
That's why I used the word ECONOMY - it's not the whole truth...it's misleading, whatever the greenies of this world might say...
Most of the target customer base have no other option, if they want it to turn at all. Of course, many of the greenies will want it just to show they have one, and turning is not essential.
Exactly - misleading again.
Apparently it says somewhere that 10 years is not guaranteed...
Then it is economy. Economy with the truth....
I'm sure that there is a knob in the controller which randomly applies some electricity to the windmill to turn it - scaled from dark to bright green.
Blue Skies...... very appropriate name.
Details, details... This is all about greeny feel good, don't confuse it with facts.
As far as I can tell, you don't save anything. The estimated time taken to recoup the installation costs is between 8 and 11 years. But the lifespan of these windmills is about ten years, less in coastal areas due to salt corrosion. So it would just about have paid for itself and then need to be replaced, effectively cancelling out any savings. Only certain properties are suitable. The B & Q Windsave is mounted on a 6ft pole which needs to be attached to the gable end of the property so that the blades are at least
30ft high. The blades also need to be out of the wind shadow of any tall buildings. The Windsave stars to generate electricity at 9mph, but the average wind speed across the UK is 12.5mph at 33ft above the ground, enough to power two 40watt bulbs. So apart from on very windy days the amount of electricity generated will be limited, and none at all when the wind speed falls below 9mph.When the wind speed is 28mph the Windsave will generate 1 kilowatt of power, enough to run a TV, DVD player, computer, fridge freezer and several lights. B & Q expects to sell between 20,000 and 50,000 a year and believes they will be a common feature of the skyline within 5 years. It reminds me of Sir Clive Sinclair's C5. Planning permission is needed at the moment, which costs at least £200.In message , Donwill wrote
I wonder how terrestrial digital TV will cope with the rotating blades on the same chimney as the TV aerial - let alone interference from badly maintained (or shoddily made) electrical generators.
My understanding is that the Windsave has to be mounted on the gable end of a property.
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