Advice on reducing grid power ?

I'm interested in generating some solar power to reduce power drawn from the grid. Can anyone point me in the right direction ?

Incidentally I live near the coast and its windy here most days.. has anyone done a comparison between simple wind power and PV micro generation in the UK ?

I've been recently been investigating charging batteries from PV during the day and using the power in the evenings.
Has anyone got simple info on the best way to achieve this or alternatives ? How did you start ?

P.S. I'm in the UK

My notion is that the consensus is that if you are on a good wind site, you can produce a lot more power for a given investment in the infrastructure than you can with solar. In many climates a combination makes excellent sense, since the windiest season is often the less sunny one....

Alder Burns wrote:My notion is that the consensus is that if you are on a good wind site, you can produce a lot more power for a given investment in the infrastructure than you can with solar. In many climates a combination makes excellent sense, since the windiest season is often the less sunny one....

Thanks for the reply.
We have plenty of wind (living near the Irish Sea) but the house is in a town and only has limited outdoor space. Has anyone used any particular type of turbine in an urban space.. my concerns on this are noise and upsetting neighbours ?.

Can anyone recommend any online resources on this ?

Andy Mercer wrote:
We have plenty of wind (living near the Irish Sea) but the house is in a town and only has limited outdoor space. Has anyone used any particular type of turbine in an urban space.. my concerns on this are noise and upsetting neighbours ?.

Can anyone recommend any online resources on this ?

Given your space limitations, might it be better to talk some of the neighbors into having a community wind project a bit outside of town? You can find 400 watt turbines that stick up on a pole, but they are noisy! With the economies of scale, it would be much better to have a large one out of earshot and make it a group effort.

On the other hand, if you have some roof space that catches a good wind, you could try a Savonius design. They are quieter and you can see how to build one here. I haven't seen any commercial companies selling Savonius turbines though. Most of them are homebuilts, but the good thing about that is that people like to show them off on YouTube. If you put "savonius" in the YouTube search box, you get over 12,000 hits.