"Gordon" wrote in message
...
Do wind gens do the job? If you anchor, you tend to anchor out of the
wind. To be effective, you need 10+ knots of wind. If you are motoring,
the alternator will put out a lot more than a wind gen.
Wind gens are expensive and in some cases, quite noisy.
They need to be mounted high enough to be out of the way and be able to
catch the wind which makes them more difficult to service.
It all makes one wonder.
The one good thing is they work at night when solar doesn't.
G
Hi, y'all,
This question (which included discussion on solar) came up in a list I'm on
a while ago. This was my response to the poster who had reliable 15-30 knot
winds, but was very far north (little solar time in the winter, and not
great angles at any time):
Hi, Bernie, and list,
Just like in real estate, location is everything.
The angle of the sun has a significant impact on the power generation
possible from panels. If you can manually aim them all the time,
they're very good.
If you've got consistent 15-30 where you're located (most folks try to
anchor in more protected areas so that many don't get the full benefit
of wind), I highly recommend the KISS, sold in the US by
svhotwire.com, John Gambill ). In 15-30,
consistent, with it on our arch, we'd get 10-30A. The sweet spot is
about 25knots, as it picks up rapidly over 15 knots. See the output curve
on the manufacturer's site.
http://www.kissenergy.com/OutputCurve.html
I can't comment on the other units you cite, not having used them. I
can say that our KISS has had no troubles, but there are commonly
available repair parts (automotive bearings and rectifier, and perhaps
other parts, too; I don't recall beyond those). They're much quieter
at those wind levels, perhaps because it's a big blade footprint
allowing slower revs, and will, unlike some we see shutting down at
15knots, keep going up to 30 before shutting down (heat protection).
You can also set the rectifier for half-output which would allow it to
operate higher, or, just use the leash to wrap it to be offset (keep
the vane from pointing it directly into the wind) and keep it running
effectively at much higher winds, as we did during Hanna.
We have a relatively high electrical usage, including three computers,
and our 370W solar, fixed (no aiming) and KISS keep us full enough to
run the microwave here (about 24* sun angle at noon). In late August,
in Charleston, we got 20A from the solar, for a frame of reference.
HTH.
L8R
Skip, on wifi in Big Majors through Staniel Cay Yacht Club
Going further, if you're sailing, both can generate power, but the wind will
do it at night. Many of the non-KISS windgens top out at 4A, hardly enough
to even think about for us. In the case of KISS, power generation doesn't
really begin until 7-8 knots, at which point it's a very steep climb on the
output curve - nearly straight line. They (others) also shut down in
anything more than about 12 knots - it's really weird (for us, anyway) to
see windgens merrily whirling and then suddenly stop for several minutes.
So, you're correct about the anchorage issue. We've never been particularly
concerned about that, especially if we're going to be in a tropical
environment; wind is good :{)) - but if there were a lot of fetch, we would,
indeed, try to get behind some breakwater geography...
HTH
L8R
Skip, ashore, doing family duty, to return to Flying Pig June 9 for routine
maintenance chores and thence back to the Bahamas
--
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