The 50+ Club

Now that David Cameron has had his wind turbine installed and considering we probably would all like to save a bit on our energy bills I decided to do a little research on alternative energy, in this case wind turbines. What I found out surprised even me. Firstly, there are few sites which give accurate information and many that want money for, probably, not a great deal.

So, how can you tell if you would benefit from a wind turbine?

First of all do you have any wind! Seems pretty obvious but no-one seems to be explaining this very well. In urban areas wind can be quite turbulent as the flow is affected by all the buildings, the more consistent the wind is, the better. In the city a wind turbine needs to be above the roof line to give best results. Ideally, do a survey before letting go of your hard-earned, you can get your hands on a weather station with PC interface for around £100. Collect some information about average wind speeds at different times of the year and you will soon know whether a wind turbine would be any benefit. Compare your results with the specifications of the model(s) of turbine you are considering buying. Output is roughly linear so, if a 500 watt turbine needs a wind speed of 12 miles per hour (5.4 m/s) and your average is 6 miles per hour you’ll average 250 watts.

You’ll need planning permission although for the small 500 watt systems it’s unlikely to be refused and you could also qualify for a grant towards the cost.

Okay, so you’ve established that you could get some ‘free’ electricity from a wind turbine what do you buy?

Off the shelf

B&Q offer a fully installed unit for just under £2000. It’s designed to plug straight into a standard 13amp socket to supplement your supply directly. Admittedly, £2000 is a lot to spend but it is an approved system fitted by an approved supplier and, therefore, is a qualifying system for a grant.

Install your own

You can buy wind turbines from as little as £500 but you need to be aware that you need a degree of mechanical and electronic skill to be able to install and maintain them. For example, these systems are generally low voltage so will need a battery pack and control system to complete the setup. They are unlikely to qualify for a grant as they are, typically, not approved and are DIY installations.

Build your own

You can build your own for as little as £100 provided you have the necessary mechanical and electronic skills. There are courses run by people such as Hugh Piggott which can provide the necessary skills. If you have these skills already try Mike’s site which gives comprehensive instructions. You’ll need to hunt around for a suitable generator as the one he used is rare as hens teeth

Would you save any money? Well, at today’s prices tier 1 costs per kWh are around 15p; if your 500 watt system achieved an average 50% output (optimistic) you would generate 6 kWh per day saving 90p. Saving over a year would be around £328. In summary, build it yourself pays for itself in a year; install your own pre-built system and get your money back in 2-3 years but the B&Q option is going to take nearer 6 years to recover the costs.

I think I’m gonna look at building but I’m collecting wind speed information first…

There’s so much crap written about this that the average person has no chance of getting it right.

For example, it’s said that cattle in the UK are responsible for 25% of this country’s methane emissions. Methane is one of the gases said to be responsible for global warming - it has several times the impact of CO2 but is, currently, in much lower proportion. Reducing our meat consumption would reduce methane levels. However, methane only remains in the atmosphere for ~12 years and is removed by a natural process resulting in the production of water.

Carbon Dioxide, on the other hand, remains for around 100 years and is removed via photo-synthesis. We need more sustainable forest to address this and less consumption of fossil fuels but given the cost of oil/gas it won’t be hard to accept.

More importantly, we need a complete change of attitude including reducing travel significantly - commuting specifically - it’s ludicrous to travel up and down the country to the workplace when half the work doesn’t even need to be done at work.

But there are much simpler things that anyone can do. If you’re not short of cash fit solar panels, even in our crap summer you would have made savings. Consider a low voltage immersion heater system powered by a small wind turbine - free hot water forever!

Less in the budget? Get down to your local DIY store and get loads of roof insulation in; fit blinds to windows that are not double-glazed; install a small wood-burning stove.

Got no budget? Switch off unwanted lights and electrical appliances; buy fresh vegetables as you need them - rotting food in landfill produces methane; re-use shopping bags; build a composting bin from scrap wood. Try this site for further ideas.

If everyone does something, no matter how little, it would make a big difference!

If the Government would like to make a major environmental impact (positive, of course!) could I make a suggestion?

Outlaw junk mail!

It won’t cost them a penny; it will save millions of trees; it will significantly reduce levels of waste and it will be supported by most of the population.

It doesn’t get much better than this…

A recent news item on BBC Breakfast revealed that there is a higher recycling cost for Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) due to the mercury content. But you knew that as we revealed it in March 2007!

Energy efficient lamps get better all the time but you do need to choose carefully so, if in doubt, contact a lighting and/or recycling specialist. Remember, when CFLs do come to the end of their natural life you can’t just throw them in the bin.

Keep watching as improvements in the standard incandescent lamps may yet prove to be a considerable obviating the need for CFL.

According to yesterday’s Daily Mail (Saturday, October 6th) we’ll soon be charged £40 if we put out more than one bag of rubbish!

The powers that be still have not the wit to realise that the problem needs to be tackled at source.

It’s time for people to take matters into their own hands. I suggest a protest next time you shop - leave all the extraneous wrapping in the shop. Then the shop owners will pay for disposal and something might get done - especially if the shop concerned is a large supermarket

As usual, people are making this issue unnecessarily complicated. A lot of what we do is wasteful, if we eliminated this by simple change of habit we could do wonders for the environment. We know there is far too much packaging on many products we purchase so reduce it and we won’t need to throw so much away. Move away from the junk paper we get bombarded with every day it’s not just junk mail, it’s leaflets included in magazines etc.

Why do we commute so much and so far? The proposal by Nottingham City Council to levy a charge on parking spaces sounds like a step forward, provided it’s backed up with usable public transport. A few more changes like this and the country could save a fortune. The environment would benefit too.

Oh, and we could impose a levy on imported products where they could be produced in more environmentally friendly conditions.

So, I’ll be charged £400 per year for road tax on my aging Discovery now. Wonder what that will achieve bearing in mind I can’t justify changing vehicle every time the Government comes up with a new hare-brained scheme for saving the World. I don’t use it for the school run and never did, it gets a fairly reasonable 35 miles to each gallon of diesel and until you can get four bales of hay in a Honda Prius I’ll have to stick with it. Anyway, it’s probably worth nowt now as they say in Yorkshire.

Whilst we are very keen to do our bit for the environment the current furore over energy efficient light bulbs is enough to put anyone off especially as there are some major myths around these devices. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL) are available in a number of forms and some are more efficient than others. All of them are more expensive so you need to ensure you get the type (or types) most suitable for your application. One of the issues is that CFLs last longer than normal light bulbs provided they are left on for longer periods i.e. switching on and off reduces their life. However, this consumes more electricity thus defeating at least part of the objective. In addition, CFLs contain mercury and are more expensive to recycle than conventional light bulbs.

The good news is that better designs are on the way which last longer and cost less so don’t rush out and buy yet - just watch this space