B and Q is believed to have withdrawn its home wind turbines from sale:
B&Q to invest in micro wind study – this news comes as the company has just pulled the Windsave brand of micro wind turbines from its shelves after last month’s report on trials by consultancy Encraft (Warwick Wind Trials – the full report which questioned the effectiveness of building-mounted wind turbines. B&Q said that it will cease selling any turbines “temporarily” until it receives the results of its own study.
The company also stated that customer feedback had contributed to its decision to remove Windsave from sale for the time being.
The B&Q study is being conducted by Southampton University in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust, with an aim to better understand how micro-wind turbines work in a variety of locations. The DIY chain said in a statement that it was “awaiting the report from this study, at which point we will make a decision on the future of our micro-wind turbine line”.
The company is currently attempting to contact customers who have already purchased the £1,900 Windsave turbine, to determine whether or not they are happy with its performance.
adds this :
The retailer said the study had also shown that turbines mounted in a “domestic, urbanised environment” were the least likely to perform well and added: “The vast majority of B&Q’s customers live in urbanised areas, hence this particular finding is cause for concern for the company.”
(the Warwick study reports average load factors of 0.85%, and that the better-located machines were often shut down by the occupants for reasons, it says, of noise)