wind generators or solar panels for UK sailing?

[davehu]

We sail our 27 foot cruising yacht on the S coast of England/ N coast of France. We sail mainly weekends. During a weekend we usually use the engine for around 2 hours. We have an Adverc regulator on the Alternator but even with a very modest electric consumption we often find that the engine does not replace all the electric we have used. We are considering either a small wind generator such as the Rutland 503 or a 20 or 30 watt solar panel. The potential of the Rutland is around 2 amps, and of a 30 watt panel is around 2 amps. What is the experience of the forum users. Is the Sun or the Wind better in the UK and how many amp-hours do they get in an average week


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[Talbot]

neither of these will give you very much. 30w panel will only be working max of 10 hrs/day so lucky to get total of electricity used by interior lights! Suggest an upgrade to a rutland 916.

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[richardandtracy]

If you can, do both, as one will often be working when the other stops (think of still, sunny days or cloudy, windy days).

Failing that I'd advise wind generator, as the wind blows at night too, doubling the chance of generating the power you need.

As for capacity, are you sure that you are looking at high enough output supplies? I saw somewhere [ie totally unsupported fact coming up] that the average wind speed in the UK over the year was 14 mph. Not a lot really, so if the 2A output is based on a higher speed, I'd suggest you get the output graph & have another estimate of power. And for solar power.. I have a 12V, 10W solar pond pump running off a 2' x 1' panel at home (about the size of a 20W panel). It works well for an average of 2 hours a day (total of 2Ah or so) and barely at all on cloudy days. Not much power from the panel either.

Regards

Richard.


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[paulstevens]

Fitted a 30W solarex panel with Solsun 5.0X regularor last winter and my experience has been better than most posters below. Have 110ah batteries which we use equally ie we do not keep one just for engine starting, rather alternate their use on a daily basis because a used battery last longer.
Panel is wired via a changeover switch and when we leave the boat we charge one battery one week and the other the next. Have had 6 weeks on board this summer with quite heavy use of lights plus autopilot but batteries have stayed up. Regulator has built in battery condition and charging indicator which is handy because you know when to switch the charge to the other battery.
I have formed the opinion that modern panels are incredibaly efficient and a far cry from even a few years ago. Also true that a lead acid batterey likes nothing more than a long slow charge so should last longer.
Obviously would not cope with much use of fridge.


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[vyv_cox]

Fully agree. I have had a 38W solar panel for 8 years now, it's beginning to get a little tired but still keeps my two 105 Ah service batteries well charged. As you say, it struggles to keep up with a refrigerator but easily copes with everything else, with the great bonus that the batteries are always kept up to full charge, summer and winter, thus maximising their life.

My regulator has the facility that it charges whichever battery bank needs it most, so I have no need to swith between them.

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[ex-Gladys]

...a solar panel just needs daylight, doesn't need sunshine.

<hr width=100% size=1>Larry Botheras

Anderson 26 "Amber"

 

[AndrewB]

My experience with wind generators is that they deliver much less than you expect. If you keep the yacht in a marina, its not worth bothering because they are generally too sheltered, and there is rarely enough wind to generate significant input.

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[windypig]

On my last boat we had an outboard with 10 amp charging. We had a 35 watt Uni-Solar framed solar panel. This kept up with out energy consumption with no problems. The Uni-Solar panels give good output in poor light, more than I think, the other panels on the market. They do have less peak output though. We had 2, 110 amp hour batteries, with a solsum regulator. We manually switched the panel between batteries when needed.

If you are sailing mainly weekends, the panel is the way to go. It will ensure your batteries will be fully charged everytime you turn up to the boat, it doesnt try to chop your head off when you go near it and doesnt need tying up with bits of string when there is a storm on the way. The chap next to us lost the blades off his Rutland this time last year!

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[ccscott49]

Lots of commercial wind farms in the UK, never seen a commercial solar array, take your cue from there.

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[AndrewB]

... and ...

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

Lots of commercial wind farms in the UK, never seen a commercial solar array, take your cue from there.

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... mount a 100ft turbine? It might not do a lot for the stability of your yot, but at least you'd have no trouble spotting it in the marina.

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[ccscott49]

Re: ... and ...

.....and think of the power!!!!! Wow, be able to sell it to liveaboards! Heat the marina, I think I'm gettin' power crazy!

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[kds]

Yes, but I understand that the Scandinavians, who went into wind farms in a big way 10 years ago are not refurbishing them as they reach their sell-by dates. They have the most expensive electicity in Europe.
Roll on Global warming - I can handle Summers like this one.
I wonder if the French could sell us some portable nuclear generators, we seem to buy most of our electricity from them ?

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[ccscott49]

Expensive leccy in scandanavia, has nothing to do with windgennys, they have mostly hydro energy, it's just a cost thing, like food, booze, fuel etc, etc.

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