Something that made me think...

Baph, someone on Anglesey is a secret baked bean eater - 22ms-1 - yikes!!

On climate change, what if we were getting colder? Would we be encouraged to burn more fossil fuels? OK I come clean - it irritates the pants off me that we are constantly being lectured about how bad we are, without any proof. And well-meaning but ultimately stupid local authorities here such as Richmond want to impose local taxes 'to combat global warming'. Oh yes? What are they going to do with this pot of gold?

I'm far from convinced on the whole issue. And why should we take a caning when there are far worse culprits - India, China and a lot of the developing world chuck out huge amounts of noxious gases. Yes someone has to take a lead - but why us? Because friend Blair says so, I suppose

Originally Posted by Ed

Baph, someone on Anglesey is a secret baked bean eater - 22ms-1 - yikes!!

You've gone & done it now haven't you? It's quite often that I'm riding home & will see the signs flashing on the A55, and they will now forever read:

"Bean eater ahead, slow down!"

50mph side wind when you're on an NSL road a few hundred feet up in the air is getting to be a pretty normal commute for me at the moment. Lean baby lean!

There is another aspect of these domestic turbines that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Can they be plugged into the supply network so that when they are producing more energy than you are using you can effectively turn your meter backwards?

If not, where does this excess energy get dumped? It has to go somewhere, or are these turbines intellegent enough to take action (such as feathering the blades maybe) and reduce their output?

interesting topic....

not sure if your aware, but the Greater London Authority has a policy which requires all major project in london to produce 10% of their energy consumption through renewable energy.

I cant recall the exact definition of major project, but it was pretty small and certainly if you were building an office building, school, housing estate you'd fall into the category.

what we found was that it was very difficult to achieve (read financially impossible) and that we often proposed to cut our emissions by 10% (i.e make the building 10% more energy efficient than the building regs). This was cheaper and easier to do.

I suppose what I'm trying to say, is your money is better spent on insulation, new efficient boilers, efficient lighting etc. rather than a technology, that even with government grants has a pay back period in excess of its lifespan.

The whole eco awareness thing is just catching on over here in Dubai, but at the moment the elec companies sell electricity at 15 fils and it costs them 40 fils to produce. (government subsidies). so its never going to stack up out here.

right, im off to burn some petrol in my 14 mpg jeep

k

Originally Posted by amnesia

There is another aspect of these domestic turbines that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Can they be plugged into the supply network so that when they are producing more energy than you are using you can effectively turn your meter backwards?

If not, where does this excess energy get dumped? It has to go somewhere, or are these turbines intellegent enough to take action (such as feathering the blades maybe) and reduce their output?

Most systems can be hooked to the grid, yes, but they're mainly designed to run "off grid".

Whilst it wouldn't be a bad idea to have household wind turbines kicking power back into the grid that's unused, so someone else could benefit (and the person "running the meter backwards" would get even more of a discount), I doubt it will ever happen.

About the closest system that I've heard of to that, is by vrbpower. Basically, you have your wind turbine, great. When the wind blows, the turbine puts charge across a vanadium cell, and re-charges it. When the wind doesn't blow, you rely on another source of power (this could be solar, or it could be the national grid, which is far more likely!). However, this system also set's up an "average use".

When your current use is below your average, the cell is re-charged (either by wind, solar, grid, or combination). When your current usage is above this average, you use wind, solar, and the cell, and ONLY take the extra from the grid that you REALLY need. Which is a nice idea I think, it basically smooths out peak usage & troughs.

But yes, almost every system I've looked at so far, when your cell is full, and you have high winds, the rotor just looks shiney as it spins in the sun. The electricity doesn't go anywhere, and about all you could do, would be to measure this waste, and invest in a larger cell to catch more of it.