Community Forums

wonderer1 · 11-08-2012, 12:27 PM

are any of you boondockers, dry campers carrying and using the small wind generators i've seen ? i'm thinking might be the nite time generating answer.

vsheetz · 11-08-2012, 01:54 PM

I have looked at it for my residence. Problems of getting a wind genny high enough to be effective, many areas don't have adequate wind. In a portable setup the problems of getting a wind genny assembled and setup.

BFlinn181 · 11-08-2012, 03:20 PM

Good idea, but I see a few issues. Wind seldom blows at night, except when the moon is full. (I don't know why, I just know I always sailed on full moon nights) Also, unless you like camping in an open field, trees tend to cut down wind velocity. They work on sailboats, but no so much on RVs.

melvonnar · 11-09-2012, 07:37 AM

My son bought one of those; it takes a realy good wind to get anything out of it.
A 5 or 10 MPH wind will get you nothing. doesn't realy get going till the wind gets to 25 or 30 MPH . regulation output is also very poor.

Ed-Sommers · 11-09-2012, 09:12 AM

They are fun to pay with if you like to tinker, I've built five of them using permanent magnet motors.

The only problem, as already stated, to get any really useful power from them the wind needs to be above 20 knots or so, and even if I had all five of them going at the same time, they would not put out as much power as a one good hundred watt solar panel.

Ed

1ciderdog · 11-09-2012, 10:40 AM

Our neighbors in AZ have two wind generators as well as solar panels. The wind generators are noisy! These are older models and maybe the newer ones produce less noise.

mwells4654 · 11-13-2012, 12:00 PM

Ok - new to the solar panel stuff. I see the $$$$ has definately come down so, my question. I have an older trailer with not much in it. What can I power with the solar panels? Could I keep a 120v fridge running while I am traveling? I need to start reading up on this but I need a jump start on understanding exactly what I can do with it. Thanks

BFlinn181 · 11-13-2012, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed-Sommers

They are fun to pay with if you like to tinker,
Ed

Your misspelling got that right!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwells4654

Could I keep a 120v fridge running while I am traveling? Thanks

I don't think you have enough roof to hold all the panels needed to keep a 120v fridge going. Plus it would go off everytime you went under a bridge!

Solar panels of 10 to 20 watts are adequate to keep a few batteries charged, but not enough to power any appliances in an RV. 150 watts or more would be needed to recharge depleted batteries. Here's some information to read up on solar power:

HandyBob's Blog

DIY Solar Panel help - tutorials, calculators and design tools for solar power

Welcome to AM Solar_Your RV Solar Specialists since 1987

BatteryStuff Articles | Everything You Need to Know About Solar Chargers

Gary - K7GLD · 11-14-2012, 06:12 PM

Anytime, or any PLACE where there's enough wind to efficiently operate a wind generator, is NOT the time or place *I* want to be there! When there's enough breeze to move the table cloth on the outside table, it's too windy for me!

We're not kite flyers, or sailors - or ANY wind-related enthusiasts - we go places where there is usually NO wind - and prefer it to stay that way!