Small wind turbine, is it worth getting?

azul

I'm considering buying a small 1kw or 2KW wind turbine. I live on a hill away from anyone. They're for sale on Ebay for under €1500.00. Would it be a complete waste of time and money for the small output. I'd buy a lot of electricity for €1500.00
Thanks for reading.

Gate Automation

I think that you need little stronger turbine, kettle has 2,6 KW

2011

I would think that there are far better ways to spend your money.

Outkast_IRE

I would never recommend one of these ebay turbines.
however if you live on a hill away from everyone I would recommend looking into it properly for a decent turbine, there are some reputable crowds out there that will have a look at your site and do a rough analysis of wind speeds etc in your area and tell you if its worthwhile or not for you.

BrianDug

I would never recommend one of these ebay turbines.
however if you live on a hill away from everyone I would recommend looking into it properly for a decent turbine, there are some reputable crowds out there that will have a look at your site and do a rough analysis of wind speeds etc in your area and tell you if its worthwhile or not for you

C&F Green Energy do nice installs, was looking at a installation site not so long ago on a farm. It was a large scale turbine he had, no sure how small they make them.

cast_iron

If it managed to produce 2kW on a constant basis, it would generate aprox. €3150 worth of electricity per year. So about a 6 month payback period - which is very good.

However, you obviously wouldn't get it generating power 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. And you probably wouldn't have a constant base load of 2kW in your house, which would further reduce it usefulness. I don't think any suppliers will buy it back from you anymore, and if they do, it's at a reduced rate. Couple in a grid tie inverter into the cost for that sort of setup also.

You will have to evaluate all of those factors, and the fact you are buying it from ebay - ie. maintenance and spare parts costs, etc.

azul

I just spotted this crowd http://www.istabreeze.co.uk/in the UK who manufacture smaller 500w turbines for boats and domestic situations. Has anyone any experience with them. They're reasonable enough and might be a good size to start with.

cast_iron

azul wrote: »

They're reasonable enough and might be a good size to start with.

I don't know what you plan on running with this turbine, but those won't be much good for anything. They don't appear to be too suitable for a domestic setup.

whizbang

If your handy enough to put up your own mast, connect a battery pack, run all your lights and low power appliances on 12volts, then yeah, go for it.

Inverters can be got cheap enough, Dont waste money on grid tie.

gman2k

whizbang wrote: »

If your handy enough to put up your own mast, connect a battery pack, run all your lights and low power appliances on 12volts, then yeah, go for it.

Inverters can be got cheap enough, Dont waste money on grid tie.

Surely you have this all wrong....
Don't waste your money on an off grid set up if you are already connected to the grid!
You can always sell kw/hrs back to the grid for 9c - better value than buying deep cycle batteries.
Cheap inverters can damage electronics in your house.
DIY setups can never be grid tied however, everything has to be certified.

OP, Solar PV is the cheapest way of making your own power on a cost per watt.

whizbang

DIY setups can never be grid tied however, everything has to be certified.

So at 9c per KWh, how many yearscenturies will it take this 500W unit to pay back just the connection cost ???

gman2k

whizbang wrote: »

So at 9c per KWh, how many yearscenturies will it take this 500W unit to pay back just the connection cost ???

Payback will be quicker via grid tie than a battery set up! Think of the dump load on a battery set up -for when your batteries are full and you're not using the power, you could be selling to the grid!
A 500w unit will be next to useless however no matter what the connection. May as well scale up to multi kw gen turbine if the site allows.

frankmul

How would it work if a small turbine was connected to directly to the immersion. Store any energy produced as heat.

gman2k

frankmul wrote: »

How would it work if a small turbine was connected to directly to the immersion. Store any energy produced as heat.

Not straightforward to do. There are a few other threads in the renewable forum about this. Will find a link when I'm off mobile.

2011

+1
I have yet to see this work successfully.