Wind Gen behaving strangely .

[OldBawley]

The most I have ever seen delivered by the Aerogen 3 was about 10 Amps.

We ware anchored behind a low reef in Yasika adelary Göcek gulf Turkey. Had a south force 10 and the gen was sitting above the 5 feet high reef so had full wind al the way from Egypt. That was also one of the times the tail started vibrating.

The last two weeks we had force 6 to 7 here in Greece and the Aerogen delivers all I need. The output varies between 1 and 4 A.

Mind, I come a long way in consumption control. All lights are led now ( warm white ) and since it is winter the fridge is out. I don't drink beer, and the butter stays cold in the cockpit.

Anyway, our fridge uses on average 24 AH/ day, it is small, just 35 l and I build it myself using lots of isolation.

The best thing I did was buy a new laptop in witch I put an SSD. The big screen laptop uses one Amp/H. I can have it on day and night.

I started with two candles, bought oil lamps, then installed a new electric circuit, normal bulbs and some fluorescent tubes. Later halogen and tubes, now all LED. Old eyes need much light.

Just remembered I once read that the difference between Aerogen 3 and 4 is only that the windings in the 4 are slanting to avoid cogging.

I read lots of threads of people claiming that sun power is much more efficient than wind.

I agree. Certainly cheaper.

However been a full time liveaboard ( year 30 now ) and not situated in the Caribbean, I could not live comfortable without my wind generators. Winter in Greece ….. not much sun. So far, this winter I had to charge the battery's only 4 times using the engine. That was because we ware moored 10 days on a town quay, masts all around providing shadow and no real wind in that protected small town.

Right now, wind force 6 and sun. If I assemble the big windgen ( takes 3 minutes ) I could have 20 amps. Only need one. Could sell 19AH. Somebody ?

[GILow]

Well by the sound of it that A3 is still producing full power. Not bad. The A4 is supposed to produce 20 amps max, but that's in 60 knots of wind. Feels like, as you suggest, they are much the same device but perhaps the A3 is down rated a little to protect it. The A6 puts out 30 amps at 45 knots which is still a little windier than I'd like but a better wind speed range overall I think. I usually see 5 to 10 amps from it when I am sailing.


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[OldBawley]

Very reliable generators. No noise except some magnetic humming I only hear sitting next to the yawl mast.

When I replaced the broken SS prop shaft with a bronze one I was afraid the change in metal could

change the strength of the magnetic field. Proved to be insignificant.

I see quite a few Aerogen 6 around here, most of them mounted on the solar panel arch which is not a good solution. They work in fouled wind and shadow the panels.

Had a friend liveaboard who had an Airmarine mounted like that. He complained to have less incoming Amps as I had. I advised him to take away the Airgen who was standing just behind the main sail boom and shadowing his solar panels. Result was that without the windgen he had more power. Could always put it back if a sunless week was predicted.

Saw a German yacht with two Airmarines. One on the back as usual and one the guy mounted on the pulpit rail after anchoring. Told me the front one had almost double output of the stern one.

My big “Whopper” has a two blade 5,7 feet diameter prop and this one makes a whop whop sound similar to helicopters. Only audible standing just behind it. The big one is mounted on the SB side of the boat just in front of the main mast. The gen is on the foot rail so I can pass to the front of the boat for anchor handling and it is free of foul wind of the two roller furled head sails.