B&q Wind Turbine

[Brad_Naylor]

just out of interest what is the average cost per unit (kwh)of electricity at the moment in the uk, compared to our 11.4p, maybe a uk poster could enlighten?

 

Because of the lack of corelation between energy need and the wind blowing the majority of the revenue you will make from a wind turbine will be from selling energy back to the grid. In the IOM you will get, when I last looked, 2.7p per KWH for selling energy.

 

Unless you are willing to put in batteries and convert a significant amount of your house over to 15v dc you must do your calculations on 2.7p per unit and not 11.4p.

 

The B&Q units dont feed back to the grid AFAIK, it feeds up to 1 KW into the house via a gizmo, above that the mains take over, sorry if I'm being overly technical

[Albert Tatlock]

According to B&Q online the price is £1498.00

 

Assuming 10p per KWh that's a saving of (24*10p) = £2.40 per day

 

£1498/2.40 = about 624 which is about 2 years.

 

However, there are days when there is no wind, and for it to be effective you would have to use 1KW of electricity all night (e.g. freezer, Fridge or leave your dishwasher/washing machine to work while you are in bed).

[Albert Tatlock]

Incidentally, if you bought a field and 1000 of these and sold the electricity back to the MEA you would go into profit in your sixty fourth year of operation.

[Brad_Naylor]

just out of interest what is the average cost per unit (kwh)of electricity at the moment in the uk, compared to our 11.4p, maybe a uk poster could enlighten?

Not a UK poster - but being there at the moment I can tell you it's 20.339p per day standing charge + 3.1p per KWh (Powergen).

 

Edited to add: sorry talking bollocks - that's gas.

 

Electricity is first 225 KWh per quarter 18.02p and additional KWh 9.95p

 

Thanks for the reply Albert, Ive unpacked my bags again now due to your edit

[thebees]

Incidentally, if you bought a field and 1000 of these and sold the electricity back to the MEA you would go into profit in your sixty fourth year of operation

 

No you wouldn't, you have to pay to put electric back onto the grid and you also have to pay the daily charge. Unless you had taken that in to consideration ofc....

[Albert Tatlock]

Incidentally, if you bought a field and 1000 of these and sold the electricity back to the MEA you would go into profit in your sixty fourth year of operation

 

No you wouldn't, you have to pay to put electric back onto the grid and you also have to pay the daily charge. Unless you had taken that in to consideration ofc....

It was tongue in cheek - I didn't allow for maintenance either, or for signs saying "get arf my laaaahnd!". I thought they paid you 2.47p for every KW you put back.

 

I'm pretty sure there'll be someone at the MEA willing to lend me the money to give it a try though

[Chinahand]

According to B&Q online the price is £1498.00

 

Assuming 10p per KWh that's a saving of (24*10p) = £2.40 per day

 

£1498/2.40 = about 624 which is about 2 years.

 

However, there are days when there is no wind, and for it to be effective you would have to use 1KW of electricity all night (e.g. freezer, Fridge or leave your dishwasher/washing machine to work while you are in bed).

 

Albert are you really an engineer? Straight line projections are really not clever.

 

Your house will not need the output from the Turbine continuously.

 

Put in a load factor of approx 75%.

 

The wind will no where near blow sufficiently to supply full rating on these turbines full time.

 

From B&Q's figures zero output at wind speeds below 3.5 m/s (12.6 Kmh). Full output only at 12.5 m/s (45 Kmh). Isle of Man average wind speed after some maths 24.6 kmh.

 

Average output from wind turbine 0.37 KWh.

 

This gives a payback of 7.2 years. But its even worse than that because the 24.6 kmh average wind speed isn't continuous and there are gusts etc. To quote B&Q

Wind speed figures assume a steady value, as gusts to this figures will not always provide maximum output

 

So there is another adjustment: take your pick. 75%, 80% or 90%

 

Payback between 8 and 10 years.

[lectro]

I think it is fantastic that these products are now available as consumer units as it means that the prices will slowly come down and the technology will improve.

[Albert Tatlock]

According to B&Q online the price is £1498.00

 

Assuming 10p per KWh that's a saving of (24*10p) = £2.40 per day

 

£1498/2.40 = about 624 which is about 2 years.

