✔ Domestic wind turbines cost between £2,000 and £70,000, depending on size Contact online >>
✔ Domestic wind turbines cost between £2,000 and £70,000, depending on size
✔ Standalone wind turbines could save you £741 a year on electricity
✔ The lifespan of a domestic wind turbine is around 20 years
Small domestic wind turbines are a way for UK homeowners to produce free, green electricity using wind power. Yet, according to MCS data, only 125 have been installed across the UK.
This is a very small number compared to the 427,460 residential solar panels that have been installed across the UK, so you might be wondering if domestic wind turbines are worth the investment.
In this article we’ll give you a breakdown of the cost, potential savings, and breakeven times of domestic wind turbines. We’ll also tell you which properties are most suited to them, and explain planning regulations.
Don’t think a domestic wind turbine will be right for your home? Solar might be a better fit. To find out whether your home could benefit from a set of panels, head to our Complete Guide to Solar Panels.
You should only get a domestic wind turbine if you live in a rural area and have enough space on your property for a standalone wind turbine (the kind that is mounted in the ground).
Standalone wind turbines are better value for money than roof-mounted ones because even though they are more expensive, they produce much more electricity.
For example, a 1.5 kilowatt (kW) standalone wind turbine will produce around 2,080 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year, while a 1 kW roof-mounted turbine only produces 844 kWh.
As you can see, you’ll get a much better return on your investment with a standalone wind turbine.
We’ve summarised the costs, power output, savings, and break-even points you can expect for domestic wind turbines of various sizes in the table below.
Small roof-mounted wind turbines usually aren’t more than 0.5-1.5 kW, and cost around £2,000 to 3,000, including installation.
Standalone (or pole-mounted) turbines can vary a lot in size and, therefore, in price. They can cost anywhere from £7,000 for a 1.5 kW system, to £70,000 for a 15 kW system.
Installation, and cabling to establish a grid connection, can increase the total cost by up to 30%.
This is quite a lot to pay for a green energy system, especially when you consider that solar panels cost £7,860 on average, including installation.
If we take the average annual wind speed in the UK of just under 10 miles per hour (mph) as a baseline, a 2.5 kW domestic standalone wind turbine could save you around £741 a year on your electricity bills. This is almost 80% off electricity bills for the average three-bedroom house.
Small roof-mounted wind turbines will save you a lot less. For example, a 1 kW roof-mounted wind turbine could save you around £177 a year on your electricity bills, or around 20% off the average home’s electricity bills.
These figures include earnings from the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG). Without the SEG, a 2.5 kW standalone wind turbine could still save you around £530 a year, or 60% off the average home’s electricity bills.
That’s more than a solar panel system, which can save a typical three-bedroom house £398 on their electricity bills without the SEG, and £557 with the SEG. However, since solar panels cost half as much as standalone domestic wind turbines – and have a longer lifespan – they’ll pay for themselves much sooner.
Yes, you can get paid for the excess electricity you generate with a domestic wind turbine if you use the government’s Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme.
Under the SEG, 13 energy suppliers have been licensed to pay homeowners for green electricity that they export to the National Grid. This includes electricity generated from wind turbines, solar panels, micro-combined heat and power, hydropower, and anaerobic digestion.
Licensed suppliers include British Gas, Scottish Power, and Octopus Energy, which offer the current best rate – 24p for every kWh of green electricity customers export.
It’ll take around 20.6 years to breakeven on a 2.5 kW standalone domestic wind turbine. This is also the average lifespan of a domestic wind turbine, so the return on investment isn’t great.
However, return on investment usually gets better the bigger the wind turbine is. A 5 kW standalone wind turbine, for example, has a breakeven point of around 18 years, and a 10 kW wind turbine has a breakeven point of 14.2 years.
That being said, most households won’t need a domestic wind turbine larger than 5 kW, at most, to meet their electricity needs.
Unfortunately, roof-mounted wind turbines have an even worse return on investment. It would take hundreds of years to breakeven on a roof-mounted wind turbine through electricity bill savings, which is far more than the wind turbine’s 20 years lifespan.
Domestic wind turbines are most suited to homes in rural areas that have lots of open space around them.
To ensure domestic wind turbines generate electricity, they need to be in an area free from obstructions that could disrupt the wind. The general recommendation is that domestic wind turbines are placed at least 150 metres away from obstructions.
This means if a property is surrounded by tall buildings, trees, or large hills, it won’t be suitable for a domestic wind turbine. The ideal location for a domestic wind turbine is an elevated and large open space, in a coastal or rural area, that has an average annual wind speed of 10 mph.
For standalone wind turbines, homeowners also need to make sure they have enough land space – around 30 square metres – to ensure that the wind turbine is at a safe distance from your house and your neighbours’ property.
Roof-mounted wind turbines are usually only permitted on detached houses for them to be considered a safe distance from neighbouring roofs.
Wind is a popular form of green energy in the UK, with almost half of Brits saying they wouldn’t mind living next to a wind farm, according to our National Home Energy Survey.
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