Anyone has experience with a private wind turbine?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

A small wind turbine would spin fast and maybe there would be a risk although it would be no more than birds flying into a conservatory window for example which I get.

A large turbine turning slowly is a negligible risk to birds, so if you and your neighbors can cope with the noise of the blades and the visual change then fine, you do need planning permission over a certain size and in my county they are always refused. Two of my friends in isolated properties do have small turbines, I don’t think they generate much power, one lives “off grid” and uses a generator and batteries, it works for them.

One thing, they are not silent remember!

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Hi jura2

We've had a wind turbine for nearly 30 years and have a huge amount of birds and bats around us. We live in the middle of 16 acres of mixed woodland. No mishaps at all.

The mast is about to be extended but still within the limit for not needing planning permission. We need to get it above the trees that are shading our PV. `It will go to a 3 blade from a 2. Not clear on the photo shot but I've labelled where our power house/PV/Wind turbine are. (Hornets' nest in there last year)

The small wind turbine is our back up for when the sun is not providing enough to boost the batteries. It will give us 1kW. Today we have sun and wind.

We are off-gridders and have don't rely on any services at all, with the exception of the occasional bottle collection. We take the box up the lane to leave outside our closest neighbour.

We are such keen bird / wildlife lovers and with any species visiting us we wouldn't consider doing anything that would harm them. We're building a house on our land. Our currently little cottage is to become our workshop. Husband's a hydro consultant and I'm into glass craft. We had an environmental study done for the planning permission and she gave us ideas for the bats. We have lesser horseshoe that use our water tower as a feeding station. The water tower is also our outdoor compost loo - I can hear the bats!

Back to the birds. We reckon we have 28 species visit us. Regularly see tawny owl perched on the fruit cage. Jackdaws roost in a big cyprus, pair of buzzards daily circle above us being chased by the jackdaws, Gold finches come on mass to the meadow which is by the wind turbine. Woodpeckers come down the the umpteen feeders I have. The little robins, wrens and blackbirds are still my favourites. A wagtail nested in our tractor shed last year. First time.

So that's us and our small private wind turbine which is quiet. Can't hear it at the house.

Energy Trust and Planning Portal are good starting points for anyone interested.

Thanks for all you comments- very grateful. We have solar panels on a frame in our field next to the house, as we did not like the idea of panels on the roof of this ancient house. And we have plenty of space at the back of the house, where any noise would not be a problem at all. So will be seriously looking into it. We like the idea of being very eco efficient and independent- with a great variety of energy sources so if one fails, we have the back up. We have oil central heating, and the solar panels are for hot water, with the CH kicking in in bad weather- and a massive stone clad wood burner that can keep this giant warm in all weathers.

For a moment there I thought this was another thread about farting old men !

Me too Bradfordlass ?

ahahahaha

will indeed be investigating, thanks (well not the old farting men, thanks but no ...mine is not too bad)

not in a position to make any decisions at the mo due to disastrous exchange rates (got to minus 60% last week, which is not for the fainthearted, as you can imagine)

Picking on men again! I've met a few of the opposite sex who qualify! Turn off your hearing aid if it bothers you and don't forget to carry a peg at all times.