Wind turbine mounting

[Robotmannick]

Hi all,

I’d appreciate your thoughts on how to support a micro wind turbine that will be fixed to the side of my house.

I’ve attached a fag-packet sketch (black being the walls and red the support/mountings). The turbine itself must be mounted on a standard 48mm scaffold pole. The eaves jut out about 42cm from the wall, so I need the vertical pole to be supported off the wall by around 45cm. I want the top of the pole to be about 4m above the eaves, so I was thinking of getting a 6m pole so I’ve got 4m above the eaves and 2m that I can use for multiple fixings to the wall. There is an L-shape to the wall so I can fix to 2 points at 90 degrees (I hope that description makes sense from the top-down view on the sketch). Here come the questions…

How would you design the method of fixing to the wall? How many fixings do you think it would need? I’d rather go overboard and have too many.

Am I better off using galvanised steel tube or aluminium? Obviously the steel tube is stronger, but I’m worried about the weight. The turbine is 20kg and a steel tube is another 21kg, whereas an ali tube is only 4.7kg. Bear in mind that I also need to fit the turbine to the top of the tube before I mount the tube to the wall.

Is 4m above the eaves going to be too much unsupported height?

I could use a coupler and another scaffold pole to extend the pole to ground level and fix it to the ground as well as the wall to provide additional support, but is that worth doing?

Should I fit anything to reduce vibration against the wall? If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[jj4091]

Doesn't the turbine come with installation instructions?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Hmm as above but got a link to the turbine?

 

[Robotmannick]

Thanks all.
I'll see if I can find a link later. The instructions only mention installation on a gable end which is simple because it only needs a couple of inches stand-off. It's the clearance past the eaves which is proving the hard bit to solve.

 

[Alec_t]

Is planning consent needed for that turbine installation?

 

[ajstoneservices]

Your wall mounted turbine project will be a waste of time and money.

 

[Alec_t]

A 20kg turbine presumably has large blades. Unless those are auto-feathering there will be huge irregular forces acting on them in a gale. Those forces acting 6 metres or so above the fixing points to the house will have a strong lever effect, so the fixing points and associated brickwork would have to be pretty robust.

 

[Robotmannick]

Is planning consent needed for that turbine installation?

No. There's several criteria you need to meet to be under permitted development and this is one-off the few that does not require planning permission.

Your wall mounted turbine project will be a waste of time and money.

Why's that? It's been on a pole in the garden generating about 1200kWh/year until now. OK, not enough to power the whole house, not by a long way, but it makes a useful contribution. Moving it to the house will cause some loss due to the additional turbulence of the wind over the roof but the location is in the direction of the prevailing wind so I'd expect to still get around 1000kWh/year. Hardly a waste of time or money. There are lots of cheap imported junk turbines - I'd agree they would be useless (and probably dangerous), perhaps these are the ones you've tried? As with most things, you get what you pay for.

A 20kg turbine presumably has large blades. Unless those are auto-feathering there will be huge irregular forces acting on them in a gale. Those forces acting 6 metres or so above the fixing points to the house will have a strong lever effect, so the fixing points and associated brickwork would have to be pretty robust.

It's about 1.8m diameter. So yes, this is what I'm worried about.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Why do you want to move it to the house wall? Can you take some pics if you already have it?

 

[ajstoneservices]

Robotmannick
Encraft + B&Q threw a small fortune at wall mounted turbines back in 2006. That was a monumental failure. Poor generation, unbearable noise transmission and damage to properties.

Somewhere on this site is a photo of one fixed to a bungalow that I worked on...............unlike the turbine.

 

[Robotmannick]

Robotmannick
Encraft + B&Q threw a small fortune at wall mounted turbines back in 2006. That was a monumental failure. Poor generation, unbearable noise transmission and damage to properties.

Somewhere on this site is a photo of one fixed to a bungalow that I worked on...............unlike the turbine.

Yes you're right. I have a feeling David Cameron had one didn't he? They were downright awful.