It's official!

[Martin]

Ethical Man IS a total tw*t...........he's just obtained consent for his very own chocolate teapot!

[Dave]

What the???

[Martin]

chocolate teapot = something totally unsuitable for the job for which it is designed = roof-mounted turbine (they plain CAN'T work!)

[Andy Hamilton]

surely ethical man is just trying out all the things that the general public want to hear about. He will no doubt report back that it is not working as well as expected. Ethical man is helping many people to realise how they can change their habits to call him names is hardly helping matters.

Perhaps you should write in with your views and tell him what he should have bought?

[Chickpea]

That's a good point. If "Ethical Man" writes in a national newspaper that his roof mounted turbine generates=d so little electricity it has a payback time of a hundred years, and it also shook all the mortar out of the wall of his house, then maybe the thousands of people who read it will learn something.

I find him an annoying twit too. I think he deliberately does things the difficult way and then reports that living ethically is difficult (only if you're a twit). I'd rather he wrote about how he did some research about roof turbines and concluded they were rubbish, rather than just jump in, but as long as he writes honestly about what he finds it doesn't really matter.

[den_the_cat]

this may be a silly question, but can you not mount a roof mounted turbine, um, somewhere other than your roof? Its not the turbine which is inherently flawed surely, just that whatever you mount it on may be stressed?

oh - especially for Martin - chocolate teapot appraisal

[Stonehead]

this may be a silly question, but can you not mount a roof mounted turbine, um, somewhere other than your roof? Its not the turbine which is inherently flawed surely, just that whatever you mount it on may be stressed?

True, but there are some pretty fundamental questions about the efficiency and output of these turbines as well.

[the.fee.fairy]

I see Martin's point (even though i has similar viewa about the bloke a while ago...).

The problem is that if EM gets the roof mountes turbine and then goes on about how bad it is, the general public (ie, those not educated in the ways of alternative energy) are going to equate the roof turbine with all turbines, and therefore deduce that all wind turbines are a waste of time and money.

EM needs shooting...

[Andy Hamilton]

you know I have never actually seem EM! So I wil have to bow to popular opinion it seem until I watch and make my own mind up. For now EM is a twit.

[Martin]

if only..................
What WILL unfortunately happen is that buoyed up by the extra publicity for them, loads of people will invest their hard-earned cash in utter useless rubbish - by the time they've learnt that they really don't do what is claimed, the entrepreneur will have legged it abroad with £50 million in his back pocket, having sold out by means of a "flotation" - betcha!
Let's now get really rude about one in particular..............
it is touted as a 1.5kw design - cobblers! - 300w perhaps!
It is supposed to "connect to the mains" - yes, you can plug it in to your home wiring, and IF you have a hefty "base load" it MAY slightly offset what you draw from the mains. (But if you're green-minded you will have switched off all the wall warts anyway!)......it may also "export" a tiny bit, but you don't get paid for it, it's classed as "leakage".......that is presuming that it has actually managed to get up to speed, and synchronised with the mains- (VERY unlikely)........
Add to that the fact that there is NOT enough power in the wind at rooftop level to generate any useable power, and that they will make an horrendous racket, and cause structural damage!
Please, if you want a turbine, get a REAL one - the chocolate teapots are nothing more than a rather nasty scam - the companies aren't run by engineeers and designers, but entrepreneurs!

[Martin]

here's some data collected by Hugh Pigott (THE leading authority on windturbine design) - it shows how little wind there is at rooftop level
http://www.scoraigwind.com/citywinds/index.htm
and then go the front page of his site - scroll down and read his opinion of them - you have to be VERY sure before naming names like he has!
http://www.scoraigwind.com/

[Stonehead]

PS Who the **** is "ethical man"?

And yes, I could google, but I can't be bothered.

[Martin]

he's an effeminate besuited city dweller who is doing a series on BBC2s newsnight, supposedly showing how you can live a green lifestyle
He had the gall to turn up at the BGG with a large film crew in tow (complete with the ONLY diesel generator anywhere on the site), and then proceeded to take the p*** by filming a procession of naturists, and some of the "flakier" people there!

[Dave]

I knew what you meant by chocolate teapot but was with stonehead - I'd never heard of ethical man before today. You post threw me this morning, I had no idea what you were talking about.

[Andy Hamilton]

and then proceeded to take the p*** by filming a procession of naturists, and some of the "flakier" people there!

I suspect that this was less his fault and more down to the TV bosses.

Don't know why I keep sticking up for him, good to be different. (and contradict myself).