Wind turbine battery charging

[thehamguy1]

On a whim I googled "RV wind turbine" and came across this website: http://usawindgen.ecrater.com/p/1216...rbine-12-blade and that made me wonder if there are others on this forum who know of this company and its products?

[LakeCumberlandCamper]

I'm interested too hamguy. I'll be watching to see if any updates on this thread for sure!

[Herk7769]

As with Generators, cheap wind turbines are noisy. The more expensive ones have curved carbon fiber spiral shaped blades like the J model C-130 and are infinitely quieter.

File:Hercules.propeller.arp.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[thehamguy1]

Ah, of course! Too good to be true, shoulda known. Glad I asked, though. Thanks Lou for the authoritative information.

[donn]

To get any useable power from a small wind turbine requires a constant 20MPH wind. Great for a sail boat but not so great for camping. I have seen a couple on RV's over the years, but most people have come to the conclusion that they don't want to be in that much wind all the time.

[thehamguy1]

It sounds as if anything I could afford to buy would be too flimsy or too noisy. But just for fun I might try building one this winter. There are lots of YouTube videos on homebrew wind generators. One set of instructions I found (http://vimeo.com/3193267) makes it look doable. Another source says to use a treadmill motor as the generator. Maybe I can find one cheap...

[traveler2955]

Donn is generally correct in that a sailboat, of which we traveled over 40k nautical miles on the Pacific with our 40'er during 4.5 years, we've found the following.
Our wind generator (WG) worked as long as the wind was between 10 knots and 35 knots. Below this we didn’t get any results, and above this the wind blew too hard. Many units are available, some more efficient than others.
Furthermore, in the Pacific Northwest anchorages were great, most spots were hurricane holes. This meant that our WG wasn’t of great value as the wind didn’t pipe up. And, we preferred to anchor where the wind wasn’t.
On passages at sea, coastal cruising, anchoring behind a bite of land along the US West Coast, Mexico and Central American countries where we seldom had land almost around us, or islands in the South Seas, anchoring was usually in the wind and our generator was of great value.
Therefore, if you plan on hanging out in the wind, it’ll work for you. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find many places or times RV’n where the wind always blew, and if so, I wasn’t interested in that local. My bet, then, is on Solar, or gas/diesel gensets.
Good luck.
Mike

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by traveler2955

Donn is generally correct in that a sailboat, of which we traveled over 40k nautical miles on the Pacific with our 40'er during 4.5 years, we've found the following.
Our wind generator (WG) worked as long as the wind was between 10 knots and 35 knots. Below this we didn’t get any results, and above this the wind blew too hard. Many units are available, some more efficient than others.
Furthermore, in the Pacific Northwest anchorages were great, most spots were hurricane holes. This meant that our WG wasn’t of great value as the wind didn’t pipe up. And, we preferred to anchor where the wind wasn’t.
On passages at sea, coastal cruising, anchoring behind a bite of land along the US West Coast, Mexico and Central American countries where we seldom had land almost around us, or islands in the South Seas, anchoring was usually in the wind and our generator was of great value.
Therefore, if you plan on hanging out in the wind, it’ll work for you. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find many places or times RV’n where the wind always blew, and if so, I wasn’t interested in that local. My bet, then, is on Solar, or gas/diesel gensets.
Good luck.
Mike

Key West in the winter is a high wind area. Wind generators are not popular due to the noise when they are turning. We are pretty close together in the dry camping area and I always hated being next to (or even close to) one. How they dealt with the racket is beyond me. My generator is much less nerve wracking.

[thehamguy1]

Thanks again fellas. I may still make one myself just 'cause it sounds like fun, and I no longer have antique radios to fix; I broke the habit and sold the 60 or more that I'd somehow acquired. Gotta keep busy to keep the brains from caking up.

We like to camp in Forest Service, BLM, or Dept. of Ag campgrounds. The Golden Age Pass makes the price right. But they tend not to be sunny, and when I do find some sun I've noticed that nothing draws clouds like solar panels. But they'd probably not be windy enough either, so I'm left with hunting up a Honda EU2000i or digging out that cold fusion reactor I just know I've got stowed somewhere...

Traveler, I'm a recovering sailor myself. After a quarter century of mostly lake sailing (three ocean and two Lake Superior jaunts, though) we sold our 5th and last boat in 1999 to cover grad school tuition for the Spousal Unit. Then she brought her MBA home and figured out a way for me to retire early, so I don't regret selling the boat. I had a solar panel on her (the boat, that is) but didn't think of a WG back then.