"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"Jason" wrote in message
. uk...


unless you live on a cliff top you are not going to have enough wind to
get even a tenth of a kilowatt.

Whay-hey - I live at the top of a cliff, with an end wall facing the sea,
and a good Siberian wind blowing most of the time. Perhaps it's time I
invested in one of these things.

In your situation I would.

We certainly have no shortage of wind here, and at rooftop level, there is a
clear view out to sea for a 200 degree sweep, which should help keep the
turbulence down.

I've been following the Windsave products for a couple of years, and so far
have found a lack of evidence to back up the claims they make. They may be
valid, they may not, but until I've seen evidence either way (other than the
usual polarised views of "look at the savings - go for it" and "what a load
of rubbish"), then it is a lot of money to gamble with. I need to understand
the basis for the claims, and relate those claims to my situation. Windsave
are publishing a little more information, but it is still lacking.

The original price for these generators was to be £1000 (including
installation). Now B&Q are the distributers, the price is suddenly £1500. So
although you can get £500 back through grants (for this year at least) it
just turns out to be a B&Q grant. That has kind of annoyed me, perhaps
unjustifiably, perhaps not.

Also, knowing how B&Q work, they would have clamped down on the
manufacturers so much that short-cuts will have been taken, and the quality
will suffer. I found that out after writing to MK about the reliability of
some of their dimmer switches (always burning out when an MK bulb blows).
After giving them the manufacturer code, they informed me that they were the
'special B&Q designed versions'. After comparing the same unit bought from
an independant retailer, it was obvious why: the B&Q version had less in it.
It lacked the surge suppressors of the independant version, and the heatsink
was smaller, and the Triac was just pop-rivetted on rather than screwed on.

So in short, I need to see more evidence, for my own personal benefit, and
even then, I would not touch something like this from B&Q.

-- JJ