Windmills to cut down your power bills
Entrepreneur Vijay Wani likes to practise what he preaches. The sole proprietor of Gogreen Ventures, a green energy solutions company, has fitted hybrid energy installations at his bungalow in Louis Wadi, Thane (west).
Entrepreneur Vijay Wani likes to practise what he preaches. The sole proprietor of Gogreen Ventures, a green energy solutions company, has fitted hybrid energy installations at his bungalow in Louis Wadi, Thane (west).
The installations comprise a two-kilowatt windmill and three-kilowatt solar panel. These not only power LED lights, fans, a television and computer in his villa, but they also run the refrigerator and air-conditioner, appliances that usually consume the maximum power in a household.
The cost of the windmill equipment, solar panels and their installation came up to around Rs 12 lakh. Wani expects to save Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 on his monthly energy bills.
His firm, which undertakes commercial projects to install green energy solutions in residential buildings, recently installed a 1.8-kilowatt windmill atop Sea Line building in Khar (west).
It has also installed solar water heaters at other locations in the city.
A windmill with a capacity of one kilowatt can produce 5 to 7 units of energy every day, which is sufficient to power the staircase lights in a residential building, and the lights and fans in the Khar building’s office.
Wani thinks the investment of Rs 8.5 lakh made on a 1.8-kilowatt windmill can be recovered in six years through money saved on energy bills.
“It’s time we wake up to the problems of using conventional energy. If big residential societies and families start using renewable energy, it will reduce the dependency on government-produced energy, and will drastically reduce the load on the government machinery,” he said.
Corporate entities need to “wake up to renewable energy as the government presents many incentives”, the entrepreneur said.