Anyone have experience with this turbine?

[hoppylad]

I'm setting up a charging/power system for this year. It's my first go with an RV (lucked into an old freebie that I can gut and set up just how I want.)

I'd love to avoid a generator and I don't want to fire up the RV motor ever once I park. I'll have probably 4 12v batteries wired in parallel so around 450ah.

I found this turbine and it seems like a very good deal, even compared to building one myself (you can get it for around $400)

http://www.naturepowerproducts.com/prod ... php?id=118

Marine grade and inverter included so it can tie directly into the charging system the RV already has. Seems like it would do a pretty good job charging the battery set through the day. My power needs won't be huge.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this turbine specifically or this kind of set up generally.

All wisdom welcome!

[TomServo]

Was posted today, but I'll bump it anyways.
Don't know much about wind turbines..but lack of wind won't be a problem. I'm curious what it's tolerances are to micro dust?

[Turtleburp]

Wind turbines work best with smooth steady wind flow - you get this nicely at sea where the sea is flat/ smooth but less so in cities where the rough ground breaks up the wind and makes it turbulent.
Think of all the tents, sails and rvs at BRC and you can imagine it being pretty turbulent.


For it to work you'd need quite a tall pole to lift the turbine into laminar winds (assuming they actually exist there).

I saw a fantastic survival vehicle with the setup I describe above, I wonder if anyone knows this person to hear their experiences:


Hmm - it is pretty high but not spinning even though the streamer behind is blowing...

[some seeing eye]

This gives you an idea of the wind over a week - http://www.wunderground.com/history/air ... story.html
Not exact, because the weather station is merely nearby.

That shows you might not get 400W out of the turbine. The specs show 400W at 28mph meaning you would need 13 hours of that speed constant to charge those batteries. (check my math please) So bring a wagon to take batteries over to Snow Koan Solar for supplemental charging. Maybe bring a weather station and data logger to correlate wind over the week with power over the week.

You should ground it by burying a ground rod horizontal, say 18 inches down. You would need a mounting pole, say 20' and guy wires.

Bring it! Visit the AEZ and share/report on your experiences. Maybe add solar panels next year. The AEZ has a message board and may have some expert advice. In fact, the AEZ accepts all campers who apply in time.

[trilobyte]

Assuming mother nature delivers enough wind to get you what you need, it could work. Good luck!

[FIGJAM]

From what I've read about wind turbines, I'd be concerned about overspin if the wind really kicks up.

It may have the fail safes built in.

[some seeing eye]

Here is the entry portal to the AEZ Villiage - http://ae-zone.org/

[EspressoDude]

check the manual

minimum wind speed is 7 mph, max is 100 mph

break in period is 60 - 100 hours with less than optimum output.

at playa elevation of about 4000 ft efficiency is 85 - 88%

[hoppylad]

Thanks all! Good input, many variables to consider.

I certainly wouldn't expect 400w constant output, and I had noted that the altitude hits the efficiency. I have the RV to anchor it too, so I can make a nice tall mast (grounding it is a very good thought!) The turbine does have a brake so overspin shouldn't be a problem. I know it certainly feels like it sometimes but I can't remember ever getting winds over 110mph.

Given that this solution is significantly cheaper than solar (if less predictable,) I'm going to continue to explore it (and probably add a few more batteries to the equation.) I'll post at AEZ for sure, and if I wind up going this way I'll post results here as well.

[MartyZion]

The inverter on this turbine converts to AC to minimize current loss until it reaches the charge controller which converts it back to DC. I doubt you could power any AC appliance with this directly, no matter how steady the wind.

As noted above, you'd have to get this turbine at least twenty feet up to eliminate turbulence. My experience with cheaper wind turbines is that the blades are not well balanced and they make a lot of hum and buzz in high winds. You'll get a lot more bang for the buck with monocrystalline solar panels, which sell for about a buck a watt, which is what you're considering with this turbine. All you have to do is dust them off.

If you build your own turbine, I would not use an automotive generator. They burn out easily.