Is a wind turbine a practical addition for your home? Tim Pullen revealed his own experiences of installing one to help you make the right choices
Wind turbines, unlike solar panels, are all about location. They need good wind speed and wind unobstructed by buildings, hills, trees and the like. Once there is an awareness of wind turbines, it’s likely to be the location that drives the thinking. In my own case I have a smallholding that provides plenty of space for a turbine. I am on top of a hill with good wind and when the funds became available, it seemed only natural to consider putting a turbine up.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS
The decision needs to start from the knowledge that there is good wind. In my own case, the Windspeed Database indicated that the average for my location was 5.2 metres per second (m/s). Given that the absolute minimum for aviable installation is 5.0m/s, that was not overly reassuring. But the database information is based on the postcode which covers 1km2 ,so Iinvested £500 in an anemometer and monitored actual wind speed for two years. That showed that the average for my specific location was actually 5.8m/s (for context, arealistic maximum for most of the UK would be 7m/s) which was far more encouraging, indicating that mine was agood location.
CHOOSING THE CORRECT TURBINE
The right turbine is the result of anumber of factors. The first is whether your site is best served with aroof-mounted (and probably vertical axis machine) or freestanding. The probability is that this is best decided with the input from the installation company. They should also advise on size — 2kW to 2.5kW being typical for adomestic machine. Then we get into technical issues like start-up speed and cut-out speed —that is the wind speed needed to get the turbine generating and the wind speed at which the machine shuts down to preserve itself. But without developing an intimate knowledge of turbine performance it is a matter of due diligence; checking out the manufacturer and the installer. If they both have agood record then they are likely to propose agood machine.
PLANNING CONSENT
Then there is planning consent, requirements for which vary with the four home nations. And an application must have details of the turbine that is being proposed, together with its height and the amount of noise it makes. On that issue most good turbines produce very little noise, similar to that in alibrary. But local authorities put great weight on this, so having the figures to hand is always helpful.
If the desire is for something bigger than a typical domestic machine, 5kW say, then you will also need the consent of the Distribution Network Operator (DNO —the people that operate the grid). They will determine if there is sufficient capacity in the grid to accept the input from your proposed machine. The reality is that the grid across most o
