wind generators

I have a question. Been researching and looking into wind generators. .ow with a smaller wind generator how much does it put out on a decent day. Dont start talking amps and what not as i understand somewhat how that goes. My question is what can it power saaaya small fridge ?? Charge a phone??? Run a small fan at night?? Let me know your experiences.

All the wind generators I've seen are used to charge the batteries. I've not seen one dedicated to running something like a fan or fridge.

Don't forget solar as a duplicate option for a power source to charge something.

I understand batteries i guess im asking over the period of a day what could i run?? I plan on living off the grid for up to a week or two so alternative energy is a necessity and a must so im not stranded. Also capturing rain water. Thats another topic though

I had a wind generator on the sailboat, but took it down (sold it to another cruiser in Isla Mujeres) and replaced it with a couple of solar panels. At night, when the wind would pick up, it would sound as if a jet airplane were warming up on deck. And, as previously indicated, you would only want to use a wind generator to charge batteries, as the output is too unreliable to run an appliance directly. Solar panels are cheap these days, thanks to the Chinese.

John

Noise really don't bother me to much, just wondering if they really help all that much, i mean they will save my ass im sure bc ill drain the batteries a few times im sure.

I had one on my sailboat and yes, in the tradewinds it did run the small NovaCool fridge. No ice made and just beer and uncooked fish. The wind generator was a AirX brand which I got from Northern Tool Co. rated @ 400W @ 28mph.
Out of the tradewinds, I think not. 1) The problem is that without steady winds the batteries will start to run a deficit which will be hard to make up without running the engine. 2) The NovaCool can be setup to shut down below a certain battery voltage so you don't ruin your batteries but then you will have warm stuff on windless days. 3) The wind generator would not start below 7.5 MPH so this energy can't be captured at all. 4) The noise both aboard your boat and anchor neighbors boats can be an issue.
That all being said, a cold beer and living off the sea made it worth it for me at that time.
I still have the AirX and I think it was about $500. back in the day.

justinclay said:

I understand batteries i guess im asking over the period of a day what could i run?? I plan on living off the grid for up to a week or two so alternative energy is a necessity and a must so im not stranded.

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Work out 1) what you want/need to run 2)what it draws,3)calculate battery needs. Then go back and modify 1) to suit the amount of battery you can/would actually fit.
Can`t see how wind could power a fridge, with output rising and falling. Solar, combined with battery, definitely can. If you worry about getting "stranded", you need generator backup, be it a built in genset or a Honda type portable.

I dont plan on getting stranded but im planing on it just in case. Generator is a great idea and thats why they have them but still want renewable energy to save on costs ya know??

A buddy of mine has them on his Sea Ray down in Florida. You can read about them or ask him some questions via his blog at: swingsetonthehook@blogspot.com

Thank you jolly.

Ok let e break it down for ya. I plan on a command bridge in the higher 20s in length. Preferably its been repowered with a diesel. Im going to start in Illinois on the Illinois river, make my way to the Mississippi river and down to the golf. And from there i haven't decided if I'm going to California or Florida. I wanna be pretty self sufficient. Catching rain water and either a cpl decent panels or wind generators.

The German/Portuguese brand "Silentwind generator" will not disturb you at night - silent as a whisper...been through several comparison test and always comes out at the top. Works 24 hours ....if windy...

It comes with its own controller that also has an input for solar panels - so it's easy to team up with a solar panel or two (recommend the German brand "Sunware" - which is flexible and can be shaded without loosing charging due to excess number of solar cells).

This way you will have the best chances of keeping your batteries topped up..

Brooksie, I can see a combination of all 3 (solar/wind/battery) covers all bases. What I had in mind was the ability to power something directly off a solar controller instead of via the battery, though I think the appliance still gets supplementary flow from the battery if solar generation is inadequate, until the battery reaches a set point. I just could not see powering say a fridge by wind alone, but via a battery,yes. Wind and sun both come free once you buy the capture equipment, I like my solar as much as my batteries do.

