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IMPORTANT PLEASE READ This website and forum has been living on borrowed web server time for years. At the end of this month silsden.net in it's present form will cease to exist, BUT there is a new silsden.net in the making, and a new forum, and lots of exciting new things coming to this space. Peter |
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Replies in this thread : 26
Author |
Topic : Wind Tubines |
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| grandad |
I think these wonderfull things should be on every house and hilltop around the country, they are one of the best ways of generating cheap electricity from a renewable source. what do you out there think of the idea? |
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| firtoffee |
I am definately with you on that one. They are an excellent idea,government grants are available for them but I believe that you need planning permission. |
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| Fred |
what a load of visual pollution |
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| Baldybogey |
this post has been edited 1 time(s) Yes B&Q are now doing them. Their website confirms they do require planning permision, but they need to do a site survey to ensure your property gets sufficiant wind. www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9330400&fh_search=turbine&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&ts=1168818827475 |
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| wahiba |
I have always thought that in certain circumstances they have their place. Remote locations like islands. Isolated farms and similar communities. A few here and there are not too bad, for example those on Chelker resevoir. However, when it comes to wind farms and sticking them up all over residential areas then I suspect a lot of people will start wondering whether or not there are better ways of going green. The problem with wind turbines is that they only produce power when they want to, not when you want it. This is actually a power storage problem that has not been resolved, although the system in Wales where off peak power pumps water back up the mountain so that it can come down for peak load periods is probaly the best we can do with current technology. On a bulk scale the best current green solution would be a mixture of nuclear power stations providing the base load and water storage schemes using the nuclear off peak power to pump the water up which then provides peak power by coming down again. No doubt wind power will get a bad press when someones head is chopped off by a falling windmill. |
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| Baldybogey |
But these arn't wind farms that B&Q are selling. They are for private usage only. They will be no more obtrusive than all those satelite dishes. |
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| Fred |
25Kg waving around on your chimney stack poking about 2m over the roofline and for what? To boil a kettle in about 5mins, keep a few lights on? The system costs £1500 and you can't install it yourself! This is hardly a surprising condition as the blades can be rotating at 900rpm making a sound like a washing machine, perched on a pole 15m in the air. The generator has a lifespan of 10 years and will only generate 1kW max when the wind is blowing. If the wind speed is low or too high it won't generate anything! Why not work out how many cups hot water you can boil for £2000 and don't forget to take into account the pollution required to make the thing in the first place. Decrease the value of your house and neighboroughood - buy a wind turbine today! |
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| alan |
Though I'm all for the large scale wind turbines, I'd be a bit sceptical that the home ones from B&Q are little more than a gimmick. I wonder what the whole lifetime carbon cost is of these toy turbines? No doubt more than they save! |
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| jonno |
This site www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html has great info about wind power and points out that very few locations are suitable and you have to get your turbine up really high to be effective and above turbulence created by trees, houses and so on. Maybe the B&Q jobs would be OK on buildings high up in hilly areas or on towers in people's smallholding type properties or farms, but I don't forsee them becoming widespread in residential areas like Silsden. On the other hand I'm all for windfarms, much rather see 50 of these than a nuclear plant anyday. |
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| wahiba |
More like 200 wind farms to replace one nuclear station, and then the wind has to be blowing. Actually a proposal for 200 wind farms in one area of the UK would do wonders for the nuclear industry. What we really need to do is to go back to more local power stations. Nice small nuclear units, balanced up by a national grid. This would reduce all the power line eyesores that straddle the country. As the nuclear fear is more in the mind than reality this is the best solution. I think the pebble reactor type is suited to this type of situation. |
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| alan |
Give me 200 wind farms to "small" nuclear power stations in the Aire Valley any day! |
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| wahiba |
4000 windmills with an intermittent power supply preferable to one small nuclear plant producing 24 7. That will be the choice. |
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| alan |
Sounds good to me, would rather live near 40,000 than a nuclear power station. |
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| wahiba |
Why? Nobody has ever given a non emotional reason against nuclear energy. Chernobyl was down to lousy management, not the process. |
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| alan |
