Installing a Wind Turbine UK

[Kh24]

Hi All,

New to the forums and have been very intrested in wind turbines.

I currently have a 8KW system of solar and unable to add anymore to it (no more roof space)

As were now in winter in the UK and the solar panels aren't producing much I was thinking of going for a wind turbine installed as a stand alone tower 4-6 meters high.

I currently have 2 solar grid inverters which are both Growatt's.

I've been looking at these wind inverters Wind inverter which to me looks like the following.

Wind turbine -> DC switch -> Inverter -> home plug.

Wind Turbine this is the turbine I've been looking at getting.

Would like some advise about the proposed.

TIA

 

[E. Cho]

You'd do well to search these forums for wind turbine threads, as some of your concerns have probably been addressed.
Also do a web search for Hugh Piggott, a UK expert on all things wind who has 1+ books on the topic.

Have you done a site audit? I kind of doubt that you have as you would have mentioned it, in that it is extremely important data to have, unless you have a lot of money to waste for trial and error.

4-6 meter high wind turbine will not produce much power due to ground turbulence. 15-20 meters + of tower is generally the accepted minimum, along with 100+ meters of no vegetation, plus SUSTAINED wind speeds, not heavy gusts, which trick the human brain and senses that there is more power in the "gust" / wind, than there really is, as a gust, even a long one might only last 10-30 seconds. Think of it like shadows coming and going constantly over your solar panels, which would seriously cripple and constantly cycle up and down, the power captured. Also, the human brain is so easily fooled by wind, which is why it is extremely helpful to actually have site driven wind data from 1 or more years. Most people, including me, skip this step, as a good site wind data loggers are not cheap and require at least of year of data to be compiled.

At present, my wind turbine on an 16 meter lattice tower is tied down and is otherwise just an expensive wind vane. My area proved to be too gusty, with actual really windy days being gusts vs. sustained, minute after minute, hour after hour of constant sustained wind speed. I also soon had too much vegetation growing up too quickly and could not be maintained. Next came aging and the difficulty of safely climbing the tower and safely removing the turbine for maintenance or doing maintenance that high off the ground. I lacked the money, tools, equipment and slowly the physical incentive to do the work. Solar and energy conservation was just much less expensive, passive and enjoyable. Wind if you indeed have it, is a very violent environment, along with the rain, snow, ice and heat.

But good luck to you if you indeed have the special truly windy place (I wouldn't want to live there) and lots of money to throw at trying to capture energy from a device that is like holding water in a bag with many holes. It's possible to do but oh so frustrating.

 

[rhino]

I don't think I have ever seen anyone post on here "My wind turbine was a good investment", especially any commercially purchased one under 10kW. It is always "was a waste of time and resources".

 

[rhino]

This was my 2nd "1kW" (3m diameter) on a 100ft tower that lasted less than 4 years and was not worth it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wie7s3h7giug7z/kestrel.MOV?dl=0

 

[Kh24]

You'd do well to search these forums for wind turbine threads, as some of your concerns have probably been addressed.
Also do a web search for Hugh Piggott, a UK expert on all things wind who has 1+ books on the topic.

Have you done a site audit? I kind of doubt that you have as you would have mentioned it, in that it is extremely important data to have, unless you have a lot of money to waste for trial and error.

4-6 meter high wind turbine will not produce much power due to ground turbulence. 15-20 meters + of tower is generally the accepted minimum, along with 100+ meters of no vegetation, plus SUSTAINED wind speeds, not heavy gusts, which trick the human brain and senses that there is more power in the "gust" / wind, than there really is, as a gust, even a long one might only last 10-30 seconds. Think of it like shadows coming and going constantly over your solar panels, which would seriously cripple and constantly cycle up and down, the power captured. Also, the human brain is so easily fooled by wind, which is why it is extremely helpful to actually have site driven wind data from 1 or more years. Most people, including me, skip this step, as a good site wind data loggers are not cheap and require at least of year of data to be compiled.

At present, my wind turbine on an 16 meter lattice tower is tied down and is otherwise just an expensive wind vane. My area proved to be too gusty, with actual really windy days being gusts vs. sustained, minute after minute, hour after hour of constant sustained wind speed. I also soon had too much vegetation growing up too quickly and could not be maintained. Next came aging and the difficulty of safely climbing the tower and safely removing the turbine for maintenance or doing maintenance that high off the ground. I lacked the money, tools, equipment and slowly the physical incentive to do the work. Solar and energy conservation was just much less expensive, passive and enjoyable. Wind if you indeed have it, is a very violent environment, along with the rain, snow, ice and heat.

