Author Topic: Wind Power for your smallholding or farm - Small Wind Turbines (Read 6276 times)

TraditionalPigs · « **on:** June 04, 2009, 12:16:40 am »

To find out about how you can both help the environment and save money by producing your own carbon free electricity for life please visit www.ewind.co.uk/home.htm

spitfire · « **Reply #1 on:** June 04, 2009, 07:32:58 pm »

Hi
Living on a windy hill, its something we've been looking at for a wee while but its the cost. finding £50,000 to install a turbine is a hefty investment. I know it saves in the long run but its still a staggering amount of money to find in a lump sum. I keep hoping the prices will fall when the government sees sense and starts to have mandetory turbines/solar energy in all new builds. I can dream!

harry · « **Reply #2 on:** June 04, 2009, 08:46:46 pm »

£50,000 for a turbine and you save in the long run?

?? how long do you intend to live, turbines must have a lifetime and must need maintanence, solar panels cost many thousands and have a short lifetime, someone on the telly installed solar panels at £50,000, he saves £500 per year on his electric bill,and they will be knackered in about 10-15 years, they were his figures, i think its all a load of bolxxxks and some people delude themselves as to savings.... and a waste of money unless there are no mains available..... i happen to know that B and Q sold off all theres cheap cause noone purchased any.

spitfire · « **Reply #3 on:** June 04, 2009, 08:59:52 pm »

I think one of the positives Harry is that we have a constant wind up here so our leccy bill would be negligible if we installed one but i agree- we would never see anywhere near the full amount back- thats why we haven't done it- even linking the 3 neighbouring farms up to the same turbine, we'd be pushing it!.

we have occational power cuts but hey-if its connected to the main power grid, we would have to shut it off to allow them to work on the lines so we would still be without power....

go figure!

we should all go back to living underground and use the earth as an insultator so no need for heating etc!!

coppacing will have to do us for now! at least we can enjoy the trees as they grow and they can keep us warm over winter!
Lynne

rustyme · « **Reply #4 on:** June 04, 2009, 09:04:09 pm »

make your own like the ones in the old American films .. you know the ones they used to pump water with .. well later on they used them to make elctricity with ... and they can still be made now , either with angle iron or wood. Get a large alternator from the scrappy and away you go ....A bit of time and £100 and you have almost free leccy.......just a thought !!!

cheers

Russ

spitfire · « **Reply #5 on:** June 04, 2009, 09:15:44 pm »

Thanks for that- why do peeps normally look at the hightech option when these things have been around since david was a boy so to speak...?hadn't considered sourcing an old alternator- just thought about the headache of storing the elec when we created it.....always looking for a project for my OH- he's just finished self building our polytunnel using wooden hoops!
I'll look into it and will give it a try even just to run the light in the chicken house over winter!

rustyme · « **Reply #6 on:** June 04, 2009, 09:23:59 pm »

no probs... yes people always tend to go for the ultra modern, multi £1000's no matter what it is. But as long as you don't want mega watts from it, you can get small amounts of leccy very nearly free. I know for long term life you need deep cycle batteries and not car batteries, but if you can get a few old heavy duty 4x4 or tractor batts, then just run the alternator into them and then use an inverter if need be , that way you can run electric items some distance from the windmill....12v doesn't travel well , the losses get huge over distance, 240 volt is fine though .

cheers

Russ

rustyme · « **Reply #7 on:** June 04, 2009, 09:48:32 pm »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Windmills-Wind-Motors-P-Powell/dp/0917914279/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244148321&sr=8-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzWHABseL2c

I have a copy of this book ...some excellent info in there ...the youtube film shows just one of the windmills in the book ...hope they help a bit...

cheers

Russ

Womble · « **Reply #8 on:** June 04, 2009, 10:26:29 pm »

We went to look at a house to buy some years ago with no mains leccy. The owners were using a diesel generator for power, but since this cost a load to run, had made plans to install a wind turbine instead. The only problem was that in anticipation of all the lovely 'free' electricity, they had installed electrically powered central heating

...... and then never gotten around to installing the wind turbine!

Our conversation went along the lines of "So you currently burn diesel to generate electricity, to heat water, to pump around the house to give you heat!?!?". Then I found out that they had built much of the house from scratch, which made me kinda wary - I mean what else had they done?!?

harry · « **Reply #9 on:** June 05, 2009, 09:37:16 pm »

i have a small invertor 12v to 240 mains they are very inafficent, they run a good fully charged 12v battery down in an hour or less. cant find it at the moment but i think its about 200 watts... the invertor uses more electric than the applience connected.... Better to get british gas to supply your electricity, you will never get a bill.....

rustyme · « **Reply #10 on:** June 05, 2009, 09:51:38 pm »

inverters do use some power and if you are using one to run a tv or something then you are running the tv and the inverter off of the battery. The battery will run down quickly if not being charged , but in the situation we are talking about here the alternator will be running most of the time , therefore charging most of the time. As long as you don't take out more power than is put in , you can use it as much as you want !! It would be better to run items at 12v close to the windmill , but if you need power further away then it is best to invert to 240v and use that . If you are talking about pulling 200 watts out of one battery constant ,it will not last long either at 12v or 240v, unless it is connected to the alternator .

cheers

Russ