Wind turbine

[Kickstart]

Hi

This months Which magazine has an installment on a wind turbine they have installed for testing.

In a 4 month period when the wind was strongest it generated 1.8kWh of electricity (enough for 45 minutes ironing as they put it). Between December 2007 and June 2008 it used more electricity than it generated.

Seems like a bit of a waste of effort.

You can read the bit online:-

https://www.which.magazine.co.uk/thismonth.php?jlnk=lsl0030

(scroll to page 6, it is a pain to use).

All the best

Keith
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[colin1]

dudley tesco has a rather large wind turbine type thing, and im pretty sure that it will never produce enough electricity to cover its production costs

bit of marketing gimick

a home made item cobbled together from an old alternator and a car battery has a chance of justifying its keep

when i was at uni, we did a topic on one, but its quite involved, getting the profile of the blades right, and maintaining the speed at which it drives the alternator at or near optimum

if people want to save the planet, they should just waste less and not buy stuff they dont need. Unless ecofriendly is just a fashion statement, which i think is often the case.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Robby]

This is part of why I fail to see why we push renewables for energy.

This wind turbine used more electricity than it generated, they are very expensive, and have a relatively short lifespan.

As I understand it, with windmills or solar panels, you would be very lucky if during their working life they generated more electricity than it took to manufacture and run them. The only argument anyone uses here is that they are manufactured overseas, so the emissions from power used for manufacture somehow doesn't matter.

If you bring money economics into it, they make no sense whatsoever.

It's another example of a noisy hippy pressure group being listened to far too much.

Nuclear is the way forward. If anyone mentions clean coal I may have to write a 3 page post.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Reason that they used electricity was because the inverter consumes power even when the turbine wasn't generating any power. The extra use of power didn't even include the power used in creating the wind turbine.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[colin1]

[amnesia]

The small turbines spin much faster than the large ones, and generate a lot of noise. The large ones are suprisingly quiet when you get up close. I am not surprised that it wasn't very efficient either, I think these small turbines are just a gimmick.


The company I work for is currently shipping bucket-loads of inverters and the related electrical equipment for 2.3MW and 3.6MW wind turbines to one of the biggest players in the Wind industry. Now these are BIG turbines, about 100metres high to the nacelle with a 40/45 or 55m blade length.

It might be shrouded in political bullshit, but the technology has to be developed to reduce our dependance on our dwindling natural resources - be that wind, wave, tidal or solar.

Don't get me wrong - I know that these systems aren't the saviour of our planet, but likewise some of the anti-turbine arguments are unfounded and frankly laughable.

I think there has to be a place in our energy policy for use of renewable generation methods. We have to remember though - energy cannot be changed from one form to another at 100% efficiency.
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[WildGoose]

[Stevie GooGs]

The issue with the wind turbines are being installed in places where its not constantly windy enough, they say off shore wind turbines are much more cost effective. They are looking a putting a large field of wind turbines up in Lewis but for that to be cost effective they need it to massive as they have to lay cables from the Isle of Lewis to the mainland to connect to the grid.

Im looking at building a house and looking at geothermal heating due to the price of oil/gas/electric, im no expert but spent 7 months working for a geo thermal heating company. Im looking at getting a wood pellet stove (scottish grant for that and 2nd heat source required for current building regs) prob a air heat pump as not enough land for trenches and borehole too expesnive.
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[amnesia]

I have seen that ground heating system on Grand Designs.

They dig up half a field and lay a 100's of metres of pipe work. Its all based on the ground soaking up the sun during the day and then retaining its temperature. I think.

Clever stuff but you need a big field!
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25/7 I'm a God-damn Rock Star
"Arguing about the best 125 is like arguing which Spice Girl could sing best"

[amnesia]

[Stevie GooGs]

[Egret]

Ground Source Heat Pumps are very good really when in the right setting and I work for a company that sells and installs Woodchip/pellet systems.

The main problem is, as you mentioned, the space issue. I believe that you need somewhere around twice the heated area in ground for the pipes, otherwise your system will just cool the ground down down and over a period of a few years it will be stupidly expensive to run. You also need low temperature (ie underfloor) heating to have them run efficiently.

edit:
Some more approx. fuel figures:

Pellets (@£170/tonne): 3.64p/kWh
Chip (£80/tonne): 2.01p/kWh

[Stevie GooGs]

Yeah ground source is the best but borehole drilling is far to expensive at present for me to justify it.

I plan:

Air Source
Wood Pellet Stove with back boiler connected to heating
UFH ground floor
RADS 1st floor

The company i used to work for was Invisible Heating Systems, so i plan on getting some quotes, what company do you work for at present?
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Current: 2019 Yamaha T7 -> 2015 KTM Superduke R | 2000 Yamaha R1 Past -> 2009 KTM 990 SM -> 2005 kawasaki ZX10r -> 2000 Honda CBR 600 FY -> 2002 Honda XLV 125 Varadero
Bike Pics! -> My Photography Website

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