I have seen lately on my facebook feed posts that show these you beaut wind generators for the house. Now I don't expect to run the whole house, just a trickle that might save some cash in the long run. Anyone have any experience in this matter ?
No input from my side, but I would be very interested in hearing any feedback you may get. I have been considering getiing something along these lines myself. Not really to save any mnoey, but more to power things that I don't really want to power off the grid.
My in laws have an out-building at the far end of a large garden (this is not CH) and that building has a lot of trouble with mositure. They met a guy who produces a type of synthetic textile. It looks a bit like hessian, and you embed it between brickwork and plaster. It has a fine mesh of conductive wires woven in with the textile. It is heated electrically by a low voltage supply and is thus safe even if you leave it exposed or put a nail through it. It's nowhere near powerful enough to be a primary source of comfort heating but the guy says you can help keep the masonry dry and prevent frost damage. An idea I have been toying with is combining that with a wind turbine or solar panel as it doesn't really matter precisely when this things works and when it doesn't, as long as on average it puts some heat into those walls. I thus wouldn't need to bother with all the storage and electronics which is the really expensive and ugly side of home wind power. I would need to match the electric specs though.
I have read someplace that personal wind power installations are verboten. Sorry I don't have a link but I would look at that side of things before getting too excited.
It seems that the Federal and Cantonal governments have gone all in on solar (power and hot water) with grants/support. The rest does not exist for them so it is not allowed.
That would be cool, but I wonder how the receptacles for nuclear waste would look like, considering that the technology has to be idiot proof. I will be fully on board with this wonderful idea when the waste issue is satisfactorily addressed. I am sure the answer is out there, we just haven't found it yet.
If you only got your own waste to get rid of, you take it in your hand-luggage on holidays and juck it in a bin somewhere abroad. Just like now, you just have to do it yourself.
Next time you watch the BBC/ITV news look for the wind blowing in outside broadcasts.
Also, check out sailing conditions around the UK where they are building large offshore wind farms. These would simply not work here - even if there were the room to build them...
Freak gust of wind, I wasnt aware we lived in a hurricane area... The builders of the 3 stories of scaffolding I saw downed in Suhr are probably sweating a bit more than me.
OP is not talking about those huge installations, but just a small pole on his own house or in his own garden for some extra power. I cannot see how those should be forbidden since those often are not higher or bigger than a proper birdhouse.
I'd be very interested, as we have plenty of land apart from our garden, where we have already put some solar panels.
My only concern would be birds- as we have so many birds of prey, buzzards, red kites (in Summer), a resident Hobby- and 1000s of sparrows, swallows and house martins, and different birds depending on season - redstarts, fieldfares, tits, chaffinches, bramblings, grosbeak, goldfinches, bullfinches, and so many more- and several resident species of bats.
Plenty of trees and wildflowers- our meadow is the only wild flower meadow in the whole area- and we have the only wild pond too.