Wind and Solar recommendations

[Marceline]

I'm looking to get a wind turbine and wanted to ask if there's any recommends for a that and a controller that also works with a couple of solar PV panels for 12v battery charging ?

My plan is to get them installed on our shed for winter and get to know them/have a bit of winter backup, and then move wind turbine onto the boat early 2023 before relaunching and install a solar arch for the panels.

I've a bit of experience with solar PV, but none with Wind turbines. Ideally we'd want a quiet one that's reliable for marine environments, but hopefully not too expensive etc, but one that will be good quality and last well

And any recommends for charging controller would also be a great help

many thanks for any info/suggestions

 

[VicS]

The Marlec HRSi , for a single battery bank, and HRDi, for dual battery banks, controllers will work with Rutland 500 and 900 series wind generators plus up to 160 watt of solar.

 

[lustyd]

Have a good think about where your turbine will go if you have a solar arch. Solar can’t have any shade so nothing can mount above your panels or you’ll make them ineffective.
Wind has generally been abandoned these days as solar is cheap and very good, not to mention quiet for you and neighbours. If you have high power needs or sail in winter maybe but the consensus seems to be don’t bother.

 

[Marceline]

Thanks for the replys and advice

Ours is only a 24ft so not a lot of room, but the 504 Rutland looks about the right size. But that's good food for thought re: avoiding the wind shading the solar which for our small boat could be an issue (and noise - we want to get away from noise as much as poss for many reasons)

I'll have a think more about this - cheers for the posts

 

[Stemar]

We had a Snapdragon 24 and put 2 20w panels on the hatch garage, They were enough for our modest needs at anchor in the summer and, even in winter recharged the batteries from one weekend working on board to the next. A bit more would have been nice, but that's what there was the budget and space for. If your budget runs to an arch at the stern, as much solar as you can fit will keep you going, though may struggle to keep up with a fridge

An engineer friend did the calculations of output from, I think it was 80w of solar vs a Rutland over the year using average winds and sun hours for southern England, and the solar came out well on top. Then there's the noise. No wind gen is completely silent, and some are quite noisy.

 

[Graham376]

Have a good think about where your turbine will go if you have a solar arch. Solar can’t have any shade so nothing can mount above your panels or you’ll make them ineffective.
Wind has generally been abandoned these days as solar is cheap and very good, not to mention quiet for you and neighbours. If you have high power needs or sail in winter maybe but the consensus seems to be don’t bother.

Agree, £s per amp, wind can't compete with solar. After many years with Aerogen as well as solar, we binned it 4 or 5 years ago and increased solar. Good decision, no shading, no vibration and more charge.

 

[Marceline]

marvellous + thanks for these suggestions

 

[tymonk]

We had a Snapdragon 24 and put 2 20w panels on the hatch garage, They were enough for our modest needs at anchor in the summer and, even in winter recharged the batteries from one weekend working on board to the next. A bit more would have been nice, but that's what there was the budget and space for. If your budget runs to an arch at the stern, as much solar as you can fit will keep you going, though may struggle to keep up with a fridge

An engineer friend did the calculations of output from, I think it was 80w of solar vs a Rutland over the year using average winds and sun hours for southern England, and the solar came out well on top. Then there's the noise. No wind gen is completely silent, and some are quite noisy.

Which panels did you use for this? Am thinking of installing 2 on the hatch garage but can't find ones that fit, except the very cheap ones on eBay which are listed as 25W, 30W and 50W for the same size... Any recommendations would be great for good companies to look at (heard Photonic Universe and Renology so far)

 

[Stemar]

I just measured the space I had available and got the biggest panels I could find on line, standard 80w monocrystalline. ally framed rigid jobs, plus a dual battery MPPT controller, all from Low Energy Supermarket. I built a frame from angle aluminium to hold it all in place.

Unfortunately, LES seems to have some supply problems at the moment, as several things are out of stock.

 

[RogerJolly]

Is there a case for having wind as a backup for when it's not sunny (and vice versa)?

 

[VicS]

Only a small case unless you are based / are cruising in a windy area with low levels of sunshine.
Solar is generally the preferred option.

 

[clyst]

Dont bother with a wind genny . Go for all solar . I wasted a lot on wind genny very disappointed now on solar .????

 

[Stemar]

Is there a case for having wind as a backup for when it's not sunny (and vice versa)?

 

[Neeves]

How long do solars last vs wind gens?

We have had a Aero4aqua gen, from now defunct LVM, for 15 years now (we had one 5 years prior - but it was stolen) - it produces the same output now as it did when new, wish I could say the same for the flexible solars, some have been replaced 3 times (including the top of the range German produced panels).. Our wind gen has been running for 15/365/24 hrs

We live in sunny Sydney - we can rely on the output of the wind gen, we do have wind in Sydney, but solars are less predictable (shade) and, in our experience, less reliable,

I wish we had bought the Aero6. The Aero4 is quiet.

We would always want a wind generator (and not damn it out of hand).

Jonathan

 

[steve yates]

Surely the point of both is not that one is better than the other, but that when you have days of shite weather, wind and rain constantly, then your wind genny is an alternative means of feeding amps to your batteries, especially if solar space is limited.
Thats always been my thinking anyway, certainly for ukwaters.

 

[NormanS]

Our wind generator was installed away up out of reach on the mizzen mast. Good for getting the wind, but disastrous for tying off. It disintegrated in a gale, damaging the boat. My advice would be, that if you are determined to have a wind Genny, install it in such a way that it can be readily and safely tied off.

I've now got quiet and peaceful PV panels working very successfully, and would never go back to wind.