B&Q eco-friendly

the magician

Just read today about b&q stocking wind turbine and solar panel systems.http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?fh_reffacet=categories&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b8530236%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b9050001%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b9050016%7d&fh_refview=lister&fh_secondid=9330400&fh_view=detail&fh_oneslice=yes&fh_refpath=facet_30202263&fh_eds=%c3%9f&ts=1160139270559

I'm starting my housebuild next week and the wind turbine caught my interest.
Im already planning on a solar hot water system(not from b&q) But i hadn't really looked into wind turbines as availability of suitable systems isn't huge.
Not sure how viable it would be in dublin city where im building but maybe they are useful on more open areas.So opinions please

Hoagy

B&Q are selling the Windsave unit for €2399.
If you look at their website you will see that they expect most users to generate at least 500 units per year, which is the threshhold for the UK grants.(no grants here)
500 units at 15 cents would be 75 euro saving a year. Even if you get twice that you are looking at about 16 years payback. And the expected life of the unit? 10 years.

Mellor

Hoagy wrote:

B&Q are selling the Windsave unit for €2399.
If you look at their website you will see that they expect most users to generate at least 500 units per year, which is the threshhold for the UK grants.(no grants here)
500 units at 15 cents would be 75 euro saving a year. Even if you get twice that you are looking at about 16 years payback. And the expected life of the unit? 10 years.

At the moment these units are not going ot save the user a whole lost of cash compared to the price of the unit and installation.

But the reason people would install them is to save energy, not money. It it can generate 500 units a year, then it saves 3 or 4 times that in energy terms, because to produce 1KW of electricty, we use up 3-4 KW of energy using our current methods, the only people i could see using a domestic wind turbine are those who are energy aware and willing to pay a price to contribute to the environment.
I would imagine that there are better systems out there than one on sale in B&Q. This technology is going to become alot better in the near future. Might be worth waiting until then if you want to save money.

miles teg

I heard an ad on the radio for b&q turbines where they stated the user would save money. Seems like false advertising given what's already been posted

Lex Luthor

Hoagy wrote:

B&Q are selling the Windsave unit for €2399.
If you look at their website you will see that they expect most users to generate at least 500 units per year, which is the threshhold for the UK grants.(no grants here)
500 units at 15 cents would be 75 euro saving a year. Even if you get twice that you are looking at about 16 years payback. And the expected life of the unit? 10 years.

Maybe you should let them know this....CLASS:rolleyes: