Mini Wind Turbine

Interesting piece in the Guardian about a new mini wind turbine made in Scotland by Windsave. It’s said to produce 1kW in a 12 m/s wind. In our case it would only contribute a little, but at only £750 it’s worth it if only to experiment with and offset a little of the increased electricity use with the heat pump. What makes it possible for Hedgerley is that it is barely above the roof height, doesn’t require planning permission and plugs straight into the existing electricity meter. As to how much it may contribute, this is their quote: “to indicate ‘expected results’ we believe that our system will give in excess of 0.5megaWatt hours output (>500+ kilowatt hours output) over an annualised standard installation, more or less anywhere in the country.” There is no storage facility, so this electricity is only available when we are using appliances. However, since our largest requirment is likely to be the heat pump, they could work rather well together.

So we’ll see. I’ve sent off for more details.