Wind generator

[1solosailor]

Hi guys
Brand new to the site and couldn't find a thread on wind generators.
Was wondering if anyone has any info, good or bad, on vertical wind generators vs the traditional 3 blade style.
Looking for information on performance and noise
Thanks in advance

[HankOnthewater]

I have never seen any on a boat. When I looked at it many years ago, the supplied power was far less compared with a similar sized 'normal' wind generator. Being large and bulky does not go well on a boat.
I guess that if the vertical axis design was better, then all the commercial windfarms would use them,...... and they are not.

I have seen some Darius designs on top of light poles in my hometown, when a local government department thought was a good idea but they all lasted less than 12 months, now replaced by solarpanels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrieus_wind_turbine

Disclaimer: I have 2 'normal' wind generators on my boat, but I think would have only one or none if I were to buy a next boat.

[1solosailor]

Thanks Hank
I'm looking for something to help top up the batteries on the days when there sub isn't cooperating, as well as on passages where I find my instruments and auto pilot draw my batteries down at night

[Na Mara]

In terms of production, assuming 10kn average wind speed Rayleigh distributed (which is a reasonable assumption) a superwind 350 has a capacity factor of 10%. So the average output is around 35W. That is about 0.8kW of energy a day. Wind being boom and bust there will be many days where you get nothing followed by days where you are generating many kW (above 25-30kn winds a super wind will produce 8kW a day). To cope with the intermittency of supply you should have a big battery capacity to bridge the lulls and absorb the plenty.

With a big battery a wind generator will keep the lights on in a frugal cruiser at anchor and will help do so underway. You won’t be able to run with everything on for weeks on end, or to cover heavy domestic loads like electric cooking, without alternative energy supply. However, if you are frugal and realistic in your expectations then a wind generator is an excellent all year round all latitude energy source.

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by Na Mara

In terms of production, assuming 10kn average wind speed Rayleigh distributed (which is a reasonable assumption) a superwind 350 has a capacity factor of 10%. So the average output is around 35W. That is about 0.8kW of energy a day. Wind being boom and bust there will be many days where you get nothing followed by days where you are generating many kW (above 25-30kn winds a super wind will produce 8kW a day). To cope with the intermittency of supply you should have a big battery capacity to bridge the lulls and absorb the plenty.

With a big battery a wind generator will keep the lights on in a frugal cruiser at anchor and will help do so underway. You won’t be able to run with everything on for weeks on end, or to cover heavy domestic loads like electric cooking, without alternative energy supply. However, if you are frugal and realistic in your expectations then a wind generator is an excellent all year round all latitude energy source.

Of course you mean 0.8 kWh, not kW. watts are a measure of power, watt*hours are a measure of energy. (I'm sure you know this, i correct it for sake of readers who are on the verge of understanding the difference between power and energy and may easily be confused.)

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by chris95040

Of course you mean 0.8 kWh, not kW. watts are a measure of power, watt*hours are a measure of energy. (I'm sure you know this, i correct it for sake of readers who are on the verge of understanding the difference between power and energy and may easily be confused.)

I did indeed mean kWh and it was a typo that I am very grateful you picked up on.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, solo.

See also ➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...e-59699-3.html

[boatman61]

Being a Brit we have multi blade wind genies..
Rutland and formerly LVM Aerogen who have ceased production of boat genies.
Both very quiet and do the job, I had an Aerogen on several boats and they kept me powered up at all times..
Admittedly I don't have all the bells and whistles like A/C and induction cooking but then I sail to get away, not take all my $hit with me.
There was a brief flirtation with the 'Tin Can' gennie in the UK but while it proved safer (no split skulls) it did not perform well.

[pcmm]

Wind generators are probably THE most expensive way to get a small charging current. They're really almost decorations. read the output charts in the brochures carefully. Most of them barely put out anything until you get to 15knts of wind. For example take the Rutland 914 (which is probably the closest thing to a silent turbine available) in 10knts of wind it only puts out 27 watts. that.s barely 2 amps at best. If your battery bank is over 100ah, the bank won't even really notice it! add to that that a Rutland 914 by the time you've mounted it is a $1500-$2000 install! that's $1000 PER AMP!!!

The SIlentwind is better but really if you have the space a solar panel is a better choice.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Wind generators are probably THE most expensive way to get a small charging current. They're really almost decorations. read the output charts in the brochures carefully. Most of them barely put out anything until you get to 15knts of wind. For example take the Rutland 914 (which is probably the closest thing to a silent turbine available) in 10knts of wind it only puts out 27 watts. that.s barely 2 amps at best. If your battery bank is over 100ah, the bank won't even really notice it! add to that that a Rutland 914 by the time you've mounted it is a $1500-$2000 install! that's $1000 PER AMP!!!

