Domestic Wind Turbine Viability

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Sorry everybody after posting the mail I have just found a discussion on this subject, and I think it has all been covered, unless anyone has any further developments to offer.

I had a half hearted look at a domestic Wind Turbine and came to the conclusion it was not viable as I considered the payback period to be in excess of 25 years and this is ignoring maintenance costs.
The problem I found with these devices was that their use is limited to a fairly small wind speed window but the greatest downside was that when the thing is generating, you have to use the power as it is generated and at times when you are not using the power, say during the night, the power generated is not returned to the grid. As such this would effectively drive the electricity meter backwards so in effect this would give a payback when you are not using the power being generated. If the damn things did return power to the grid then the payback time would be probably a couple of years and therefore viable.
Has anyone looked into this and have I got the ideas correct.
Or has anyone worked out a way of recovering the excess power generated by a domestic wind turbine -
Come On Joe-90, you know everything, you must have the answer.
 
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The best thing with a wind turbine is to store the power in large batteries, either with a 24 or 48 volt system. Then use the power from the batteries through a mains inverter but make sure its a true sine wave inverter. This will allow you to run independantly from the grid.

You can get grid connect inverters these are more expensive, dont be ripped off by UK companies charging thousands, its worth checking ebay and such places where you can get them for much less.

I been toying with this idea as i have a huge SW facing area on my studio roof for solar panels, solar panels + wind turbine combined is best option :)
 
Don't believe the government/EU hype. Going green usually involves loads of hassle, and lots of expense.

Great way of upsetting the the neighbours though - lets hope they are deaf!
 
i always wondered how noisy these small <500 watt wind turbines actually are... its the only thing stopping me going ahead with my next project :)
 
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The best thing with a wind turbine is to store the power in large batteries, either with a 24 or 48 volt system. Then use the power from the batteries through a mains inverter but make sure its a true sine wave inverter. This will allow you to run independantly from the grid.

You can get grid connect inverters these are more expensive, dont be ripped off by UK companies charging thousands, its worth checking ebay and such places where you can get them for much less.

I been toying with this idea as i have a huge SW facing area on my studio roof for solar panels, solar panels + wind turbine combined is best option :)

Thanks for the thoughts. - I have used industrial Invertors in the past but I have never contemp-lated it Domestically. I have never heard of a Grid Connect Invertor. Do they go by any other name and if using such a device does that allow connection to the grid via the meter andachive the objective of reversing the meter. Revesing the meter odes not constitute fraud in my book as we would be effectively driving the power into the grid system and as such giving power. I doubt this would be possible but it was a thought. I think your ideas are to use the invertor whilst not connected to the grid and when the batteries run down swith to grid supplies. Is that haw you intend to go ahead?
 
grid connect invertors are often called just that. Synchronic inverters means you can syncronise an inverter directly to the mains on your side of the electricity meter. if you have the normal wheel type of meter then it will have no problem whatsoever, as what will happen is when you produce more electric than you are drawing, the meter will rotate backwards, and add credit to what you have used. Totally legal without any problems whatsoever, as what the invertor does is everso slightly increases the output voltage to allow its maximum current back into the network.

Only issue is that apart from synchronisation you must ensure the invertor will cut off in the event of a power failure, or have a 100 amp drop-out contactor situated at the meter if this happens, to ensure you dont end up backfeeding the mains network.

Running independant is easy, just have a changeover switch between the inverter and the mains. You can get 'stackable' inverters which you can run in parallel which synchronise with each other, and allow for increased load.

Anything above 3kW use a 24 volt system, and above 6kW use a 48 volt system as the DC current can get extrtemely high coming from the batteries.

Heavy duty cyclic batteries are best for its use, some even have a 10 year warranty
 
I have been involved in some installs of 'proven turbines'. I have always come along after they have been installed. The ones I have seen have been badly done - no SWA glanding, and no attempt at neatness.

These are 48v as standard I recall.
 
I don't want to get political but until someone designs a power station that runs on the plentiful source of "government green bull sh$t" nuclear gets my vote.
 
I don't want to get political but until someone designs a power station that runs on the plentiful source of "government green bull sh$t" nuclear gets my vote.

Absolutely agree !!
 
Wind turbines aren't "loud" but they do swish when driven fast. They are no louder than the wind blowing through the overhead cables on the street, or over the chimney pots. They are near silent when the wind is slow (a house on our estate has one fitted - it looks quite smart)

I dont think its a question of payback periods any more, its more a question of the coming power rationing and oil crisis (that joe-90 keeps banging on about). Never mind the energy companies deciding which forms of renewable to use - householders themselves are having to decide how to generate their own electric, since the ECs seem to be taking a looong time about it and there WILL be blackouts before they get their arses into gear.
 
the coming power rationing and oil crisis .

Power rationing's already here. It's rationing by price.

Price has to go a lot higher before the majority of households use energy saving lamps for 90% of their lights. Then there are plenty of other savings that can be made when the price increases such that economies are worthwile.

Blackouts? As likely to happen as we were likely to be inundated with horse manure 75 years ago.
 
if you have the normal wheel type of meter then it will have no problem whatsoever, as what will happen is when you produce more electric than you are drawing, the meter will rotate backwards,

Sorry got to disagree.

Most meter's I use would come up with an error in some way to tell the meter reader that REVERSE ENERGY had been detected.

I know you said wheel type but most wheel types I work with also have a small catch inside them which would stop the wheel rotating backwards.

IMO Stick with your lectric company and bump my share price up. :LOL:
 

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