advice/ideas

[phoenixangel]

hiya everyone, I need some ideas for powering our home. It a 2 bedroom terrace (overlooked by houses on pretty much all sides)with no chimney, we have an ok sized garden (not sure how big as I'm useless at estimating things like that, can ask my fiancee when he gets home) and I'm looking for ideas for all of the energy for it really, at least as much as possible. I'm here all day, and usually on the PC as I'm usually working, but I only have the heating on if it's very cold. I know a little about solar panels and wind turbines but not much and I have no idea if it would work well, so any advice or ideas would be really appreciated.

Thanks

[Martin]

well, wind'll be out!
Turbines just plain don't work in urban areas, unless up on something like a 100' tower, there is too much turbulence low down!
If you just want to power a laptop, you could go for a small pv panel system with batteries and and inverter. Probably the best "bang per buck" is to have a solar hot water system fitted (do beware of overpricing and cowboys!)
Here's a pic of the damage caused when a turbine came down, bringing the chimney with it during yesterday's storms - the chimney literally disintegrated, and destroyed the roof and the owner's daughter's bedroom - luckily noone was hurt!


DO NOT ROOF MOUNT TURBINES - EVER!

[phoenixangel]

ooh that looks nasty (and expensive!).

Thanks for the advice, I like the solar hot water idea, i think we'll give that a go :)

Thant the problem with living in a built up area like this, I really wish I could live right out in the middle of nowhere (would suit me perfectly), ah well maybe one day when I can afford it lol.

[pomegranate]

We run the whole house on solar power and I think it is great but then again we are in Australia. Having said that I would still look into it.