 

However, there are days when there is no wind, and for it to be effective you would have to use 1KW of electricity all night (e.g. freezer, Fridge or leave your dishwasher/washing machine to work while you are in bed).

 

Albert are you really an engineer? Straight line projections are really not clever.

 

Your house will not need the output from the Turbine continuously.

 

Put in a load factor of approx 75%.

 

The wind will no where near blow sufficiently to supply full rating on these turbines full time.

 

From B&Q's figures zero output at wind speeds below 3.5 m/s (12.6 Kmh). Full output only at 12.5 m/s (45 Kmh). Isle of Man average wind speed after some maths 24.6 kmh.

 

Average output from wind turbine 0.37 KWh.

 

This gives a payback of 7.2 years. But its even worse than that because the 24.6 kmh average wind speed isn't continuous and there are gusts etc. To quote B&Q

Wind speed figures assume a steady value, as gusts to this figures will not always provide maximum output

 

So there is another adjustment: take your pick. 75%, 80% or 90%

 

Payback between 8 and 10 years.

Don't be an arse - I was guestimating and I did say there would be days with no wind. There are a raft of factors involved.

 

The real question that people should be asking is why the hell does it cost £1500 when you could put something similar together for >£200. B&Q are taking advantage of environmentalists IMHO.

[x-in-man]

Also -

The units have a safe life of 10 years.

 

They dont state a warranty period. This will be site survey dependent. I suspect that here they will only offer a year, due to winds and the salty environment.

 

So to speak all technical like - you could be buggered after the first year alone.

 

Rumour has it B&Q will be selling Chocolate fire guards next week.

[Tempus Fugit]

How much were the panels and the turbine. I picked up a leaflet but it seemed to deliberately avoid cost.

 

According to the leaflet with a combi boiler i would only need 1 x panel.

 

does your combi boiler feed a hot water cylinder or is it just an 'on demand' system ?

(if you havn't got a hot water cylinder you havn't got anything to heat with the solar panel)

[manxchatterbox]

couldn't two or three neighbours club together and share the cost and share the supply??

[x-in-man]

How much were the panels and the turbine. I picked up a leaflet but it seemed to deliberately avoid cost.

 

According to the leaflet with a combi boiler i would only need 1 x panel.

 

does your combi boiler feed a hot water cylinder or is it just an 'on demand' system ?

(if you havn't got a hot water cylinder you havn't got anything to heat with the solar panel)

 

You can pre heat the input water supply for your combi with a panel. Anyone living in a Kelly home will know that the half arsed plumbers who put the system in ran the pipes in odd places.

 

During the summer my combi was registering a 35-38degree temp. of water in the supply, (thanks to the sun heating the water pipe) - and it was off!. Bags of piping hot water for the shower with the boiler thermostat right down low. Even now with the little sunshine (compared with the summer) my gas consumption has gone down from last year. B)

 

Just off to pay my £25 gas bill.

[Deejay Denzel]

couldn't two or three neighbours club together and share the cost and share the supply??

 

If 2 or 3 houses all connected their electricity up to the cells that this turbine would charge, the link to each house would bridge all your supplies together and give the supplies a terribly unsafe potential. if house 3 was using kW's of power and houses 1 & 2 weren't then the power would still be backfed down the tails.

I worked on a house in glen vine that had solar panels and a wind turbine, the guy was going to sell electricity back to the MEA which would be balanced off his bill.

I've found easier ways of making a living these days so I haven't been back to see how it is all going.

[Albert Tatlock]

couldn't two or three neighbours club together and share the cost and share the supply??

 

If 2 or 3 houses all connected their electricity up to the cells that this turbine would charge, the link to each house would bridge all your supplies together and give the supplies a terribly unsafe potential. if house 3 was using kW's of power and houses 1 & 2 weren't then the power would still be backfed down the tails.

I worked on a house in glen vine that had solar panels and a wind turbine, the guy was going to sell electricity back to the MEA which would be balanced off his bill.

I've found easier ways of making a living these days so I haven't been back to see how it is all going.

Yes indeed. I remember the episode of Trumpton where poor old Windy Miller did just that and his windmill went so fast one of the sails flew off. They had to call the fire brigade out, and Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb's hair all stood on end. It took poor old Chippy Minton at least three days to rebuild all the surrounding houses after the damage it caused, and Mr Bolt the Borough Engineer was very annoyed about it all.