Very good imput. I also dont want a cluttery mess. So whats the better option. Sometimes here in illinois region we have cloudy days.....and calm days. Usually theres always wind

Searios said:

The German/Portuguese brand "Silentwind generator" will not disturb you at night - silent as a whisper...been through several comparison test and always comes out at the top. Works 24 hours ....if windy...

It comes with its own controller that also has an input for solar panels - so it's easy to team up with a solar panel or two (recommend the German brand "Sunware" - which is flexible and can be shaded without loosing charging due to excess number of solar cells).

This way you will have the best chances of keeping your batteries topped up..

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Absolutely right. I use a combination of Airbreeze wind genny and Uni-solar flexible panels, which therefore don't have to be huge because of the wind genny. We went for this to be all 12v - no AC power used when underway. We can run 12v frig and all lights and equipement, (propane for cooking), and still the batts stay topped up, even after days at anchor without any engine charging - which we also have of course.
Suggest you search for previous posts of mine re this set-up Justinclay

thank you

Probably a bayliner ciera, yes i know thats nlt.a command but a little more roomy. Anyways thanks for everyones imput its greatly appreciated

ill drain the batteries a few times im sure.

First thing to purchase and install is a SOC meter.

A State of Charge meter is like a gas gauge for the batt bank, watches the juice leave and get pushed in from any source .

KILLING batts is really bad as they shrink in overall capacity every time!

Trojan 6V golf cart batts are $90 each here and should go 5 years of intelligent use, A SOC meter will help protect the batt life.

Here is one , there are many others,

Bogart Engineering | manufacturer of the TriMetric battery monitor ...

www.bogartengineering.com/

I would go to the Trojan web site and read about how many cycles you can expect from a bank.

Yea ive read all abkut the batteries. Thats why i was thinking of hooking up a wind generator up to a battery by itself and running bs stuff aith that cell phones, beer fridge, little fan and so on.

justinclay said:

Yea ive read all abkut the batteries. Thats why i was thinking of hooking up a wind generator up to a battery by itself and running bs stuff aith that cell phones, beer fridge, little fan and so on.

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You can do that too. Get a fridge that has adjustable setting to shut down at low battery voltage (NovaCool being one), a deep cycle battery, and the wind generator. Tie them together and in Illinois, you will have cold beer, sometimes.
Add more insulation to the fridge, more often.
Connect to your engine alternator, more often.
Start running a fan off it, less often.
Move to the tradewinds, always.
It's not a black & white situation, it's a balancing act, and where you are located has a lot to do with it. My setup worked great in the trades but when I got back to Cape Cod, no way would it keep up with my small fridge.

Justin, Stop in and say Hi on your way down the Tombigbee! I'm at Midway Marina! Jolly Time

Audible Wind Meters....

We had a rutland wind generator on our cruising sailboat for two years.. installed it with great expectations. it never performed well except offshore in the trade winds.. then it amplified the feeling of the wind velocity by screaming like a banshee!. Needless to say we really hated the think. most all of the boats we cruised with that had a wind generator exchanged them for solar at some point. For the wind gen. to really work you will need to have constant winds over 15 kts. Not too many places that happens as we all try to anchor in areas that are protected from the wind.
HOLLYWOOD

"screaming like a banshee!"

Yup I've heard em. If ya get one I hope you stay far away from me. Those are about the most obnoxious things I've ever encountered. Should be a law against them.

Dont be a sissy lol. Solar panels are also not totally disregarded just have to figure a way of mounting them so they are out of the way. Im going to be on a fairly smaller vessel so keeping space empty is a must.

Ok now on the solar panels do you just run the solar panel to some sort of a control box and from the box to a battery or the batteries????anybody have a diagram ???? And what wattage did everybody run???

