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No rates payable on these passive houses for 5 years.

what about the value after the five years dont you think they stick the boot in when it came to rateable

They always stick the boot in, still its something.

Where exactly is this house, I wouldn't mind a look. Wonder how much extra it costs.

Monaghan Road between Armagh and Middletown. Head past Linwoods for about a mile and it is on the right hand side just past Rosie's shop/petrol pumps on the straight.

This fella did get 5 years of his rates - but unfortunately, thanks to Sammy Wilson, the Low Carbon Homes Scheme closed on the 31st March 2012 to everyone else. His rateable value was just over £2,000 per year at 2012 figures.

It is Zero Carbon, not Passive.

The house, according to his figures, was 15% more expensive to build than conventional, but 70% lower running costs.

He has solar hot water and electric, plus a wood pellet boiler and a heat recovery system. He has no underfloor heating and only 1 radiator. Majority of heat is provided via the ducting used for the heat recovery system.

The most important target on this build was air tightness, and he got a result of less than 1. And 10 is the current minimum building control standard. To look at the house it look no different from the neighbouring houses.

If it is the Rural Development Grant from DARD in the north, you will need wind monitoring - at least 12 months - and using decent kit. Most would least these on a quarterly basis, and can be £900 to £1400 per quarter.

Action Renewables windmap is a good starting point, but it is limited. There are also historic wind data online which show the prevailing wind direction in Ireland, mostly south west throughout the year.

If it is clear cut that you have a good wind speed then all you need to do is explain that there are no issues with site access, ground conditions, electrical connection, turbulence etc. Then using your manufacturers quoted output for the windspeed, do a payback analysis.

Has anyone out there any experience of carrying out feasibility studies for wind turbines?

I'm applying for a grant for a turbine at the minute and I'm trying to work out what sort of costs would be involved.

The main issues I can see at the minute are:

Feasibility Study
Planning
Grid Connection
Installation of Turbine

I can deal with the planning side of it myself but I wouldn't have much experience in the feasibility study side of things

You'd need to take into account potential further information asked for by planners, reports generally have to be done by a specialist 3rd party and can run into ££££'s. Studies such as Noise Data, Shadow Flicker Reports, Photomontages and even Bat Reports can all be requested for one turbine application.