Derek and Pat Tomlin faced a bill of £30,000 to get connected to mains electricity when they built their retirement bungalow at Gosberton Bank. So they spent £22,000 instead on a wind turbine which supplies a minimum 60 per cent of their power needs and is backed up with a couple of generators.
Their story in the Spalding Guardian reads like an advertising puff £1,500 for B&Q’s.
(The couple suggest people should go for B&Q's Winsave WS1000 model which retails for £1,500 and produces 3kw of power...)
But in the interests of balance, the Guardian points out in the last couple of paragraphs that not everyone thinks domestic wind turbines are the best way of saving energy – even some dedicated environmentalists are not convinced.
The Spalding Guardian quotes Friends of the Earth as saying domestic wind turbines are noisy and unsightly and rarely produce much electricity. They favour less fashionable ways of saving energy and suggest people would be better off installing cavity wall insulation.
Hmmmm. If I were trying to boil a kettle, I’d put my money on the wind turbine rather than cavity wall insulation…
6 comments:
Hmmmm. If I were trying to boil a kettle, I’d put my money on the wind turbine rather than cavity wall insulation…
Or you'd put the kettle on something that generates heat using something other than electricity.
Straw?
dave:
i'd plug it into the wall, but we don't have a cavity, so probably we would generate much heat trying to insulate it...or then again...!
bruno:
straw? not just now thanks.
The problem with these B & Q turbines is they are only guaranteed for 10 years and you wont get your money back on them for at least 24 years.You need to get your home properly insulated,a couple of the new solar panels and a small wood burning biomass boiler and you will be a long way there and it will benefit you.You better have your gable end strengthened if you are in the fens - connecting a mini turbine to it will probably take the end out- that certainly wont make your house energy efficient or your choice of renewable cost effective.
I welcome that the Government has responded to cross-party pressure to make it easier for homes across the country to install renewable energy like solar panels or mini-wind turbines.
Where the Government offers positive, constructive and reasonable policies, they will have my support.
Geoffrey, I see you're from Skegness too.
Brace yourself.
Post a Comment