Community Forums

John Hilley · 05-03-2010, 09:38 AM

Doe anyone have experience with wind generators for RVs, such as the AirX wind turbine? I am looking at possible adding it to my solar package.

idenphones · 05-03-2010, 10:06 AM

I have experience with the AirX wind turbine at my house.
I also have several 225 watt solar panels and a large battery bank.

Just my opinion..........unless it is windy at your location ALL of the time AND the wind is high enough to keep the AirX putting out a reasonable amount of power, add another solar panel instead.

Like I said, just my opinion. I have two AirX turbines and they do work and work quite well when the wind is blowing BUT solar panels work allot better.

John Hilley · 05-03-2010, 10:23 AM

Thanks idenphones. My thoughts were pretty much what yours are. I am pretty much maxed out with space for solar panels and battery capacity. I do tend to camp where it is windy almost all the time. I noticed at Imperial Dam LTVA that the wind generators were running pretty much all the time. I would like to add some capacity for generation at night and on rainy days. Some of my concerns are how reliable are the mounts and how much noise does it make. Also minimum height for useful power output. I would be happy with 10 amps over 8 to 10 hours per day. I was also thinking of mounting it here at home on the house for testing purposes.

idenphones · 05-03-2010, 02:41 PM

Hi John

If you Google AirX you will find a ton of info. I just looked (again) at wind-work.org/articles and they did some testing on AirX and several others to see what was what. Or was that watt was watt? Whatever!

If the wind at your location is good, the AirX and several others will work without a doubt.

If you would like to try one, I have a spare. If you are anywhere near RT 75 from Detroit to Florida, I can meet you on the way next week and let you try it for a month or so until we head back.

As far as noise is concerned, as long as the regulator is working properly, it is not too bad. But, if the regulator dies, you will swear that a very noisy WW II relic of a helicopter is landing on your roof. Trust me!

Southwest Wind is the manufactorer and they are very nice to deal with. They have all of the specs on their web site.

Ray

John Hilley · 05-03-2010, 06:50 PM

Thanks for the offer idenphones. Unfortunately I will be going the wrong direction. I will look over the info you provided and probably pick up one.

Clonetrooper · 05-03-2010, 08:24 PM

My brother has a 40 something foot sailboat in the Virgin Islands, he went land to water, I went water to land, 38' Discovery. He has a lot of solar panels and a wind generator. He says he would never get another wind generator even though he has wind down there. Maybe different type than you are considering but thought I would put in my 2 cents. But if you are maxed out not much you can do. Check him out at Cruising Spirit.com. He has been cruising a long time and if I have power gen probelms I ask him. I run my gen all the time because I have kids and they use a lot of juice. Would like more panels someday.

Dick Noble · 05-24-2010, 12:29 PM

Just finished putting together a 500w PMA A/C wind generator. We have boondocked a month at Imperial Dam north of Yuma, AZ. I have 250w on solar and did not feel this was enough. I wanted to add wind power and it was about half the cost of the solar. If I had had it last year it would have really pumped out the power since Yuma had a lot of wind. It is currently set-up at our house in Colorado and is putting out about 8 amps but it is really windy right now. I built the thing so it is portable. You can go to www.windynation .com to read more about it and also to see what others have done. We intend to spend more then two months at Imperial Dam this winter so I'll have a better idea about how well it works.

John Hilley · 05-24-2010, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Noble

Just finished putting together a 500w PMA A/C wind generator. We have boondocked a month at Imperial Dam north of Yuma, AZ. I have 250w on solar and did not feel this was enough. I wanted to add wind power and it was about half the cost of the solar. If I had had it last year it would have really pumped out the power since Yuma had a lot of wind. It is currently set-up at our house in Colorado and is putting out about 8 amps but it is really windy right now. I built the thing so it is portable. You can go to www.windynation .com to read more about it and also to see what others have done. We intend to spend more then two months at Imperial Dam this winter so I'll have a better idea about how well it works.

You mention that it is really windy in Colorado right now and that it is putting out 8 amps. What is the average wind speed when it is puting out 8 amps?

Dick Noble · 05-24-2010, 03:03 PM

John - I've been using a hand-held anemometer hooked up to a bicycle speedometer which indicates the wind is from 7 to 32 mph with a gust or two over 50 mph. Remember that I am on the ground and the wind generator is up over 20 feet. Also, I have a lot of trees here and that really effects the generator. Should not have a tree problem in Imperial Dam. The generator instructions indicate that it takes at least 7 mph to begin to generate. So far I'm really pleased with how this thing is working. I realize that it will not do the job I want all by itself but combined with the PV system I have it should charge the 4 6v batteries OK.

ralper · 05-31-2010, 10:26 AM

Before you spend your money and complicate your life with a wind unit see my post here "Solar That Really Works". It is a good bet that your present system is not up to par. Wiring way too small, controller not near batteries and bulk charge not up to 14.8 volts at 80 deg. F. Most solar experts aren't very expert. With 400 watts of panels and 6-T105 batteries I have power to spare. Cloudy or rainy days do not make much of a difference. I had to renovate my system to have it as it is now.

dugggg · 07-22-2010, 01:39 PM

I've lived at Imperial Dam during the past 8 winters. Although it seems like the wind is constantly blowing, the average speed---measured by my recording anemometer at 18ft---is well under 10 mph, so don't expect much power from your AirX. Solar is the way to go.

Wetboy5776 · 09-23-2010, 08:14 AM

Duggg...I was just wondering if your recording software had a way to discover the median average wind speed, or perhaps the mode. The reason I ask is, the term 'average" for wind can be tricky.

For example:

If a site has 12 hours a day at 16mph, and 12 hours at dead calm, the "average" would be only 8mph...and that site would not look too promising.

But in reality, 12 hours at 16mph would give me about 250 a/h (3600watt hrs) per day, whereas a steady 8 mph for 24 hours would only give my slow-wind generator 50-70 a/h...if it got it turning at all.

I know some sites have sustained gusty conditions, followed by dead lulls... caused by the daily heating cycle. So, I'm wondering if your program has the ability to log that info or perhaps convert the total KWH available in the wind using a "virtual" wind gen?

I haven't been to Imperial Dam yet, but I'd like to go and set up, then log my daily actual production, if no one has actually done that yet.

dugggg · 09-23-2010, 11:20 PM

Afraid my "software" is really just a bike computer hooked to the anemometer. It accurately records "miles traveled" over the course of a week or month and I simply divide that by the hours in a week or month to get the average speed.

I can tell you that it isn't a constant wind, nor does it vary regularly by time of day.

And for wind power generation, you really need to take to integrate the cube of the velocity over time. For example, a constant 10 mph wind for an hour may generate 1 kWh, whereas 20 mph for 30 minutes followed by calm for 30 minutes generates 4 kWh---even though the average velocity is the same in both cases.

Wetboy5776 · 09-24-2010, 03:18 AM

Yeah, exactly. That's why I've never really gotten good info from those sites that just give "average" wind speed. I find the total KWH each month of a particular sized generator located at the site to be more useful info.

I know there are some computer programs that will interpolate that for you based on the info coming from an anemometer. I'd love to have one of those! Someday....