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Wind Turbine FAQs
1. How much will a Skystream wind turbine generate? Depending on your location between 2,000 and 4,000 units of electricity per year (the average UK household uses 4,700 units per year)
2. What does a Skystream wind turbine cost to install? The total cost of installation is about £9,000 plus groundworks, so a typical installation works out at a total cost of between £11,000 and £12,000.
3. Are there grants available? Grants of £2,400 are available through the Low Carbon Building Programme. There are also local grant schemes, for example Herefordshire Council have a £500 grant scheme, Gloucester Council offer £1,000 on top of the LCBP. See section on Grant & Funding or call us on 01981 241 668 for more details.
4. Can I sell to the grid? Yes you can, easily. What is more from April next year (2010) you will get a 'feed-in tariff'. This will make each unit of electricity worth approximately 30p, so you will be better off by between £600 to £1,300 per year depending on how windy your site is.
5. What’s the payback? At today’s prices the return on investment is between about 6% and 13% (assuming £12,000 installation less a £2,400 grant) ; better than the banks are offering!
6. Is that likely to change? The Feed-in taiff scheme is due to last for twenty years. As electricity prices are more likely to rise in the future your payback times and rate of return is likely to get better still.
7. Can I do / organise the groundworks myself? Absolutely – it will be cheaper for you to do so.
8. How does it work? When your turbine is generating you automatically use that electricity in preference to buying it from the grid thereby saving you money. When you’re generating more than you’re using it is automatically sold to the grid.
9. Do I need planning permission? Yes, you do. We will do the application for you – before 30th Sept 2009 we're offering this service free of charge (it usually costs £250). You should get planning permission provided there isn’t a good reason not to grant it.
10. How noisy is it? Not very. All turbines make a sound, usually in proportion to the wind and background noise. Most owners say they don’t notice it after a few weeks.
11. What about neighbours? Ideally the turbine should be at least 50m from your house and your nearest neighbours.
12. What about birds and bats? Birds and bats tend to steer clear of small wind turbines.
13. Is there any maintenance? The Skystream is designed for minimum maintenance. Unlike other turbines it’s bearings do not need to be greased every year. A yearly or bi-yearly check over is recommended.
14. What’s the next step? If you give us your details we can do a free desktop assessment to see if you’re in a good location for a wind turbine. If that looks positive we can organise a survey of your property, prior to giving a fixed price quote for its supply and installation.
15. What if my property is off grid?If your house is already connected to the mains (the grid) then we recommend that you connect your wind turbine directly to the grid. This is done through your domestic consumer unit (fusebox) and there is no need for any upgrade any of the existing wiring between your house and the grid. However, if your house is not already on the grid then in some cases it may make sense to remain ‘off-grid’. Electricity companies often quote £40,000 or more to connect a property to the grid. Where this the case, or where you are using a diesel generator and have high electricity consumption, using a combination of a wind turbine and solar panels to charge batteries, which then supply your electricity makes good economic sense, because you won’t be receiving electricity bills on top of the expensive of connecting to the mains.
When considering an off grid system it is important to minimise your likely energy requirement so that it will make it easier and cheaper to meet that demand. You will need to consider all your lighting requirements, electrical requirements including things like fridges, freezers etc. Each one of these will have a power rating (i.e. a 9W bulb), and will run for a certain amount of hours per day. You can work out how much energy you’ll need per day by multiplying the power rating of each device by the number of hours it will be used per day (on average). The sum of these will give you an indication of how many kilowatt hours of energy per day you use. We can then use this estimate to design a renewable energy system that will use a wind turbine and solar panels to charge batteries that will supply your required electricity.
16. Is there a wind speed calculator I can use?Yes. To give you some indication of expected wind speeds in your location you can enter your postcode into our wind speed calculator.
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