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After tech on these things. There is a heap of cheap turbines on eBay ie http://bit.ly/KE43Oh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that advertise between 400w and 600w output. I'm guessing they are really all pretty much the same and for any given condition when in use would be neglagable. I have a battery bank that should be 800ish A/H which will be doubled maybe more and will have around 300w solar, gender will run 2+ hours a day, that's runs through a 3000va Victron that manages 240v out and charge. Will have a small bunnings rubbish genset purely for 12v charge if needed. The beauty I see with wind is most of my power usage will be night time so having the batteries kept topped up during that time would be nice then wind + solar to hopefully get closer to full charge during the day with less draw then top up with genset as required.......... I hope
So has anyone had much to do with something similar, how noisy are they? I've seen other units advertised for a LOT more that are 5 blade and claim to be whisper quiet, is there a cheap 5 blade option? CN you add blades to a 3 blade unit to keep noise down? What knd of average output should I expect..... I know how long is a piece of string
Basically I'm all but convinced, are there good reasons to go a different direction?
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With a small turbine, when the wind blows you would probably not hear it over the background wind noise. Large (30 m long blades) tend to go Whoosh Whoosh, but the smaller ones go much faster and I don't think you would hear them - particularly if you are upwind from them.
You do need a fair amount of wind to get any reasonable power from any wind generator. I would be inclined to borrow/hire an anemometer and see what wind you do have. Once you have an average reading you can then assess what power to expect from an ionstallation and ask the manufacturer for their performance specs.
Just out of curiosity how will you deal with the fact that the output is AC? Could a rectifier from an alternator be used?
A few years ago I read about people adapting alternators to generate wind power... I thought it sounded like an interesting project. I guess with those you could adjust the pulley sizes to "tune" the set-up to suit your local wind levels a bit.
To me, just looking at it, the ebay one looks like it would be pretty pissweak. I have a feeling you would also need quite a lot of wind to generate anything approaching 400W (or even 20W actually).
It may be rated at 400watt, but that will be its optimal output.
For commercial scale wind turbines, they are costed on the basis that real world output will be only an average of 55-65% of the unit's rated output due to sub optimal wind conditions being the norm.
RN wrote:pussy is out, its the log for me... Thank you Jesus.
Chimpy, no idea about AC it's not something I know about to be honest. I never expected anything near rated but say 150w all night would help with battery maitenance I would have thought
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Check the wind speed at night. Most places I have been in, the wind drops off - usually to near zero at night (absence of the sun ). This is when you need power most.
Fair enough mate, I want to use it on my motorhome, we are going to be living in it long term while touring. When we are stopped somewhere for work we will have access to shore power and use gensets as required more, when we are down by a river chilling you want to limit noise and enjoy the surroundings and given somewhere down under some trees is the perfect spot my reckoning is solar will start to get real inefficient hence the thought of using wind. If it were for an off the grid shack it would be different, in the right situation wind could be usefull but solar would become easier to set up ie less space and shade issues
Really apart from limited time in nat parks we can get away with using gensets for charge, I just want to limit using them out of principle but it may be unavoidable
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You seem to be looking for a portable wind power system. To get a system with any decent amount of power, you would need a fairly large rotor eg at least 1 to 1.2 m dia. This will be a mongrel to carry. Also, you have to have a tower, and this would be bulky. In a decent wind, the tower is likely to fall over, damaging the turbine or even worse, damaging someone/something. I would be inclined to go for Solar and some large batteries. Then you could mount the solar panels on the roof of your rig and charge the batteries whereever you are (except in an undercover carpark).
Yeah was thinking for portable otherwise I'd be looking st something at 96v with decent output on top of a decent hill sounds like its not worth the hassle :s I thought inwas on to a winner
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they would be great for remote start application, probably too small for anything with much constant power usage though, bigger one like those would be tops
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"I saw one of these at Jaycar in Rocky. About 300mm high, but I see they are telescopic. "
They are 50 watts. That isnt even 1 headlight globe on low beam. Even so, it is 4 amps @ 12 volts, so it could be used as a battery charger, but for serious usage eg running a fridge, it is too small.
