Though many would have thought that having installed home wind turbines, electricity would not be a problem anymore, it seems things do not look that encouraging.
A British study conducted by consultant engineers from Encraft said that micro turbines can only generate enough power for 30% of the houses needs. On average turbines can only output 214 watts hour per day and in some cases they can even fail to provide enough energy to run the turbine’s electronics. In some case turbines generate only 5% of the houses energy consumption lighting only four low energy light bulbs.
Engineers found out that the wind turbines generate more energy if put on high buildings or open spaces. Matthew Rhodes, Encraft’s managing director said that if the wind turbines are put in the right spot they can achieve the desired results. The poor result can be seen in area were there are obstructions to wind, like areas with many houses around and trees.
Encraft Ltd inspected 4 rural turbines, 10 suburban and 12 urban sites for a year. Alex Murley of the British Wind Energy Association said that small and micro wind turbines can supply up to 10% of the house needs.
Alex Murley also added: “Clearly micro-wind turbines do not work everywhere, but the UK is the windiest country in Europe, and there are literally millions of excellent sites waiting for sensible application of this successful technology”
Update 01.20.08: The Encraft Warwick Wind Trial is independent research carried out by Encraft Ltd (http://www.encraft.co.uk) , a firm of consulting engineers specialising in low-carbon building solutions. None of the work in the Trial was carried out by British Wind Energy Association or the government.
Neither did these bodies fund the research. To maintain the independence of the Trial it was funded by Pilkington Energy Efficiency Trust and BRE Trust.
The full report of the results of the Encraft Warwick Wind Trials can be downloaded from http://www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/index.html
[via physorg.com]
I am not the type of oerson that sits and waits to see what will happen rather try somethings (eg-cell phones)get some benefits and realizing that there might be some short cominings in the tech but hopefully the tech improves in the future. But in some cases there are some good reasons to waite unitil the technolgy improves.
Such seems to be the case with wind energy (and other alternative energies such as solar). So now we have a study done on the “average” savings by house hold wind chargers. What kind of wind chargers? Vertical or horizontal? Or both types? So how many people will go from one extreme to the next extreme. May have first beleived that the wind chargers where their “green” answer and now due to some study will not keep an open mind as to the still possible realization that wind power could possibly still provide a substantial amount of power for a home.
As I understand it now it seems that the vertical wind chargers are a more viable alterntive for the smaller wind chargers. However some new technolgies such as the “jet turbine” like of windchargers appear to be a very real alternative.
The “jet turbine” type could even prove that also ussual govt jumped on board the big bladed windchargers to be “politically correctly so called green”. History may just prove once again not to always do something just because it’s popular. My mother taught me (from the Soviet Union) to generally do the “opposite” what the govt is doing and/or suggesting to do. My father taught me to do the “opposite” of what the “majority” of perople are doing.
With these things in mind perhaps the so called groing “trend” of alterntive energies including wind power will peak. But new technolgies that are developed will have to go against a “downward” trend due to people reluctance to admit their mistakes and to learn and to try again. Once “burnt” twice “shy”. Sometimes it may take a whole generation to once again try somethings.
So — the gist of this article is that wind is required to operate a wind turbine. That’s probably a good point for potential buyers to remember.
Facts like this should be stressed by salespeople, because unhappy customers give a product a bad name, and that would be a pity. Even 5% of household use, multiplied many times, could take the stress off other energy sources.