Wind Generation - My own experience

I bought 2 Future Energy wind turbines with 3 inverters. 2 inverters connected to one of the turbines allowing a maximum of 1KW generated and 1 inverter to the other allowing 500w.

The 1st turbine was installed at the start of November. The 1st graph from the eon energy tracker graph shows my attempts at energy reduction prior to the installation.

Looking at the graph above. The red line shows electricity use for 2007, the columns for 2008. My 1st meter reading is June 2007 so readings on the red line prior to June are eon's defaults, not from me.

Winter 2008 readings - real ones - reflect the red (eon assumed usage) line. In April we bought an OWL energy meter and made an effort to reduce electricity use. The difference in readings between red line and columns I guess show this.

NB. We also have the Solar PV so there might be a disparity between a cloudy and a clear summer.

Looking at the trend above, the wind turbines don't seem to have made any difference at all!

Now see graph below

The wind Turbines were installed during November. Unfortunately with the eon energy tracker, it can only show 2 years. The red line below replicates the columns above.

Again, the same trend seen above is unchanged. There has been no reduction which could be associated with the wind turbines!

In April and May my consumption actual goes up!

Was it windy?

We are on the top of the North Downs, 200 meters high with little to no surrounding trees. If there is anywhere in the South East away from the coast that is ideal for wind, this is it!

We have had regular wind throughout the winter and spring to the extent that the turbines can be seen to routinely spin at a high rate and often furl meaning there is too much wind!

The orange lights that indicate the system is generating can also be seen to flash at what .I think is a low rate, about 1 flash per 3 seconds, whatever the wind speed!

So far I have not had any evidence that my investment in wind trubines has made any difference to my quest for a carbon neutral house.

So What is wrong and what's happening?

These turbines are a proven means of generating power, where positioned in an area which is " windy". Realistically both apply.

I have raised this with Future Energy and though they are based in Stratford, they were making a visit to anothe rinstallation down South and called in to see me.

We considered a range of problems:

• The high local voltage
• The apparent low input to my electricity use
• A 'clack' that was heard from one of the turbines
• The unfurling problem on the other

The wind turbines are relatively easy to dismount, though requiring brute force and caution as though they are not that heavy, they are high up and mounted on a scaffold pole which is heavy!

The first was identified as having a noise from the main bearing and was completely replaced, no more clack.

The generation / power issues, well the inverters were re-set to allow for a higher local voltage. They had been set to 260, now they are at the maximum of 264, the fact that occaissionally I see an error code indicating an over voltage means the local voltage, on accaission, must be reaching over 260 volts!

Actions for me are to modify the wiring. Currently the wind turbines join the mains on a spur that then goes on to the garage where there is a fridge, apparently this (or flourescent lights) can interfere with the inverters. Garage needs its own spur as do the inverters.

Very confident now that we will have a fully working system soon.

NB. How does the system actually push energy into the mains?

The inverter analyses the sine wave of the mains current and emits its own sine wave very slightly ahead of the mains sine wave. I thought that it was to do with voltage, its more technical than that!

Installing my Wind Turbine - On the blog , then some lessons.

Lots of images here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/solarkent