Micro wind turbines

+1 on what unkel says, with an additional piece of info (from a wind engineer) why.

(852) Wind Turbines for Home: Is it Worth It? - YouTube

Looked into them about 13 years ago for the company I worked for at the time. They weren't viable unless we went big, and even with the grants available from SEAI (or SEI as they were at the time) who would have paid for about 1/3 of the cost, the payback period was too long.

Micro turbines have their place, and are extremely useful for satisfying low power requirements that are distant from a grid power connection (e.g. electric fences, wireless security cameras, speed warning signs on the side of the road), but in general aren't useful for domestic production. There are exceptions, and if you live in the country and use electricity for heating, you could consider them as wind tends to be stronger in the winter than in the summer, and your electricity demand would also be higher in the winter.

Unless the rules have changed since I was looking at them (2009/10) wind turbines can't be attached to dwellings, so they would have to be attached to a garage or need a mast. At the time, I had been thinking that a small turbine paired with a 12v immersion element could reduce the water heating costs, but it didn't make sense and I didn't go ahead with it.

There's a video on youtube by "Engineering with Rosie" where she explains the problem with urban wind turbines (and compares with solar)

Wind Turbines for Home: Is it Worth It? - YouTube

I live on a farm out west - we installed a C&F 11kW turbine back in 2012. It's a beast, but it was an expensive beast.

C&F shut down their wind ops ages ago. This has been a repetitive story across the microwind industry which has few genuine crowds left in the game. SD wind still do good turbines. I'm doing consulting work for a client who's having one installed in Meath.

Ultimately, unless you're a large energy user with some capital to sink and a great location you're infinitely better off with additional PV rather than a turbine.

With that said, our experience with the turbine at home has been good. Small wind isn't all nightmares and it's an absolute savior this year. It will generate in excess of 7 grands worth of elec this year if valued at 18.5c export (worth even more at day rate). However, I'm an energy systems engineers and know a thing or two about keeping it running.

If the industry was in better shape, there might be more potential there. I'm messing around with a cheap IstaBreeze turbine to see if it can be tricked into working reliably in conjunction with my home PV. I'll report back here on what I learn further. One thing is for sure, most of the stuff out there is shite - don't get taken in by it.

C&F 11kW - installed by C&F green energy (before they shut down years ago).

If you fall into the "unless" category, so the hill, the using enormous amounts of electricity, etc. then it's worth exploring.

"I'm messing around with a cheap IstaBreeze turbine to see if it can be tricked into working reliably in conjunction with my home PV."

Where did you get your IstaBreeze? Did you pay VAT & customs on import?

Looking at doing the same myself, after a hell of a lot of research the IstaBreeze looks the best bang for buck and seems to perform as stated judging by a few American lads youtube videos. Other than that very little data..

One of their controllers can be adjusted to suit whatever type of lithium batteries you have so in theory can be connected directly to battery pack that is hooked up to a hybrid inverter.

I'd be very interested in knowing how you get on with this, I'm on the southeast coast so no shortage of wind here.

September

She's arrived....

If installing these small turbines directly into immersions do you need to use anything in between? Like charge controllers or safety breakers etc?

im looking to install 6-8 small turbines directly into 6-8 immersions of the same rating as the turbines in a buffer tank.

It’s going to be a 2,000 litre buffer tank so very unlikely it will over heat!

whst kind of bad mojo we talking about here?

But it’s 2,000 litres! I could always have an overheat thermostat on the buffer that if it got to 60 degrees etc it’d open a zone to dump heat inside. I’m more concerned about what Components I’d need from turbine to immersion.

We have a small turbine similar to Sams in the garage. There is talk of putting it on the roof and attaching it to a radiator in the bathroom only. The thinking being that if its winter, its cold, but windy, and would generate passive heat.

Would be a shame to dump that generation when it could cover your house caseload and more.

Would be an enviable position to be in to be able to cover your typical baseload at all times (while heating your buffer too!).

Yeah, it's a good problem to have.....if the turbines can consistently generate that power. Though once you get the water up to temp, then you'll want to protect your investment so that you can do it again the next day.

So the turbines will create AC, you'll need that to go through a rectifier if you want it to use DC, but I think ultimately (and there are probably people more knowledgable than me here on the forums) I think the best way to go is to go via some form of charge controller which has a dump facility built into it when the "main load" (i.e. your hot water immersion) switches off.

Yes but in this case when the battery is full (tank is fully heated) you need to find a home for the electricity still being generated by the turbines.

Some have suggested a controller with a resistor or dump load function. My preference would be to tie in to your main household electrical circuit (and therefore the grid) and cover your electrical usage.

If you are generating enough to power an immersion heater (or two) you'd have enough to power the house and export the remaining to the grid (or batteries if you had them) and not have to worry about dump loads.

If I had the location for it which you seem to I'd do turbine tied to house consumer board (via inverter) and distribute power from there.... An Eddi or similar controlling the water heater (would power up and down with available power beyond what the house needs).

A breaker with a sign above to say to apply the brake to the turbine first before switching..... Otherwise you're in to generating electricity with no where to go and end up with a fried turbine.

My back of a envelope would be turbine -> breaker with turbine brake warning -> some form of dump load controller -> breaker -> immersion/s

You can isolate each portion then. My suggestion just turns the dump load controller in to an inverter, tied to consumer board breaker which then has another breaker for the immersions.

I really think you need to consider excess electricity generation more. You could end up with a great working system for a few days then fried turbines once the thermostat on immersions cuts them off and the electricity generation fries the turbines. That risk increases in summer when your central heating won't be up to much.

Your water reaching the set temp won't stop the wind from blowing.