Hi, I too tried a (vertical) wind turbine a few years ago, you were lucky, yours actually span, mine just looked nice, but that was all it did, until I put a drill on it and span it very fast (No, not joking, I wanted to find out did it actually do anything) It did manage to illuminate a 12v LED I had purchased for it. (My idea was to have the light pointing at the turbine, the faster it went, the brighter the light would be.) I moved the turbine to 3 places, in the end I binned it, but after doing more research here is what I found out.
1) You must have it mounted in "free air space" (No buildings anywhere near it, this can be achieved if you put it on a tall pole)
2) You must position it, so it will have a wind speed of at least 5m/second, if you don't you are wasting your time/money.
You can check your wind speed with an anemometer Amazon sell them, cheapest i found is
this one (£12)
3) The wind turbine must have bigger capacity than required.
4) Wind turbines state their Maximum output, which is ok, but unless it is very windy all the time, you will never achieve the maximum output, so that is why I suggest you get one with a bigger output than required. (The idea being at lower speeds you will still get something of use.)
5) The average "blow heater" (That is of any use) uses 2kw
6) Any wind turbine that costs less than £500 usually have an output less than 400w
7) I guestimate that you would be looking at a wind turbine costing £4-9K
8) Don't be fooled by the small wind turbines meant for boats, boats often have tall areas to mount a turbine, but they also go out to open water/sea where there are no obstructions.
Please, do your own research, but above is how I found it to be, but it would be nice if you say what you do and how you get on.
