B&Q takes wind turbines off shelves
I see B&Q has acted to take its range of house wind turbines off the shelves.
These items, selling for a cool £1,900 were supposed to deliver a pretty impressive 1kw of power - drastically reducing bills in the long run and going a long way to giving enough juice for the whole house.
However following complaints from customers, and studies into the claims, it was discovered that in many cases they actually used more electricity than they produced.
On average they were able to produce just 5 - 10 per cent of the power claimed by the manufacturer.
The move came after a survey published by energy consultants Encraft warned that the home turbines generated only a fraction of the energy promised.
Anyone who has bought a useless wind turbine from B&Q and who has questions about it should contact the company on 0845 609 6688 with details of the purchase, which can be found on the receipt.
Readers may recall I previously blogged on the bigger versions of the wind turbines which environmentalists want across the most beautiful parts of the country.
The study found they only produced power for a quarter of the time, taking electricity from the grid at low winds, and cutting off in high winds for safety reasons.
The problem I have with these is that in my opinion they look horrible, and there is also the small matter that they are not very good.
The green lobby seems to have got far too close to the manufacturers of these turbines, and are pressing for something which isn't going to make a big difference in solving the future power needs of the country.
What they will do is ruin large parts of our most beautiful countryside - a state of affairs, I would contend, that the green lobby should be more concerned about, rather than acting as a pr agency for companies trying to exploit the rush for 'green' power.
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Ben Hurst
I'd like to see what you are proposing as an alternative. At the moment it seems these "most beautiful parts of the country" you want to preseve will be left underwater when the ice-caps melt and flood the world while people continue with their carbon-rich lifestyles.
Or maybe they will be the same "beautiful parts of the country" we won't be able to visit thanks to the pollution of nuclear power stations. Just check out the environmental legacy of the Dounreay power station.
But hey, let's not worry about the future as long as the nice views aren't disturbed.
Thanks SWTH for your comments. Well, covering our nation with monstrosities which don't even work isn't the answer. If they did produce decent levels of electricity they would be easier to live with I suppose.
Ignorant views re the environment are part of life. One colleague who drives a 4x4 always says we'll be thanking him when the icecaps melt and we have a beach at the end of our driveways.