Turbine update
Swifts domestic turbine is due early next year. It looks like being a little more expensive than the windsave product, but silent and it will heat your water if your not using the output for anything else. Be interesting to get the numbers, because the more I read, the less attractive domestic turbines become.
posted by Old Man Rich at 8:53 AM
3 Comments:
Decent article that looks at "Responsible Wind" movement in depth here. I lean towards favoring them, if only because I live near several and there's something quite beautiful about all that unpolluted spinning when you live in the land of smog.
I'm a big supporter of comercial wind farms. Ok, you need to be careful where you site them, they can mess up the water table (big concrete footings & access roads)and there is a small, but real, threat to birds. Unfortunately, sticking them off shore is a lot more expensive and makes them less financially attractive.
The whole unattractive argument sucks. If the cost of saving the planet is a few eyesores then so be it. And I'm with you - I think they are stunning to look at. Certainly better than the millions of electricity pylons which cover the UK.
My problem is with domestic turbines. There is a big push in the UK for all individuals to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the ways being promoted is with a domestic roof mounted turbine. Unfortunately, due to their small size (compared with comercial turbines)they are pretty inefficient. The more I look the more it appears that the manufacturers claims are rubbish. They will never actually pay for themselves in their (predicted but not guarenteed) lifetime & simply dont produce enough electricity to make a difference.
For the £1500 price tag I will be far better of triple insulating my loft, both in terms of saving energy and saving money.
have you looked at geo thermal?
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