Noisy Wind Generators

[Mand]

The new Air-x marine wind generator apparently is much quieter than the old version.

Does anyone have one and can you confirm if this is true? How much quieter? We have anchored next to a boat with one of the older ones and not been able to sleep!

 

[svtaravana]

the new ones are difinitely quieter but still have that high pitch whhirrr noise; they're pretty popular in the Caribbean; we have a KISS, much quieter and mega power. Also quiet is the Aerogen 6...the Superwind is also quiet and puts out more than the Aerogen. We dinghied around the anchorage and listened to just about all makes before going with the KISS

 

[michael_w]

[ QUOTE ]
The new Air-x marine wind generator apparently is much quieter than the old version.

[/ QUOTE ]

Marketing hype (bollox) IMHO. In the Caribbean I used to choose our anchoring spot to be as far away from the wretched things as possible. Makes my Honda genset whisper quiet by comparison.

Only the WindBaron is noisier, a vast great machine that makes a thudding sound like the helicopters in Apocolypse Now!

 

[Plan_B]

We have one and it does make a noise. The noise doesn't bother us but it does cause the shrouds to vibrate which transmitts to the bunk below - can't sleep with it running in over F3.

It can be heard some distance away (100mtr) but, like the generator, we don't use it in marinas - only at sea, at anchor or on a mooring which is where it is needed.

DD

 

[Medic]

I have had both the old and new versions on our boat. I have not noticed any difference in the noise levels.

James

 

[wanderlust]

Dont do it. They are both as noisey as each other. In the Caribbean they are used a lot on American boats. The chandlers over there are full of spares for them cos they are not well built. They corrode like crazy. We met a guy with 2 on his boat. Only been on 2 years and were corroded to hell. Blades were cracked due to aluminium corrosion arround the hub. Explains why we always saw blades for sale on the chandlers! Eveybody in an anchorage complains bitterly about the noise of these units. Unacceptably noisey and anti-social.

 

[LadyJessie]

Sorry to jump into this thread as a Med sailor, I know the Carib has some different characteristics. But how about solar panels? They are REALLY quiet. That is the main source of charging you will find on almost all cruising boats in the Med. You have a lot of sun in the Carib as well. Why is that not as popular there? (Just want to know something I don't understand.)

 

[ccscott49]

The kiss is the way to go. much quieter! Air X is effin noisy old or new!

 

[tcm]

as far as i can see,the resistance to all having solar panels is that (altho obvioulsy simple) they take up space. Wheres aerogens don't, just a pole.

 

[jimbaerselman]

The Carib has wind both day and night, whereas the Med generally goes to sleep at night. Also, in the lee of many Carib islnds it's quite cloudy . . .

 

[ChrisE]

By way of comparison we had a pair of 65W solar panels on Rival Spirit for a year in The Tropics. Whilst at anchor these provided sufficient power for all electricary, including a fridge. Only when at sea under autopilot at night did we need to run the engine to top up the batts. In deed if it were not for the overchanging shunts we'd have fried the batteries.

I don't want to pick a fight with jim but would say that I didn't gain the impression that the clouds in lee of Carib ilsands were that much of a problem. Other than the odd day and the daily squall my memories were of tradewind skies, ie scudding clouds with loads of blue.

 

[LadyJessie]

Can't really see the argument that solar panels take up space. The typical installation is on top of your bimini (or indeed, sometimes they ARE the bimini). They are then not really in the way (you have a bimini anyway) or take space that can be used for something else.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Agree that clouds in the Carib aren't a problem, but they do cover 5% of the time in winter, and nearly 20% of the time in summer. OK, that's only a small loss. I didn't mention day length, which also favours the Med in summer.

The lack of a night wind is the main reason people in the Med get less out of their whizzers, together with the fact that several (popular) sailing areas really are very short of wind in the summer (W & S Italy, Greece inland Ionian, Saronic, E Turkey) so the motor is doing a lot of the job!

 

[LadyJessie]

So.. Am I missing something here? It seems from the above that the conclusion is that solar panels are best in the Med because you don't always have wind. They also work well in the Carib and they are not asocial to other cruisers. So... Why are we still using those horribly noisy things? Why are we then still discussing which wind generator is least bad? It seems that we should now all go for solar panels. It is basically maintenance free and quiet stuff. Just what a cruiser would dream of!

The solar technology has made giant advances in the last years, not least from a fierce competition between German and Chinese manufacturers. I love the advances from a free market competition!

 

[tcm]

fair enough- but needs a hardtop bimini tho? I didn't man they take up volume of course - just sky-facing deck/roof space. So even with hardtop or hardtop bimin - you need to store dinghy somewhere else.

 

[LadyJessie]

No, you don't need a hardtop bimini. Well, some people make their solarpanels into a hardtop bimini. But the typical installation is a stainless steel frame above your soft top bimini. Yes, you will loose that sky view from the cockpit, but as almost everybody has a bimini in these warmer climates anyway, that really does not make a difference.

Did not understand your question about the dingy. Do you store it on top of your bimini?

 

[wanderlust]

In the Caribbean we had both wind and solar. The solar dramatically out performed the wind power. We had 210 watts of solar and a 1.1 metre diameter wind genny for comparison purposes. We regularly saw 13 amps on the battery monitor from sun alone. With the wind genny it had to blowing hard to get that kind of output constantly

 

[srm]

[ QUOTE ]
We regularly saw 13 amps on the battery monitor from sun alone. With the wind genny it had to blowing hard to get that kind of output constantly

[/ QUOTE ]

But for how long? You only needed an average 6 amps from wind over 24 hours to outperform your 13 amp solar performance as it was only attainable for 10 hours or less.

As I cruise in N Europe I have the "new" AirX marine. It is more noisy than multi bladed models, but has a far higher output and can be turned off by the flick of a switch.

Must say I was impressed by the design, but am somewhat disapointed by the mild steel bearings. Have replaced both the turbine bearings and the yaw bearing in 3 years use due to rust.

 

[Sea Devil]

I had an airX for years - with the shorting switch which I used a lot - I did not have too much maintenance problems - was still going when I sold Bambola after 10 years of Med, Carib, Pacific etc.... Had to buy a pair of new blades in Australia and again after the Red Sea - lots of wind on the nose!!

I did however have two 75w Siemens solar panels and they really were excellent... At the end of it I swore I would never have a wind genny again (already owned the two brit makes) but would always go down the Solar Panel route with a smart charger for when its seriously cloudy..

When you are actually sailing the solar panels work but unless you are on the wind the Wind Genny is not doing a great job.. On the wind at 20k its making so much noise I switch it out...

 

[Mand]

Thanks for your comments, everyone, I think we'll leave the air-x!

We were tempted to go with just solar panels, but would have liked to put them on a gantry, out of the way and where they wouldn't be shaded (did this on previous boat and worked well). Unfortunately, this would interfere with the Hydrovane (or have to be a huge gantry), so are looking at a smaller, semi-flexible solar panel along with a wind gen.