The SIlentwind is better but really if you have the space a solar panel is a better choice.

I disagree.. Wind can blow 24/7, Solar (efficient) is available maybe 10hrs in 24...
Fine if your a Marina Queen with shore power, but long term cruising if given a choice I would pick wind over solar as a liveaboard cruiser who actually goes places in boats <36ft.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by 1solosailor

Hi guys
Brand new to the site and couldn't find a thread on wind generators.
Was wondering if anyone has any info, good or bad, on vertical wind generators vs the traditional 3 blade style.
Looking for information on performance and noise
Thanks in advance

Where you sail is an important factor to understand which power generator would be the best.

Higher latitudes/more wind you may do ok with a wind gen. Agree w/the other posts that it is relatively more expensive than solar.

In most of the other latitudes (w/less wind), solar will crush the output of a wind gen. on a daily average basis. Solar is less expensive to install and totally quiet. If you can fit hard panels, you will have virtually no maintenance for many years vs. a wind gen (bearings).

We have a wind gen (Rutland) with solar and don't use much power besides refrigeration (now adding a separate freezer). Originally, we just had the wind gen. and it didn't keep up w/the daily needs of the refrigerator (30ah mid summer in a well insulated box). Added solar and now plenty of power, a real game changer.

When I first started out sailing, a wind gen. was the thing to have to recharge the batteries (solar wasn't really available). Now the with advances in solar efficiency and lower cost, in most cases I would initially set up solar system to see if it satisfied your power consumption. If you are in the higher lats and have no sun (winter), then maybe a wind gen added the solar to make a hybrid system.

[boatman61]

Not just the latitude.. the size of your boat counts as well,..
You will note all the pro solar crowd are >40ft.
My Aerogen ran depth/speed/wind logs, nav and interior lighting, GPS, VHF, radio/CD player, cold box with spillover system and my tiller pilot.. this was a 31ft Westerly.. 2 house and 1 engine battery

[Na Mara]

I do agree that where you sail makes a big difference to likely output. At 5kn average wind speeds the superwind produces less than 0.5kWh a day on average whereas at 15 it produces about 2kWh. So where you sail is important. But then this is true also of solar where latitude makes a big difference.

Where I disagree with the anti wind brigade is on the reliability and output of wind. If you buy a cheap wind generator then you get what you pay for, but Superwinds are designed to work completely autonomously for 25 years and to survive winds in excess of 100kn. Also, given an average windspeed the average output of a given turbine is completely predictable. So long as that is over what you need, and you have the batteries to maximize efficiency, then wind is all you need over an alternator.

I don’t need more than 0.8kWh a day and most places on the planet have average winds in excess of 10kn so a superwind does me fine. I also need something that works in the winter in Northern latitudes, and that won’t ruin the lines of my boat. In the end it was an easy decision to go for wind over solar

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Not just the latitude.. the size of your boat counts as well,..
You will note all the pro solar crowd are >40ft.
My Aerogen ran depth/speed/wind logs, nav and interior lighting, GPS, VHF, radio/CD player, cold box with spillover system and my tiller pilot.. this was a 31ft Westerly.. 2 house and 1 engine battery

Not true at all! We see lots of boats under 40 with solar. We have a nonsuch that we know cruising with a 350 watt panel on his davits.

The problem with most ind gen's is that by the time they are making decent power the wind is up at 20knts+ and they are making noise and vibration. a wind gen screaming along in 25knts is great for power, scary for the crew!

wind gen's had their place. They used to be the best way to make charging current on a cruising sailboat 20+ years ago but solar is way better now. I used to prefer wind over solar but solar has advanced so much and wind really hasn't.

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by pcmm

The problem with most ind gen's is that by the time they are making decent power the wind is up at 20knts+ and they are making noise and vibration. a wind gen screaming along in 25knts is great for power, scary for the crew!

Again you seem to equate the energy output of a device with its power at any particular instant. You need to integrate the power over time to get the energy produced. A wind generator producing 50W on average over 24 hours generates the same energy as 150W of solar on average over 8 hours. If the panels you have are producing at 50% of rated capacity on average under insolation then 300W of solar will generate about the same as a 350W superwind gen will in a location with average wind speeds of about 12kn and average insolation. This is a very rough calculation and very dependent on prevailing conditions but it serves to make the point that while 3 amps out of 350W wind generator looks disappointing it’s the equivalent of 9 amps out of a solar array in terms of daily energy production.