this post has been edited 1 time(s) "wahiba" spend a day or more in Sellafield, or one of the other BNFL plants, that will change your mind! Working on BNFL sites changed mine! |
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| wahiba |
Sellafield looked OK when I went there. What is the problem? |
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| alan |
Yes it has a lovely visitor centre to show us all how safe and wonderful nuclear energy is doesn't it  |
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| wahiba |
Because it is. It is only the association with nuclear weapons, not helped by stupid Russians, that puts people off. When the number of people killed by nuclear power stations, every year, is equal to the number killed travelling every year then I might take the critisms seriously. If the same safety criteria were applied to travel that is applied to nuclear energy in the production of electricity life would be interesting. |
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| Loafer |
Go on then Alan, answer wahiba! Why? In what capacity did you work with nuclear power at BNFL? Personally, in my own experience of working with them I found no reason to rather work or live with however many thousand wind turbines - not that I've anything against these either..... |
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| alan |
As a contractor. One of the main reasons I don't like nuclear is the waste we leave for generations. That is all I intend to say on the matter. I will not be a hypocrite and confess undying love for nuclear power then not want to live near a power station! I wouldn't live anywhere near a nuclear station so why should I inflict it on others? But I would happily live near wind farms. End of discussion as far as I am concerned. |
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| alan |
So "Loafer" tell me your words of wisdom and experience working for BNFL, I can't stand the suspense |
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| Loafer |
I would imagine BNFL employ many diverse categories of contractor Alan, perhaps people who clean toilets are contracted, amongst many others? I have not said that I have worked for BNFL: There are other nuclear industries and power plant users around you know.... |
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| Grianan |
I understand that an application for a wind turbine up at Blackpot Farm was turned down - I don't know what the reason given was. I would've thought it was an ideal situation, it's fairly isolated and must get quite a bit of wind? |
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| wahiba |
All this concentration on wind as a means of energy production, especially in the home is really a bit misleading. There are other ways, but I suspect that the simplicity of the windmill means even the technically illiterate can understand it. See some working here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0azt5b5NtNA For the domestic environment other methods are: Heat Pumps: where the temperature differential between the surface and below ground is exploited. Basically the same principal as a fridge. Water/fluid eating solar panels. While these are generally installed to provide hot water to a boiler the heated fluid (it need not be water) can be used to produce electricity. Solar Panels producing electricity. Still expensive, but a good chance prices may drop substancially. Currently the preffered method to generate electricity from waste heat is the Stirling engine. There is a central heating boiler with one built in now available on the market. As I understand it the stirling engine requires a couple of pistons. Traditionally these have been used to drive a wheel and then a generator. The model in the boiler uses a free piston engine, the pistons basically bounce up and down in a tube. The pistons are magnetised and the tube has a coil around it. Same principle as some torches that have been on sale. As the motor is in a sealed tube it can be pressurised to increase efficiency. While this model uses the waste heat from the boiler other heat sources, such as surplus heat from soar panels, waste heat from air conditioners and refridgerators can be used. No doubt one day everyone will have a fusion reactor, but I think that is still some time away. |
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| wahiba |
Evidently we are all wasting our time talking about this. The answer is 'radiant energy' which we will just tap from the cosmos. Go to YouTube and follow the engines that run on water  |
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| alan |
To quote "Loafer" "In what capacity did you work with nuclear power at BNFL? Personally, in my own experience of working with them I found no reason to rather work or live with however many thousand wind turbines - not that I've anything against these either..... " Isn't that saying you work for them (BNFL)then, or at least intimating it? Please enlighten me. Just for your information I was not employed as a contractor to clean toilets, neither would I want to be. In a lot of their facilities they fit wash basins without overflows because of the possibility of plutonium collecting in the overflow. |
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| Loafer |
"Alan"....As 'stated' I have never worked for BNFL. I have, however, worked with reactors within the UK (and offshore). Now, I believe, t'was I who asked to see your hand first! P.S. Your point about bog-cleaners make sense. |
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| Replies in this thread : 26 |
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events sale / wanted general have your say looking for.. skippy greengrass |
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DON'T FORGET THE SUBJECT IS >>>>>>>> Forums Home > General Forum > Wind Tubines |
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