According to Business Daily (just saying... I am NOT saying they are right) water/rain harvesting is ILLEGAL in Nairobi... (Stupid you say? This is Africa)

Greedy when others are fearful,Very fearful when others are greedy - to paraphrase WB

@ mukiha,

I think the small windmill is being used for very small scale power generation to power the radio and navigation equipment which normally don’t require a lot of electricity. The installation location is also convenient to ensure minimal obstacles to the required winds.

As a by the way,Consider this: a windmill’s electricity generation capacity is directly proportional to the product of (speed of the wind)3 and (diameter of windmill propeller)2. The following formular holds for all windmills,
Power,P = windmill constant (K) x (speed of the wind,V)3 x (diameter of windmill propeller,D)2.
In short P = K x V3 x D2.
The latest generation of windmills,using the most modern technologies and construction materials,with a propeller diameter of 100m and in a wind speed of 10m/s would generate about 1MW of power.

Case 1: If my household requirements is only 3kw,for a windmill in a wind of average speed of 10m/s,the propeller diameter would be 5.5m. This would be perfect considering the size of the windmill and the space it would occupy.

Case 2: Unfortunately Nairobi and the surrounding areas are not meteorologically advantaged because in any ordinary day the wind rarely blows beyond a speed of 2m/s. in this case then under the same windmill efficiency,for the 3kW power requirement to be met,I would need a windmill of propeller diameter of about 62m! The windmill tower alone would have to be more than 70m and the height of the entire mill would be more than 100m (taller than KICC building),and the base would cover about ¼ of an acre.

NEVER TALK OF A RHINO IF THERE IS NO TREE NEAREBY - ZULU PROVERB

I am contemplating fixing a solar water heating panel in my house. I believe this will save my household substantially as most of the energy consumption is by the water heating system. What else should I consider to include as I plan for this investment and which is the best company to engage for this type of work? In my mind,I am thinking of using Davis & Shirtliff and having a power back-up (inverter + back-up baterries). Your ideas/suggestions will be most welcome on the most appropriate company and features of the system I should go for.

The best day will be when KPLC introduces NET-METERS.

The you will be able to purchase solar panels plus an inverter (no batteries needed) and sell power back to KPLC at the prevailing retail price!!

With this system,you panels will generate power during the day (when there is no one in the house) and feed it back into the KPLC distribution lines. When that happens,your Net-Meter will run in reverse!!

WARNING: don't try that with an ordinary meter...it will run forward even if you are feeding it with power from your house!!!!

Behind the gardens...Behind the wall...Under the tree (Including: Red...Dark Blue...Yellow)

@evolve,I disconnected my water heater and put instant heaters in both bathrooms. Where my neighbours are doing 7K in bills,I'm at 4.5K. An option as you wait to raise 1.6M

I really enjoy this post & comments & thread... So much info... and the good stuff!

Greedy when others are fearful,Very fearful when others are greedy - to paraphrase WB

KPLC's fibre network deal stirs TV market

The thicker the thigh the sweeter the pie.

Kenya reaps the wind

The thicker the thigh the sweeter the pie.

Its now official countrywide power-rationing starts on monday next week.............we r doomed

WOULD RATHER DIE FIGHTING 4 MY RIGHTS THAN LIVE FOREVER WITHOUT ANY RIGHTS

And what was the purpose of constructing the 'wind generators' on NGONG HILLS?