I sorta stood back and listened to this thread for a while or so. Post #7 asked the appropriate questions. What size is your boat? That predicates how much solar you have room for. Also predicates what size battery bank you have. What size draw is your fridge and others... (tv, music, computer time,, etc. /...) I live in the tropics. I have had both wind machines and solars on my sailboat. We had a 4 cu. ft. freezer/fridge. We used a tv w/DVD player for entertainment, music system, and used our SSB for email and weather plus intership comms and reasonable night 12 V. lighting. The Air-X wind genny produced no more than 6-8 amps of charging to the batteries during the daylight hours (yup daylight... the winds die down at night even down here in the trades...) with the normal 15-18 kt. winds. The maximum charging current showed 20 amps at an uncomfortable 20-25 kts. (whether it be Air-X or KISS, or others, the power outputs of any unit increases by the square of the air volume passing over the turbine. ) We had limited space for solars and only had panels totaling 200 watts. These 200 watts available only produced maximum amps during the 1000 to 1500 timeframe. This could be slightly increased by orienting the panels to direct light. Long sermon for a short outcome... You are in the States and you do not have steady trade wind type breezes and you do not have direct sunlight. Both of these alternate energy options are good but limited to your environment. If you have the room, put on as much as you can afford - any amount of power is better than nothing. But I do not see them providing your full requirements and thus living off the grid while cruising. You will need a genset of some type.

We moved all of this equipment to the trawler and they helped. But their combination does not provide enough power in this new situation to warrant their expense. I would add more solar panels as the money becomes available, but would not replace or upgrade the wind machine.

As an aside, the Air-X has great features but they are very noisy. We always tried to anchor as far down wind of the rest of the fleet IOT limit my interference both audible and the great amount of RFI created when it was running at speed. I had to shut the thing down during the usual comms periods as its RFI completely blocked the HF freqs. (Although, my wife said it was the sound of cold beer.)

Thanks appreciate the insight. Electronics is something im slowly sponge'ing information on do you have a wire diagram or website ? I've been researching it and a lot of people show but not broken down in "lemans terms". And what size generator is enough ?? I mean the bigger the better no worries but like i stated before room is going to be an issue, money limits my size of boat and i dont mind the smaller vessel i really dont. At the same time i dont want a bunch of stuff taking up room. What size generator does everyone else have and size vessel are you on? Do you draw a lot of power throughout the day? How long do you run it?

beer fridge,

Here is the problem , a fridge of any style is the biggest power hog onboard.

Many will eat the output of 2 large solar panels plus the noisy wind machine .

A simpler solution is to take advantage of modern materials and purchase a GREAT ice box.

Sure its $300+ but its silent and works 100% of the time , unlike solar or wind.

Block ice is cheap, when you find it.

If you will be living aboard for years the smaller propane fridge/freezer will go 40 days on a 20# propane bottle.

Refrigeration + electric , forgetaboutit with out BIG bucks.

Here is a link to a comparative test review of various brands of wind generators carried out by Practical Sailor recently: http://www.naviclub.com/Test_comparatif_eoliennes_marine.pdf

Reading this and the comments of experienced sailors, my conclusion is that solar panels are significantly better than wind generators on several fronts (including output and noise). Wind generators are chosen by sailors over solar panels only because most sailboats have limited room to mount panels. On most (not all) trawlers, this is not such a problem so solar panels make more sense.

If on the other hand you are going to have a genset on board anyway, the case for having wind or solar is much weaker: sure you might shorten genset run-times a bit, but the cost of a little extra genset time vs the capital cost and hassle of installing & maintaining wind and/or solar has to be pretty marginal. The exception to this would be boats that are on swing moorings rather than marinas with shorepower access , during non-cruising times. Although it is relatively easy to set up a genset to auto-start when battery low set-points are reached, most of us don't like the idea of a diesel engine starting up when we're not aboard to monitor. So on a swing mooring, to keep batteries charged and bilge pumps active, a solar panel (or if no room, wind generator) might make sense.