domestic wind turbines

sakigrant

Hi,

Anyone installed a domestic wind turbine or know anything about them?

delly

Moving to Green Issues.

Pocari Sweat

They are getting quite popular, and have grants in the UK, but I have not heard much on that front yet here.

Unlike commercial wind turbines, they are a relatively low cost, long term investment return, and allow you with the aid of a bank of batteries to store the surplus charge on high wind days and even sell a bit of surplus back to the ESB.

They need a bit of height, and require some site considerations, but I don't see why many rural builds that have geothermal and solar, don't also include them in their green package when buliding a new house, or upgrading energy considerations on an existing site.

CJhaughey

Lots of info on this (big) thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=241609&referrerid=59211&highlight=wind+turbine

piraka

I wonder will this ever happen here

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,1805488,00.html

luckat

Take a look at surfacepower.com and Wincharger and http://www.quietrevolution.co.uk/

Boggle

Are those the best companies around?? Seem way over the top pricewise...

enda1

As far as I know, the ESB does not alow residential users to suplly extra energy to the national grid. This may have been changed recently but I don't think so. Tghe green building in temple bar used have turbines but due to complaints (over noise) they were taken out of commision.

There are a fair few reasons why they are not used. Main being safety, noise and maintainance. Though they can be great, albeit in the right situation.

Quillo

These guys claim to have ESB approval.

http://www.westwind.ie/smallwind.htm

However, the ESB doesn't (as yest anyway) support net metering so they don't credit you back for energy supplied to the grid.

enda1

Quillo wrote:

These guys claim to have ESB approval.

http://www.westwind.ie/smallwind.htm

However, the ESB doesn't (as yest anyway) support net metering so they don't credit you back for energy supplied to the grid.

Ah its that they wont pay you then. Well the same thing really, unless you are feeling particularly charitable. For some reason that link is blocked by my work firewall....

boomshackala

enda1 wrote:

As far as I know, the ESB does not alow residential users to suplly extra energy to the national grid. This may have been changed recently but I don't think so. Tghe green building in temple bar used have turbines but due to complaints (over noise) they were taken out of commision.

There are a fair few reasons why they are not used. Main being safety, noise and maintainance. Though they can be great, albeit in the right situation.

AFAIK the ties / mountings were fitted with anti vibration pads and have been running trouble free ever since.

Regarding reverse metering, the big implication as I see it is you don't need batteries, as there is no need to store your electricity because it is always instantaneously used by others, thus reducing the capital outlay and payback...batteries are always going to be a crap solution anyway...So we're getting decent turbines soon...how long it it going to take to enact reverse metering in Ireland???

tonyboy247

Yeah I riged one up a few years ago in my back yard..I have it powering my fishtank works grand when it get windy i get extra bubbles in it.

CJhaughey

boomshackala wrote:

So we're getting decent turbines soon...how long it it going to take to enact reverse metering in Ireland???

As long as the ESB have any say in the matter , never would be a close bet.
Do you think that they would allow Joe Soap to affect their profits?

boomshackala

They are a state organization, and as such are our employees as citizens of this state. If they are not carrying out our democratic will, something wrong is happening. I'm going to get my local politician onto the case, and suggest others do also.

piraka

I've already have without much sucess, but with a general election brewing!!!!

GG66

[HTML]Are those the best companies around?? Seem way over the top pricewise...[/HTML]

I priced quite a few, these two were about the same for a 1.5kw combined solar PV and wind.

www.surfacepower.com

http://www.eirbyte.com/overview.html

Couldn't find anything else near on price. But of course price is only one factor in deciding.

miser

GG66 wrote:

[HTML]Are those the best companies around?? Seem way over the top pricewise...[/HTML]
I checked around and found another company that seem to have good value and seem very helpful, also they have a new electric underfloor heating system specifically designed to maximise the benefit of wind power. www.airoption.com
I spoke with them, they were helpful but did'nt pressure to buy.

larryr

I decided to go for a simple battery charging system....

I contacted Surface Power and Energy Liberators. In the end I went for Energy liberators (www.energyliberators.com) as they seemed to be a lot more knowledgeable and guaranteed to beat any price offered by the others.

Lar

Keeks

CJhaughey wrote:

As long as the ESB have any say in the matter , never would be a close bet.
Do you think that they would allow Joe Soap to affect their profits?

Affecting there profits is not the reason. Never will be.

More to do with safety. They will have to look at how to up with a system that will work in the safest possible manner so that no one gets injured or worse still killed.

What I mean by this is in the case of a power cut, a poer line in a rural area being brought down by a fallen tree. the ESB technicans will have to isolate the system and make it dead. A domestic turbine will still put power out to the system make it a danger to the technicans

CJhaughey

Sorry your argument is false,
Is Northern Ireland just so much more technically improved that they can offer to fit an import-export meter to the home of a turbine owner?
http://www.niesmart.co.uk/microtariff.htm
I bet they compromise their workers safety by doing that:rolleyes:
The answer is that the ESB is protecting itself.

air

Most grid intertie inverters dont work unless the grid is live. This makes it impossible to backfeed onto a grid which should be disconnected - have a look at Xantrex or Sunny Boy tech sheets for more information on the specifics.
The only disadvantage of a battery-less grid tie system is that you are left in the dark in the event of a grid failure.

Boggle

Most grid intertie inverters dont work unless the grid is live.

G-T inverters may not be sold here unless they automatically disconnect when the grid goes down. Too dangerous otherwise...

The only disadvantage of a battery-less grid tie system is that you are left in the dark in the event of a grid failure.

The main advantage is that you do not require batteries. The problem is that your g.t. inverter is more expensive than a std one.
The reality of the grid tie situation is that when you are not using your power, you feed the grid whereas with a well designed battery system you can use pretty much all the power you generate.

air

There arent many that "can" work when the grid goes down, most use grid power for startup etc.
IMO in a country like Ireland with (for now) a very reliable grid, a grid tie system is the better option. The grid will allow you to power large loads when needed and your power system will be a lot more flexible overall. I also think that more people would be inclined to add a bit of green generation capacity if there was no resultant negative impact on the uptime of their power network.
Lead acid batteries after all are expensive, require maintenance and need to be disposed of at end of life. Furthermore I like the idea of a distributed power network with everyone feeding in their little bit. It should enhance the reliability of the grid as a whole.
Its not really true to say that you get to use all your power with a battery based system though, a charge / discharge type usage pattern will only be about 80-90% efficient at best using lead acid batteries, the grid is going to be more efficient.

mdesmond

We recently installed a 5kw german made wind turbine, supplied by micropower.ie which we are using for generating our own electricity. We are also connected to the ESB grid with a smart meter so our excess power is being sold back.

mdesmond

Be careful of which brand of turbine you choose.. many of them are 'chinese' made - cheap and cheerful, and they burn out in no time.. also there are only a couple of types of inverter approved by ESB for grid connection.. so do your research!

djpbarry

I think we already have enough threads on the subject of wind turbines without reviving one from three years ago.