Laying in bed at the start of the week, the wind was enough to keep me awake. It was pulling at the window frames and rattling something on the roof.

Living beside a nature reserve, the house is on the edge of a fairly low plain across which the wind can - and does - rush at some speed, so it must be ideal for a wind turbine. I’ve often looked at them in the local B&Q, and wondered whether they would do much to cut my energy bills.

But it’s not that easy. A report commissioned by the British Wind Energy Association on behalf of the turbine manufacturing industry gives a poor verdict on the performance of many turbine installations, claiming that some would be incapable of powering more than a single light bulb on the electricity they generate in a whole year. At that rate it would be almost impossible to recoup the purchase price in a reasonable time, and it could take as much as 15 years of generation before you’ve offset the environmental cost of building the turbine in the first place.

This is a shame, and a blow for wannabe self-sufficient homeowners who have already mentally marked out the spot for their home power plant. All the moreso when it can’t be easily written off as the result of political lobbying; this report should really have bolstered the industry, not shot it in the foot. As the British Wind Energy Association says,

The UK’s housing sector is responsible for around 28% of the UK’s CO₂ emissions, hence the 25 million homes in the UK, as well as schools, businesses and other public and private sector buildings can have an important part to play in tackling climate change by generating their own power.

The problem, it seems, is that most people who put a turbine in their back yard massively overestimate the speed of the wind where they live, despite the UK being one of the best placed countries on the planet to take advantage of home generation. As The Guardian says,

The average national windspeed is 5.6 metres per second, compared to a recommended 4-5m/s minimum for a micro-turbine.

The trouble is, many suburban-dwelling home owners find themselves amid so many obstructions that they can’t take advantage of these relatively high wind speeds.

The answer, of course, is to test the average rate at your home over an extended period of time or, if that’s not possible, use the government’s UK Wind Speed Database before splashing out on the hardware.

This page at the British Wind Energy Association site shows you how to find your local wind speed.

That’s probably a far better place to begin exploring home electricity generation than your local DIY store.

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