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.

 

[GUMPY]

Needs a space and no full stop before You

Pardon our interruption...

That's just a reversed bilge pump😲

 

[JTQ]

The shown water turbine, with an output rating of 2Amp, so power of 24 Watts its usefulness in our context IMO is going to be limited, like as a battery maintenance duty.

 

[owlman]

I follow the renewables research and it seems many people who have roof solar panels (even in West Yorkshire) have generated so much electricity in summer, that they can save it in large battery systems in their garage for use in the winter, so reducing their reliance on the Grid. Going back to the subject, I would say one of the main reasons we bought a Swift Aventura was for the solar panel on the roof. It keeps the van battery charged over winter and on site in spring and summer, we could probably go on a CL without electric hook-up.

 

[GUMPY]

I follow the renewables research and it seems many people who have roof solar panels (even in West Yorkshire) have generated so much electricity in summer, that they can save it in large battery systems in their garage for use in the winter, so reducing their reliance on the Grid. Going back to the subject, I would say one of the main reasons we bought a Swift Aventura was for the solar panel on the roof. It keeps the van battery charged over winter and on site in spring and summer, we could probably go on a CL without electric hook-up.

Must be a massive battery.😱
Last summer I exported about 2500kWh, no way that I could store that for winter use my garage isn't big enough.

I have a 17kWh battery and I manage almost 2 days between charging but for the last week or so have been almost totally reliant on the grid, all be it at a time of my choice avoiding peak prices. I'm thankful tomorrow is sunny so I can avoid charging from the grid as unit prices for me overnight are well above 20p/kWh

 

[IanB1485]

I have 6kW of solar and a battery in my house as well as generating electricity enough to run the house ( except on really dull days) I have changed my tariff to a EV one , so after 00:00 hrs to 06:00hrs I only pay 7p per kW.hr so I set set both my solar batter and my car to recharge using this 'cheap' electricity so battery is fully charged every night , so even on really dull days in winter the battery runs the house electrical system for most of the day.The downside is batteries ain't cheap,so in summer the excess solar energy goes back to the grid , which I only get 12p per kWhr. On my caravan I have 260W of solar so I don't worry about the battery becoming damaged in winter. this summer I'm looking forward to see how it fares with my new 280 A. hr Lithium battery ( which has to live in the awning), when going off grid

 

[GUMPY]

On Agile my average unit price over the last year is been between 9 & 10p, it's up at 17p for the last 14 days but averages out over the year. When it's windy unit price is between 6p and minus 8p depending.