I have a wind turbine, how should I heat my property,

[whitewave]

I have a wind turbine, so have 'free' electricity (or cheap) at present I have a oil fired combi boiler, everything running off mains pressure. The oil boilre is on its last legs so its a chance to renew and try something else using our electricity...(5KW but grid connected so can use more than 5 KW of course)

I have wondered first about an electric combi (E10?) any body got any experience on these

Or an electric boiler for the radiators and a megaflo for the water (and ignore the indirect system bit)

or a megaflo and a standard oil boiler for the radiators

There is no cold or hot water tank in the system, and I might struggle to put one in as there is little attic space hence my idea for unvented cylinders.

Has any body any experince of electric 'wet' central heating, am I in danger of causing many headaches by not using oil for the main heating

Thanks

 

[PDrawmer]

If it's 5Kw at peak and less at other times, that isn't going to do a lot for heating the house most of the time.

How windy does it have to be to give 5Kw?, what's the daily average output across the heating season?

One of the problems with an existing radiator system, is that it needs relatively high water temperatures. Whereas a new underfloor system (wet or electric) would run at lower temps, which would make it more suitable for low power input.

I suspect that if you are going to incorporate your wind produced electricity, it will need to be some sort of pre-heating.

My guess is that it will be expensive to do much heating, but I'm a complete amateur, so wait until someone who knows what they are talking about comes along.

 

[blondini]

I'd be thinking along the lines of a heat store with an electric immersion heater powered by the turbine, and a conventional boiler to top it up. There was an interesting thread about a diy heat store not long ago.

 

[WDIK]

I'd be thinking along the lines of a heat store with an electric immersion heater powered by the turbine, and a conventional boiler to top it up. There was an interesting thread about a diy heat store not long ago.

Possibly the only year round sustainable use of a windmill

 

[whitewave]

The turbine produces 5Kw when its windy, but being grid connected, the grid acts like our battery, we get a grant payment for everything we produce (even if we use it) which off sets the electricity we take from the grid (cheques and balances) so although its only 5Kw it is ok to use more than that....make sense...

 

[WDIK]

sorry with out trying to disillusion you the grid is not like a battery. the balance would too much be in favour of the grid, electricity costs just far too much when buying from the grid to consider it viable to heat a house, financially you will lose hands down.

consider the heat store, it takes a considerable amount of energy to supply hot water.

a heat store or bank would actually act as a battery.
when you have charged it then it stores that energy till you want to use it.
thermostats cut out and then you are selling it back to the grid.
this is offset by supplimenting a covential source of central heating.

 

[mehran]

take you 5 kw's and use it to power an air or ground source heat pump. seen a heatline air source heat pump, it was a 300 liter unvented tank with the air source heat pump on top(all in one unit) it had a 1 to 3 ratio. so for every 1kw you use it would give back 3kw for heat in the water.

just a idea

 

[Agile]

Most wind turbines only give a significant output for a small proportion of the time even when sited for maximum wind.

One sited at your house might be in a far worse situation.

The one by the M4 apparently only gives a significant output for 27% of the time.

As stated, use the electricity to preheat stored water with an immersion heater.

You may be better selling your power to the grid and using the grid to heat the water!

Tony

 

[oilman]

You may be better selling your power to the grid and using the grid to heat the water!

Tony

As was said earlier.

However, the only reason there may be any financial sense in wind power is because the government taxes all of us, then gives grants so they seem to be doing something green. We are the green ones, as in cabbage looking.

Wind power is useful if you are remote from the grid. Otherwise there are better methods. There is little point in making an expensive form of energy, (electric) then using it for low grade purposes, (heat) unless you are in power station mode.

 

[Corgigrouch]

How about an air to air ducted heat pump to heat your rooms, a Toshiba 10 Kw Super Digital Inverter consumes 2.5 Kw at 10 Kw out put but will back it compressor output to 650watts for an output of 3Kw, and anything in between.. Big plus with modern inverters is a start up current of only one amp. Water could be heated electrically... Just a thought

 

[SeanT]

How about carrying on benefitting from your wind turbine grid arrangement financially, and installaing gas / oil / lpg central heating and some solar panels to assisit with heating the water? Make the best feasible use of each type of renewable energy, electricity still doesn't lend itself to economical / ecological heating...

 

[simond]

These things aren't capable of getting anywhere near 5kW for most of the time.

The jokers getting grants are just ripping the taxpayer off. If we all put one in, the country would be broke and we'd probably still need all the power stations we've got already.

Build an atomic reactor in your garden, or a dam. This wind farm stuff is just wind.

 

[The Baker]

Whitewave is a Gas supply near to your house?

Also does your wind thing have the facility to let you know how much electricity it has generated/fed into the grid, over a given period?

Tim

 

[Balenza]

Their not all funded by the tax payer AFAIK.
I had a work mate (Electrical Engineer) who installed one similar to the one in the image below.
NIE gave him the incentive through a contract. That was a few years ago and I think its ended now. Perhaps NIE were government funded to provide the deal at the time. I don't know.
Any way the second hand turbine cost him 100k . He carried out the complete installation himself including the groundworks. I have no idea how much that cost him. He received no grant funding I know that much. All was done through his own sweat and funded through his own means.
All is sold to the grid and the income goes straight into his pocket.
5 year payback.
Due to his experience all the servicing is carried out by himself which saves him a considerable sum.
I suppose its useful also when you happen to live on the side of a mountain and own half of it.

 

[simond]

Lovely picture, precious little figures.

The average output of a wind turbine in the UK (known as the 'load factor') is typically 25% of its rated capacity.

By 2005 Britain had built 1200 wind turbines, which if they were all working would generate just half the output of one average power station.

The use of land based wind farms to generate electricity in 2002 (including standby measures when the wind isn't blowing) was calculated to be costing 5.4p per kWh. Offshore windfarms cost 7.2p per kWh......

This is in contrast with electricity from coal, gas and nuclear at 2.2-2.5p per kWh. Source: Royal Academy of Engineering Report 2004.

The UK Government have forced electricity providers to invest in wind power by making them buy a percentage of their electricity from wind turbine owners, rising over the next few years.

It may interest the reader to know that we are all subsidising these silly windfarms because all our electricity bills include the percentage of expensive wind sourced electricity our suppliers are forced to buy.

It is an ingenious form of taxation, imposed by the Government but reflected in our electricity bill. Ironically, the only people who are making money are the wind farm owners, because the British public are forced to buy their product.