Wind Turbines

[Leif]

Has anyone gone down the road of using a wind turbine as an alternative to solar for off grid battery charging? Would be interested in experiences, particularly ease of use and power generation. TIA

 

[Jcloughie]

A neighbour attached a turbine onto the gable of his house some years ago. He soon took it down as it shook the whole house. Also, they can be surprisingly noisy.

John

 

[otherclive]

I seem to recall when David Cameron was aiming to be the Greenest Prime Minister ever, there was a push to install domestic turbines, B&Q had stacks of them once when I went around. It was all busted flush and they just disappeared from stores, media or homes. That must say something. I would opt for solar every time, and given the ease of installation, or ability to move portable panels it's a no brainer.

 

[Dustydog]

I seem to recall when David Cameron was aiming to be the Greenest Prime Minister ever, there was a push to install domestic turbines, B&Q had stacks of them once when I went around. It was all busted flush and they just disappeared from stores, media or homes. That must say something. I would opt for solar every time, and given the ease of installation, or ability to move portable panels it's a no brainer.

Hardly the windy Wiltshire. solar is probably more consistent as you say. Why is there never a free lunch🙉

 

[otherclive]

Hardly the windy Wiltshire. solar is probably more consistent as you say. Why is there never a free lunch🙉

I think it’s called “ life”.

 

[JTQ]

Solar, as we far prefer sites that have plenty of sun shine than those that catch the wind.
More seriously a solar array can be integrated to a caravan requiring minimal or zero hassle to use, once fitted. Plus is a steady state solution, so nothing moving with the potential issues that brings such as noise, vibration, or even visual flashing.
That "we" have not, with any wide uptake embraced the available technology from yachts, has to hint its not an ideal solution in our application.

 

[GUMPY]

I had a wind generator on my boat out on the east coast , despite being out in the windy estuary the windgen produced the square root of ****** all.
I wouldn't bother.

 

[IanB1485]

My friend got got one to help power his barn with an off grid inverter , unfortunately it had a manual braking system. Wind turbines don't do well in very high gusty winds. The professional ones have wind speed and direction monitors which automatically apply brakes when the wind speed exceeds a certain value to prevent damage to the bearings and blades and some even 'feather' the blades. He didn't apply the brakes when required in a storm and all three blades broke off .The pole and alternator atop it stand as a sad reminder that some technologies aren't as good as the sales blurb suggests.He's now looking at having solar panels fitted to the barn.

 

[CrewOVtwo]

I believe there are incredible advancements to solar power just around the corner, so perhaps think about holding off spending your money in case it happens quite quickly - and I can understand any cynicism in getting anything green too the marketplace in any hurry.
It involves adding graphene (the long awaited wonder product developed by Manchester University) to the solar cells.
There's quite a bit of info on YouTube.

It's nothing compared to the potential advancement in battery technology though, so maybe we will all be using batteries as well.

 

[birdman101]

Going back in the 1970’s when we started caravanning, before the days of sites EHU’s, we went on a site annually in Cornwall where a chap from Wales had 6 weeks each year, and he had a wind generator to keep his Battery up for the holiday.

 

[toad a caravan]

Years ago I saw a car garage that had an alternator with blades fitted, presumably to charge his car battery

 

[Leif]

Thanks for the feedback. I probably should have mentioned that I live in Scotland where the ratio of sun to wind is stacked heavily in favour of the latter! If there was a way to harness energy from rainfall that would be a no brainer!
Advice taken though. I have solar already (100W roof-mounted) but fancy cranking that up to 400W plus some lithiums so we can explore the myriad of wild camping locations in this part of the world and my missus can take her hairdryer!

 

[IanB1485]

If there was a way to harness energy from rainfall that would be a no brainer!

build a reservoir , fit water turbines at outlet hey presto , but then there are loads in Scotland (stopped counting after 15). but for domestic one , run all water off roof into one drainpipe and fit one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/397259489546.You may be totally underwhelmed by the small amount of electricity it produces.