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Yes we all agree the challenges regard domestic wind turbines: too small to produce the power or too big to get permission and so on, so let move on... My wife often comments that it's very windy here and we have been thinking of how to utilise the wind to produce electricity when we came across these ideas: The first thing to be done is to work out the direction and wind speed on top of our roof to see if this is at all practical. Being on the Isle of Wight we have had a blast or too recently and our PV stayed on the roof! (thank goodness its always embarrassing asking the neighbours for bits of your home back). Situated in a dip/shallow valley the wind seems to pass us north to south or south to north which would suit the ridge. So I have ordered a wind direction and wind speed monitor and will set it up to see what we have. With this information I can then consider if we have enough wind to make it worth while. Wish me luck!

Sufferin' scaffold boards Batman! Them boards is a flyin' ! Where to Robin? Off the scaffold and onto the roof Batman And there indeed they sat sneering at us. This one is quite artfully placed... This one was angrier and smashed a few more tiles than the first one And now for the good news. The tiles are Nulok tiles. Theres already quite a bit written about them - here if you want to follow it up The good thing about them is that they are very easy to replace : I mean even a doddery old codger like me can do it First, throw the broken tiles off the roof (yes I checked to see if Debbie was out of range) and and then replace the tiles. I haven't done that yet...... because For once I obeyed SWMBO, and came down off the scaffold because it was quite lively up there. But not before I had attached the scaffold boards to the scaffold with 3 tonne straps and not before I had thrown one scaffold board per bay down off the scaffold. I wanted to allow the pressure from tonight's gusts to dissipate rather than lift. So now, from the ground the scaffold looks like this; Replacing the tiles? Easy. Slide a new one under the clips. Job done. Had our roof been a normally slated roof, couldn'a done that now could I? Well - I'll do it when the wind dies down; have to do what SWMBO says (occasionally).

It won't have escaped our collective conscience that recently it's been windy. Annoyingly so. Specially if , like me, you are scaffolding. Feeling extra sorry for myself at the end of the DIY working day ( I'd got it wrong' more often than normal ) I was mindlessly watching YT. And bumped into this video - Fred Dibnah. Scroll forward to 6:51 if you can bear it. Did me some good that. Put some lead back in my pencil. " Wind is the scaffolder's enemy ", said Fred. At least he had some justification for saying that.

Time for a calm analysis of what happened here. If you haven't read the original post, please do so now: it explains a good deal of what I say below. The weather. That night, it was foul. 30mph+ steady wind and gusting up to 50. I know that at low level it was gusting at 40 + because our plastic guttering rattles at that speed or thereabout. In addition, there's a hiss in the phone wires which (I have tinnitus) is very very close to the pitch I hear in my head all the time. So, background noise instead of cancelling out (or distracting from) my tinnitus was accentuated for the odd second or two in the heavier gusts. The key determinant in the collapse was direction. Here's the view due east (from the top of the scaffold looking eastward) Those hills are the Pennines. Looking to the skyline on the right thats 100 meters away from Forton Services on the M6. The gap in the hills is the Trough of Bowland. The Hills on the left are Clougha and Ward Stone. The wind was from the east that night. Just out of sight between the pond and the hedge is a steep slope. Perfect to create a pressure wave suitable for a slope-soaring glider. By contrast look at our view West The view from the site westward. Four fields away is Morecambe Bay. Look at those wonderful energy absorption systems. Trees. I make this post because of what happened last night. Sailors, hill walkers, glider pilots, GA pilots will understand this all too well. A vicious thunderstorm went through at 21.30 last night. Preceded by a gust front from the west that would have done justice to a small jet engine. It hit the house with a sickening thud, instantly rattled the guttering, and I shot out of bed. Still half asleep I stumbled out into the rain hail and thunder with Debbie's calm words ringing in my ears.. "What do you think you can do about it?" Rushed into the container, dug out my laser plumb line and set it up to see if the blocks were moving. By the time I had fiddled, cursed fallen over, smacked my cheek on the door, trodden on the cat (bless him) woken the dogs and got the laser setup, the wind was abating, but it was hissing down hard. I could see the back edge of the front clearly delineated out to the west in the last of the failing sunlight. Standing out in the open in front of Salamander Cottage hardly a breath of air on the ground, the tops of the trees' west side were still rattling loudly. 10 minutes later, not a breath of wind anywhere. Wind direction matters. Wind strength matters. Local topography matters. Especially when a builder doesn't see the wider picture.

Wind. Makes me wince now. Here's why Understandable isn't it? Worse when it happens at night from some point of view, better when it happens at night because people in the main are in bed. But tomorrow deals up the next dose of wind during the working day. And that makes me wonder about scaffolding and limits. What are safe wind limits for working on scaffolding? I suspect there are a good few of us on here who sail boats, some who fly, many who walk on hills. And we'll be aware of local turbulence and unexpected, sudden wind-shadow. Our wall fell over because the wall faced east, had an unrestricted fetch all the way from the Pennies with only Forton Services on the M6 to tubulate the lower wind. Worse, we are on the leading edge of an East facing slope and the wall that fell starts two meters above ground level. Perfect for slope-soaring gliders. The opposite for scaffolders. It's not steady wind I worry about it's turbulence. So, what's safe and what's unsafe? Try, just for me, please, try to keep it straight eh?Just a little bit.