But good luck to you if you indeed have the special truly windy place (I wouldn't want to live there) and lots of money to throw at trying to capture energy from a device that is like holding water in a bag with many holes. It's possible to do but oh so frustrating.

No site audit has been done there are no installers who really cater for domestic setups only big commercial ones.

With our permitted development the highest we can go is 11 meters, the reason for 4-6 is I can maintain this myself without a need of extra hands.
Living in London and looking at wind speeds they average around 6-11.

With the 2KW turbine I've posted I'll be happy to be getting around 200-300watts sustained of course anything more then this is

I currently don't have a battery storage yet either but looking at getting one at some point.

If I were to go via the wind turbine/inverter will this charge the battery at night?

All inverters are grid tied.

I have the following.

growatt mic 3000tl-x

growatt sph5000

TIA

 

[Kh24]

I don't think I have ever seen anyone post on here "My wind turbine was a good investment", especially any commercially purchased one under 10kW. It is always "was a waste of time and resources".

Many thanks, to be honest with the 2kw wind turbine I'll be happy for it to generate 200-300 watts sustained on normal days 500+ on super windy days.

 

[E. Cho]

You can buy a wind gauge and data logger. It seems, unlike me, you are not worried about the money required to generate power. If you don't already have a battery and wiring and tower, etc., then there is no way your energy costs will be lower than the grid. And especially poor power production with such a short tower.

Where are you getting your wind speed info from? Is that "data" also providing time, as in x meters/seconds for y hours? Where is the location of that wind gauge and what is the surrounding environment? If the wind estimate is at an open field or airport and your location is surrounded by houses and trees, then your data may be seriously flawed. Otherwise, with info from whatever turbine and tower and wire run and other variables, you better than we, can just do the math to figure out your potential power production? (not real world though without site specific wind data).

Have you walked, cycled or driven around to talk to other wind turbine owners in your region? I would do that first, as well as study Hugh Piggott’s wealth of information.

Hope it works. Unlikely it will. Let those of us that have been there, done that, know how yours works out over time.

Maybe talk to the neighborhood too, as some small turbine blades can be noisy and or hum noticeably. Will your turbine / blade manufacturer be honest about that vs your finding out the hard way? Shame to piss off the neighbors or have town bylaws shut you down for noise complaints at all hours.

Do the math. Do the site audit. Do the research. Listen to science, physics, experience and not to your hopes, bias and the wind on your face.

 

[Kh24]

You can buy a wind gauge and data logger. It seems, unlike me, you are not worried about the money required to generate power. If you don't already have a battery and wiring and tower, etc., then there is no way your energy costs will be lower than the grid. And especially poor power production with such a short tower.

Where are you getting your wind speed info from? Is that "data" also providing time, as in x meters/seconds for y hours? Where is the location of that wind gauge and what is the surrounding environment? If the wind estimate is at an open field or airport and your location is surrounded by houses and trees, then your data may be seriously flawed. Otherwise, with info from whatever turbine and tower and wire run and other variables, you better than we, can just do the math to figure out your potential power production? (not real world though without site specific wind data).

Have you walked, cycled or driven around to talk to other wind turbine owners in your region? I would do that first, as well as study Hugh Piggott’s wealth of information.

Hope it works. Unlikely it will. Let those of us that have been there, done that, know how yours works out over time.

Maybe talk to the neighborhood too, as some small turbine blades can be noisy and or hum noticeably. Will your turbine / blade manufacturer be honest about that vs your finding out the hard way? Shame to piss off the neighbors or have town bylaws shut you down for noise complaints at all hours.

Do the math. Do the site audit. Do the research. Listen to science, physics, experience and not to your hopes, bias and the wind on your face.

Many thanks for information as advised it might be good to start with a wind gauge.

As London is urban houses/tress will definitely affect wind production.

Noise may also be an issue as it will be in the garden and not in a field.

 

[OzSolar]

With the 2KW turbine I've posted I'll be happy to be getting around 200-300watts sustained of course anything more then this is

That's a pretty common misconception.

If we could find the power curve for the turbine and we could trust it (which we can't) then you'd see that it would likely take at least a 15 mph to get that 200-300 watts.