New wind generator install

[Nightsky]

Originally Posted by Pete7

First time I went to the Caribbean I was shocked when someone turned the big light in the sky out at tea time.

Pete

Which where we will be for the next 2-3 yrs, so wind will complement the solar very well.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Actually, I think solar is great for higher latitudes. Panels are cooler and when we go sailing mainly during the summer, we have super long daylight hours. First time I went to the Caribbean I was shocked when someone turned the big light in the sky out at tea time.

Most of my cruising has been at mid-high latitudes (upper 40/lower 50 degrees North). As you say, in the summer we do great for solar. Long daylight hours and short nights mean the batteries are always happy June through most of August.

But I do notice that as we move into September and beyond that it takes longer each day to get back to full battery charge. Luckily it tends to get windier at the same time, which is where the wind-gen really helps.

Originally Posted by Nightsky

Difficult to tell about how noisy they are as his mic is not very good and it picks up lots of wind noise but not necessarily coming from the turbine. I don't recall him mentioning about any undue noise from them.

Hard to know until you hear it in real life. And noise is both objective and subjective. Some (like me) are highly sensitive to noise. Other, not so much. This was one of the big reasons we moved from the old Air-X (which screamed like a banshee) to the SilentWind (which ain't silent, but is pretty damn quiet).

At $200 you could consider it an experiment. Be sure to post your results though. I'm definitely curious.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by nortonscove

Love the concept of solar as well but I'm in Newfoundland and wind is the obvious choice for me so I'm waiting for someone to weigh in on this with working knowledge.

I'm based in Lewisporte now. Sailed around last season. Before that we were based in Corner Brook.

As I say, solar is great during the summer months, but as you get further away from Solstice the angles get lower and it gets harder to reach full charge on the batteries. Happily most of our cruise time coincides with the good sun times, so it generally works out for us.

I'd definitely recommend solar first. Max this out. But I do think the combo of solar and wind is the best.

[Aurora38]

Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting, it is a question probably lots want to ask but don’t. I’m glad to hear all the open-mindedness here. I agree that Hank’s advice is good. You’ll also see from his description that he has owned many “high-end” brands, which also suggests that they may not last long either. As I understand it, almost everything (at least components) are made in China these days, and probably even the much more costly “marine branded” ones have the same guts from the same factories. You may gain something in the way of quality control and customer service / troubleshooting, with the more expensive brands (though even that is hit or miss these days) but is it worth 10x the price? You can, after all, buy 10 of the cheaper ones for the same price... If you don’t mind the extra work and installation process I’d say try a cheap one first and see what happens, after all it’s only 10% of what you’d pay for the others. I installed a cheap, Chinese made on on my boat 4 years ago and, when there is wind, it charges all 3 battery banks nicely (I’m in higher latitudes), and it’s not overly noisy at all, I’ve even asked my boat neighbours about it and they say they’ve never noticed it.

I find sometimes those who have invested a fortune in some top brand-name model will swear that everything else is a waste of money, while few people are willing to speak up and ask these questions about cheaper models, so, good post.

[Aurora38]

Originally Posted by nortonscove

Love the concept of solar as well but I'm in Newfoundland and wind is the obvious choice for me so I'm waiting for someone to weigh in on this with working knowledge.

I‘m also in NL, I have both solar and wind. Big Bang for the buck from wind, but the solar is a big help, too, especially on a bright, calm day.

[j.g.evans]

Many years ago the only SILENT wind generators with any output were the Windbugger and Four Winds. Both have 5' diameter blades. I am no longer cruising and have a Four Winds wind generator, SS mounting pole and regulators for sale for $250. I live in NJ and can show it to you. Jim

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Actually, I think solar is great for higher latitudes. Panels are cooler and when we go sailing mainly during the summer, we have super long daylight hours. First time I went to the Caribbean I was shocked when someone turned the big light in the sky out at tea time.

Pete

Agree about the summer usage for solar and suppose that no one is really sailing too much in the winter.

My point was with the higher wind speeds of the higher lats, this is where a wind gen works well.

We have no idea where the OP is located though, so somewhat academic in this case.

[Montanan]

The whirring sound of a small wind turbine can be very annoying. One does not truly realize how annoying until you go put the brake on it and thence everyone experiences the joy of silence again. Be prepared to wear earbuds so as to tune out the blade noise. Of keen issue is that the decibel level to power output ratio is rather dismal.

I equate it to having a genny running continuously in the background, or your diesel engine on while motoring. Albeit some machines are considerably louder than others and some have pitches that are more aggravating than others.

So much prefer solar, to combustion powered generators, and combustion powered gennies to wind powered gennies, because the combustion powered gennies put out a lot more power and thus operate annoyingly for much shorter duration of time than the small output power of the wind gennies. But if you are tone deaf then what the heck you might not mind the buzz and whirr. Note they will only put out anywhere near their rated output power when the wind velocity is rather high. The energy output goes up exponentially with the wind velocity, just as it does with your sails. But with your sails you put up larger sails in light winds whereas the wind turbine does not grow in diameter hence it does little when wind is light.

My company's development staff of ten persons designed and built a prototype 3 megawatt wind turbine generator a couple of decades ago, [wow, can't believe it has been that long ago]. The generator itself was 12 meters in diameter and rotated at 13 rpm when operating at rated speed and was silent because it turned ever so slowly, of course the blades that were attached to the genny were massive at about 100 meters in diameter. Noise from a large machine was no issue, it whispered.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Nightsky

Which where we will be for the next 2-3 yrs, so wind will complement the solar very well.

