Small, cheap wind generator worth it?

[DangerousPirate]

On my boat I do have solar now and it works perfectly well in the day, especially in summer, but I only have one battery with 90 amps currently. Now when I sit on the boat overnight and perhaps work on my laptop I do have my lamps on, and these just draw out all the electricity.

I have plans to do something about that in the future (more and better batteries, replace with LEDs that draw less electricity (although gonna install new lamps entirely then)) but for now I thought maybe just one of them cheap ebay wind generators just to get it up a V or two overnight.

Has anyone bitten the bullet and tried one of those out? I doubt that they actually do what they say (chinese knock off cheapo stuff obviously) but if it's enough to keep my batteries above 12.0v for the one or other night it is good enough for me. Just not sure if they even do that.
600W DC12V Lantern Vertical Wind Turbine Generator + Charge Controller 5 Blades | eBay

Was thinking one like those as reference.

 

[sarabande]

Vertical wind turbines really do need a lot of wind to make them worthwhile. The blades are only working for about half one rotation.

Have you dropped your battery to less than 12.0v several times ? If so, it may be not able to store all the charge that the solar panel puts in, and in any case is probably not being fully charged during the day.

Do you have a controller which records how many Ahr the panel shoves into the battery and how many are being used up ? What is the nominal capacity of the panel ?

LEDs would be my immediate (partial) answer to your capacity problem, perhaps just replace a few bulbs prior to renewal of the luminaires.

 

[t21]

LED lights can often be drop-in swaps to tungsten? Reducing load and verifying/increasing battery capacity would be my choices. I’d always try avoid a noisy wind gen, esp on my boat, and even others at anchor.

 

[Kelpie]

For the £100 you'd spend on that wind gen, you could get a lot of LED bulbs and a 12v charger for your laptop. Cut consumption first. You might also need to replace your battery if it's spent much time below half charge.

 

[nortada]

I have had a wind bugger for 20 years.

Except when sailing on the wind at night, with the apparent wind in the slot, not worth it's rations. I would not get another one.

I also have had 100w of solar panels and if necessary would upgrade with more.

 

[doug748]

600W DC12V Lantern Vertical Wind Turbine Generator + Charge Controller 5 Blades | eBay

Lots of people have been disappointed by these things, there was one in my local marina and I never saw it revolve much. I would look for a secondhand Aerogen, they are generally quiet and reliable. Most of the rest are so noisy you would not want one for free.

All my LED lights came from Ebay, they are warm white and the whole lot only cost about 30 quid. Not had one fail in 5 years.

.

 

[Ningaloo]

Remember that in addition to the turbine you'll need a mount a s suitable cable to your batteries. If this really generated 600W that would be 50A at 12V so a pretty thick cable.
However if it really generated 600W I think you'd see them on many more boats. 600W is quite a few m2 of solar!
I'd want to see a graph of power generated vs wind speed before buying.
You'd be better off getting the LED lights and possibly another 100W solar. But you really need more battery capacity too.
What do you use the laptop for and how is that powered? Think about swapping for a tablet with a battery that lasts all day. You definitely don't want to be charging a laptop via an inverter.

 

[Mistroma]

Space will be a problem. A 600W vertical axis model would be close to a pillar box in size. Either tall and thin or wide and short but still very bulky.

 

[DangerousPirate]

Hm, I charge the laptop via shore power but the bulbs run on battery. But I never drain the battery, no worries.

Well, doesn't sound feasible then. Cheers for the answer.

 

[Ningaloo]

If you have shore power what is the issue with the battery being depleted by the lighting? I'm sure that even a small battery charger will keep pace with that.

 

[DangerousPirate]

If you have shore power what is the issue with the battery being depleted by the lighting? I'm sure that even a small battery charger will keep pace with that.

It's not a huge, life threatening issue, especially not in the marina, you are right there. But if I anchor out and have the lights on the mast on then I don't wanna wake up to a flat battery.

I just noticed it while I am in the marina.

 

[Tranona]

The first thing (and the cheapest!) is to add another battery to double your capacity.

 

[srm]

As a general rule, whenever I buy 'el cheapo' for the boat I finish up junking it, usually during the first season, and replacing it with the more expensive item that I should have bought first time.
Same with garden machinery, I used to buy cheap chinese brushcutters that would last two seasons. When the last one shook itself to death after ten hours running (I did get an ebay refund) I bought a Honda. Five years later all I have replaced is oil, cord and a couple of wornout cutting heads.

 

[Graham376]

The first thing (and the cheapest!) is to add another battery to double your capacity.

OP says he only has one battery so I'm assuming he doesn't have separate engine start, in which case he needs to add two more. Adding more solar is far better solution that a wind generator as we found.

 

[BobnLesley]

As already noted, the best bang for your buck is to reduce the load as far as possible - LED lighting being the quickest/easiest and cheapest route. Amongst the cruising liveaboard community it was regularly said "buy wind chargers for the Caribbean and solar for the Med' but in recent years even in the Caribbean (or indeed any windier location) the overwhelming majority are going for solar; the price of solar panels nowadays means you'll get a lot more amps per £ invested compared to a wind-charger.