Retail Wind Turbines from B&Q Superstore
In August the electrical retailer Currys began selling photovoltaic solar panels at selected stores. Now DIY superstore B&Q plans to sell budget-priced wind turbines and solar panels in 300 towns and cities throughout the UK. The wind turbines will cost £1,498 and the solar thermal panels by R M Solar cost from the same - with a survey and installation included in the price.
YouTube: B&Q Windsave Wind Generators
B&Q claim the average household should see the devices pay for themselves in three or four years, as long as no major changes are needed in the existing heating and plumbing systems.
A range of other energy efficient devices recommended by the Energy Saving Trust, such as low energy light bulbs, will also be available at the participating stores.
The initial promotion will last five weeks and is an experiment to ‘test the waters’. However B&Q say the new lines are a response to ‘genuine consumer interest’. With energy prices projected to continue rising, coupled with increasing mortgage payments, we predict that consumers will increasingly look to energy efficiency for cost reductions, they said. Even if the promotion did not produce the results expected, the company still expects to stock turbines and solar panels in a year’s time.
It is hoped that if take up by the mass market is great enough, it could drive the price of micro generation technology down, energy generating devices could then become a common part of home improvements, instead of something that required a belief in the green cause.
B&Q said it did not want to mislead people, so it was organizing surveys from the outset to see if customers’ houses were unsuitable for wind turbines, such as being in a wind shadow, a built-up area or a conservation area where there might be planning objections.
» Source: Green Building
Related posts:
Interested in writing news articles about alternative energy? Contact Us
May 25th, 2007
Well. It was quite disappointing to find out on the first web search attempt that a turbine is probably a bad idea, since I live in inner London and probably won’t catch the wind enough. And to save £10 a year? If the Energy Crisis is the crisis they say it is, it is not inspiring to find that there are so few options available. Wow.
January 22nd, 2009
Even worse, was the report on the Warwick Wind Trials. Bottom line building mounted wind turbine = you’ve been conned.
And just work out how much traveling to work you’ve got to do to pay for that mistake!!
Full details of Warwick Trials,
here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7826709.stm
and for the technical report, go
here: http://www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/resources/Warwick+Wind+Trials+Final+Report+.pdf
May 26th, 2009
In my studies the only wind turbines that seem to work are the large ones on high towers (say 100 to 150 meters or so) - commercial standard.
Most turbines aimed at the home owner are shown with high ratings but at wind speed achieved only during storm conditions. 25 mph or higher wind velocities (approx 11 m/s) are not what the units should be rated at. 12 mph or 5 m/s is much more realistic and most places do not even reach that figure.
There are locations where a residential style (smaller) turbine work but not on a large percentage of the land area and they still have to be on a tower.
The VAWT’s uniformly seem to be real con jobs. I even read about one guaranteed to work at rated capacity under all conditions *which means no wind).
When I went to the site I realized it was someone making a very good joke. Unfortunately the green blogger didn’t realize it was a joke and reported it as fact.
http://www.homepower.com puts out an excellent wind turbine buyers guide. The also have a pdf document called Apples & Oranges which provides excellent information. No BS only facts put in front of the interested party.