Not answering your specific question, but like everyone, I have an opinion on a wind gen

You'll be in the Caribbean for the next 2-3 yrs? If so, I'd advise not adding wind until after you leave the area.

We've cruised the Caribbean with 500 watts of solar only, and with 500 watts plus an Eclectic Energy D400 wind generator. Surprisingly, we had more power production overall with just the solar than with both. While the wind gen did sometimes offer power 24/7, the shadows it cast on the solar far outweighed any benefit it added.

The wind gen did pull its own weight in two different situations:

When we cruised Scotland in late summer and into early winter, the short daylight hours and never ending cloudy skies made our fixed solar close to useless. Between alternator charging when motoring and the wind gen, we did (90% of time) have enough power at anchor. But if we could have actively angled our solar panels into the sun, I think we would have been fine with solar and alternator only.

The other time it has been useful is when sailing long offshore passages. Our first trip across the Atlantic was done in mostly sunny weather with no problems powering the boat with only solar. The next time was stormy and always dark- this time we had to run the engine to keep the batteries up. Third trip across was sunny for parts and stormy for others... But we had the wind gen and between the two we were able to keep a full battery bank.

When on passage you are actively moving and looking for favorable wind to sail. These same winds also power the wind gen and can keep you powered 24/7. I don't know about you, but I have never pulled up anchor and moved to a different spot searching out the wind. Maybe some do, but I'm typically trying to find protected areas with only enough breeze to keep me cool.

If you do install a wind gen, mount it on the port side to help prevent it from shadowing the solar during the winter sun. You'll mostly be anchored with your bow facing East and the sun on starboard in the Caribbean.

I'd put the wind gen money towards a Honda 2200 generator. It won't ever shadow the solar, and it can easily fill in the gaps the 5% of the time it's needed.

Matt

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

Not answering your specific question, but like everyone, I have an opinion on a wind gen

You'll be in the Caribbean for the next 2-3 yrs? If so, I'd advise not adding wind until after you leave the area.

. . .

If you do install a wind gen, mount it on the port side to help prevent it from shadowing the solar during the winter sun. You'll mostly be anchored with your bow facing East and the sun on starboard in the Caribbean.

I'd put the wind gen money towards a Honda 2200 generator. It won't ever shadow the solar, and it can easily fill in the gaps the 5% of the time it's needed.

Matt

Indeed shady side mounting of ancillary equipment is key for solar applications. Having panels that can be tilted towards the sun greatly aids power generation. The word POSH being an acronym, Port Out, Starboard Home, derived back in the days of European traveling to the East Indies on board ships that did not have air conditioning system a century or more ago to define preferred occupancy of cabins on the cooler shady side of the vessel.

[Matt Johnson]

An actually attempt to supply some answer to the initial question

A friend installed a generic 3-blade Chinese eBay 400 watt wind gen three years ago. It is almost as quiet as our $2000 gen in anything but higher wind situations- it really screeches in 20 knts+ of deck level wind. Ours did have a lower start-up speed, but both produced the same power for most of the range from 10 knts on. He just sold the boat and it was still working just as new.... not bad for a few hundred bucks.

Matt

[Nightsky]

Originally Posted by Aurora38

Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting, it is a question probably lots want to ask but don’t. I installed a cheap, Chinese made on on my boat 4 years ago and, when there is wind, it charges all 3 battery banks nicely (I’m in higher latitudes), and it’s not overly noisy at all, I’ve even asked my boat neighbours about it and they say they’ve never noticed it.

.

Thank you. Care to share which cheap, Chinese brand you installed? If your neighbours didn't complain it can't be too noisy.

[Nightsky]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

If you do install a wind gen, mount it on the port side to help prevent it from shadowing the solar during the winter sun. You'll mostly be anchored with your bow facing East and the sun on starboard in the Caribbean.


Matt

Good to know, thanks.

[Nightsky]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

An actually attempt to supply some answer to the initial question

A friend installed a generic 3-blade Chinese eBay 400 watt wind gen three years ago. It is almost as quiet as our $2000 gen in anything but higher wind situations- it really screeches in 20 knts+ of deck level wind. Ours did have a lower start-up speed, but both produced the same power for most of the range from 10 knts on. He just sold the boat and it was still working just as new.... not bad for a few hundred bucks.

Matt

Good to know. I almost didn't ask the question, not wanting anyone to know I was considering cheap, Chinese stuff, but I figured I can't be the only one thinking it, and there are probably some that have already tried it. Not that many decades ago, people thought the same of Japanese products, now they are synonymous with high quality. I think the Chinese are the same, they can build to any spec that the market demands, including high quality.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Nightsky

Good to know. I almost didn't ask the question, not wanting anyone to know I was considering cheap, Chinese stuff, but I figured I can't be the only one thinking it, and there are probably some that have already tried it. Not that many decades ago, people thought the same of Japanese products, now they are synonymous with high quality. I think the Chinese are the same, they can build to any spec that the market demands, including high quality.

I'm glad you did. And I'd really love to hear back from you if you do go ahead with it.


I like my SilentWind, but if it ever died (it's going on eight years old now), I'm not sure I'd replace it. But if there was something just as good at the price you're talking, I'd definitely go for it.