Over the past year I've learned that my solar setup—a 270W panel and two 104Ah batteries—is sufficient on most days. I need to be very mindful on short, overcast, winter days, or whenever there are several overcast days in a row.
Under the right conditions a wind turbine can charge even in the dark. That's neat. The problem is, wind turbines like to be big and high off the ground. When using a turbine and tower and support cables and stakes and wiring and whatnot that disassemble compactly enough to stow in a van, those necessary conditions are often fleeting and the output minimal.
These photos are from a 2011 article about setting up a workable mobile wind turbine. Note the turbine is about as big as his leg and the blades are each about two and a half feet long. There are also two 8-foot sections of schedule 40 1.5" pipe and other space-consuming stuff. The owner of this setup lives in a travel trailer. Between it and the tow vehicle he has room to store everything. The man who wrote the article lives in a converted cargo trailer towed by a van. With his extra space his view of what's compact is different from mine.
But I'll keep investigating the possibilities. Maybe there will be a tiny, super-powerful, affordable wind turbine someday.
Looks interesting. It certainly packs down to a small size. The specs say "For Use In Wind Areas Of 8-30 Mph." Okay, but what happens in stronger winds? Do the bearings burn out? Do the blades come off? It doesn't say whether it's waterproof. I guess I need to email them with my questions.
ReplyDeleteHere are the answers from Free Spirit Energy:
ReplyDelete"Yes, it is waterproof, at least in rain. I wouldn’t submerge it in water, but we have left our units out in rain for days and it hasn’t rusted or quit working.
"If winds get too high (more than 30-35 mph), just take the generator down (takes only a minute or two) or lash it down perpendicular to winds so it can’t turn."
My reply to the high wind answer:
"That assumes I have an anemometer and that I monitor it while I sleep. Because, you know, one of the big advantages of wind power is that it can work at night."
What loads do you normally use each day? Refrigerator, laptop, lights?'
ReplyDeleteSandy
Fridge, laptop, phone, hot spot, mobile signal booster, occasionally recharging the camera battery and the batteries in the touch lights. Sometimes the vent fan and/or the other fan. I have some LED lights wired into the house batteries, but I've ended up using the touch lights more often, mostly because the switch for the house lights is hard to reach from the bed.
ReplyDeletethanks for posting the answers to your questions, if you do end up getting the wind generator, I'd be interested in seeing a post on how it works out for you. Your experiences with solar have been very illuminating :D, as I live in the PNW and if I had a van, I'd probably have a similar electrical setup as you, and am similarly uninterested in carrying and maintaining a generator.
ReplyDeleteMing
With the cost of a good wind turbine, and the room it would require to stow, and needing to be mindful of too much wind, it seems the better option for me is just an additional battery to help get me through the darker periods. Plus I could wire the batteries to charge via the van's alternator or via shore electricity.
Deleteah, I wasn't aware that you weren't already wired for those charging options. I hear that they make heavy duty alternators too, which I presume would put out more current to charge your batteries faster?
DeleteWhat's your ratio of panel to battery again?
Ming
270W panel, 208Ah of batteries.
DeleteHowever, I'f I'm going to be driving a while, I plug the fridge into the van's 12V outlet.
DeleteGlenn over at To Simplify went overboard with a 2:1 ratio that he is very happy with, but I'm not sure if he spends much time in the PNW. A guy I know who lives in his camper locally says that he would always have a generator. Mind you, he spends his winters here and does not have that much solar on his rig yet.
DeleteMing