WIND POWER

I have seen only 1 wind mill? on a van in all my travels and have wondered why, the one I saw was actually fitted to a trailer behind a van plenty on boats of course where wind is pretty much guaranteed but vanners seem to avoid them the o, p, seems to be doing OK with his however.
 
All looks good on paper, I have a 904 turbine permanently mounted on 30f tower, charging into 2x 120amp hour batteries, through its own regulator, also 200wat solar into the same batteries with its own regulator, this weeks gale winds are not usual but the wind generator will not fully charge the batteries from 12,24 volt (60% charged) after a 12 hour windy night ,when it is at it's fastests spinn, all night (ie the auto furl tail is controlling the speed) it only gets to 12.62 volt (90% charged), no doubt it may get to full 100% charge (12.73 volt) after more hours, conversely as soon as the sun hits half the solar panels (100 watt) the batteries will be at full charge within an hour and the battery test shows it at 13.2 volts .. Without wind the solars raise the batteries to full charge in four hours, of course the sun has to shine , again not usual every day , so all in all the combination works ok for my needs ,off grid lighting and TV/radio.... but at cost of over a £1000 , I could buy that amount of power for over a few years, and no equipment that will need maintenance and no doubt replacing, but its all good fun!!!
"you pays your money and you makes your choice"
 
I'm just wondering why you use 2 regulators? One would be enough.

Have you checked the voltage before the regulator for the turbine?

As you will know, the wind turbine generates a higher voltage the faster it spins. During the day, the solar panel will be doing all the work and generating a higher voltage than the turbine will. In effect, the turbine is doing nothing. If you deplete your batteries then a 904 should be putting a decent charge into the batteries at full working speed.

If I were you (and you are able), cover up the solar panel and just use the wind turbine. I would also swap the turbine to the other regulator to check whether you have a problem with the turbine regulator.
 
maingate said:
I'm just wondering why you use 2 regulators? One would be enough.

Have you checked the voltage before the regulator for the turbine?

As you will know, the wind turbine generates a higher voltage the faster it spins. During the day, the solar panel will be doing all the work and generating a higher voltage than the turbine will. In effect, the turbine is doing nothing. If you deplete your batteries then a 904 should be putting a decent charge into the batteries at full working speed.

If I were you (and you are able), cover up the solar panel and just use the wind turbine. I would also swap the turbine to the other regulator to check whether you have a problem with the turbine regulator.
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Thank you for that ,,I have done all of those things you suggest and the results are the same, as for generator speed ,your right the faster it goes the higher the output, but as stated the auto tail furle turns the turbine slightly when at full speed ( to avoid damage,) and with this weeks gale it has been at full speed all night,..
I use two regulators so as to be able to shut down the turbine (it has a built in facility for this) during sunny daylight hours thus using only the solar panels, and can disconnect the panels from the batteries (via a double pole isolator) should I wish, therefore being able to test each part of the power generation separately (without climbing) ,showing both are working correctly.
I also fitted one direction power diodes thinking there may be a reverse power to the solars at night , but of course the regulator all ready has this, but it was just a thought,
The system is simple and during favorable weather conditions does supply enough power for some led lighting, runs the fridge freezer during the day, and the TV and satellite in the evening,it wont run both together for more than an hour , and three laptop and phone chargers. so on these days I use very little electricity at all, in fact the standing charge costs more per day, I use gas central heating and bottle gas for my cooking, and of course when away I use nothing, If I could stop the house rates and the standing charge I would be in front!!!! just planning a wood burner for the house ! as they say "every little helps "
 
When I get home will post a pic but my caravan has terminal labelled wins turbine so had one at some point, it would be interesting to see how effective it is albeit uses a caravan off grid sites appeal
 
channa said:
When I get home will post a pic but my caravan has terminal labelled wins turbine so had one at some point, it would be interesting to see how effective it is albeit uses a caravan off grid sites appeal
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I'm impressed with you guys if and when I get a newer van I will have to re-read these comments as at the moment I'm at the stage of wet finger ooch. I still enjoyed the read, thanks
 
I use a Rutland 504 (bargain on eBay) to supplement solar (2 x 100w panels) in northern winters. I use a folding mast a little way upwind of the van and a rutland regulator which has inputs for PV and wind, the Rutland regulator feeds reverse current to the generator to prevent overspending in very high winds. Noise is minimal (mostly from the mast guy lines), output is not huge, but allows us to stay off grid almost indefinitely. If you’re going to pay full price, lithium batteries may be a better solution.
 
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