Combining Wind and Solar Charge Inputs

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Target9000

Brad,

We anticipate using an Engel for cooling. Its a lot smaller than the current reefer setup but from the stats sheets on their site along with a lot of research and reviews it appears that they really are pretty low amp devices compared to a normal reefer box. I imagine a worst case scenario of it running continuously all day at 60amps. (which I doubt is realistic, probably looking realistically at 40amps a day).

We anticipate:
VHF
SSB (occasionally)
chartplotter
lights (all LED)
laptops and kindles
stereo (used when we have excess power)
fans for cabin
fan for head vent (always running)
Engel freezer
Fathometer
bilge pumps

We probably won't have radar or wind instruments (undecided). No TVs or anything like that. Don't anticipate having pressure water.
We do have a mechanical wind vane

So as you can see we're trying for a really bare bones cruising setup and embrace the less is more mentality.

I think your estimation of 100Ahrs a day looks resonable, probably even a bit high. My rough guess would be 80-90 AHrs

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Target9000

Can you wire the dump resistors and the fans both in the diversion load? I mean what if the diversion has to dump a lot of amps, more than just the fans can handle?

Most wind generators require a dump load to handle the full output of the generator, but many more sophisticated regulators and battery monitors can be programmed to switch on a relay and do something useful with the excess power when the batteries are in float mode, or have reached a certain state of charge.
I prefer to keep things simple, but I manually switch on things like fuel polishing when the batteries are regulating so the excess power is put to some use, but it is easy to automate this process if you wish.

[Celestialsailor]

I believe in the world of electricity, the fans are taken current as they need from the system. I'm not sure about your wind generator. I had a Air-X wind generator and when it finished charging, it fed it's own power back to it's winding in a reverse mode to almost stop the propellers spinning.