Wind Turbine

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djr

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Hey folks,

So I have been tinkering a lot with my HR34 - and I am thinking one of the last things to do - I want to understand is it worth putting a Turbine on it? I’m not using it all the time - and I want to try and be “off grid” as such.

So I wanted to know - who has done this? What is best? Seems like so many options so would like so advice from people who have done this before?

The boat has all the latest electronics, even put in a new bow thruster - so have a fair few batteries to keep topped up.

I also have a torqeedo to keep charged up onboard too for the tender

So go on folks - hit me with some advice please

D
 
Wind Gens don't work very well in light/no winds, or when running down wind.
They are quite expensive, need maintenance and can be noisy.
Solar doesn't work at night but has become cheaper and more efficient.
They are easy to install and maintain, but you need space to mount them.
I had a WG and solar, I got much more bang for the buck from the solar than the WG, so much so that I have now ditched the WG.
 
Wind gens work 24/7, and work through the times when there is little or no sun, night, winter, in the rain and don't take up much room, if you are careful where you instal the pole. Ours has lasted over 20 years, maintenance free - I wish I could say the same for the solar - solar maybe cheap but they have a shorter life span.

Hydro generators are another option, consider the Duo-gen.

We have a wind gen that converts to hydro and solar - and plenty of room for the solar. You will be limited as to how much solar you can actually instal, sensibly - beyond that you have little choice but to supplement with wind and hydro. My guess is that if you want to spend extended periods on the boat you will be unable to instal sufficient solar. Our lifestyles now demand lots of electrical power, fridge, autopilot, instruments, lap top (and if you have children lots of devices that are now essential to them).

The question maybe you should ask is which are the best wind and hydro generators - as sensibly you will instal solar.

Whatever your ability to produce electricity your needs will grow to exceed that ability - blame Parkinson. :(

Learn to handle the yacht without the bow thruster - that will save some power and be an essential skill.

Jonathan
 
Some are noisy as hell! We were tied up to a barge with one fitted, blowing a good gale and you had to shout to be heard on deck.
Solar panels aren't perfect but they won't drive you nuts with the noise, though the very reason the barge had a wind generator is because the solar panels simply didn't give enough charge in the winter
 
I gave up on wind generators after one disintegrated in a gale, and it's replacement had design problems. I now have 140 watts of PV panels. They are excellent - no noise and no moving parts. For summer use in Scotland with long hours of daylight, they're brilliant.
 
If you are in a marina use shorepower so your batteries are always fully charged when you go off. Before you decide whether you need additional charging capacity you need to know your consumption, then decide on the size of your battery bank such that you have sufficient to cope with your charging regime. If you are planning long periods without using your engine to charge the batteries then you will need to look at alternatives of which solar is the first choice even in northern climates. Wind has attractions if you sail in areas where there is good constant wind such as the Caribbean, but if you look around the UK you will find very few wind installations for the reasons already mentioned. Even on swinging moorings, solar is better as first choice for keeping batteries topped up.
 
Neeves said:
Learn to handle the yacht without the bow thruster - that will save some power and be an essential skill.

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Bow thrusters consume very little power - just high current for short periods and when engine is running so the battery (usually dedicated) is almost instantly recharged. In our crowded marinas with modern boats a bow thruster is extremely useful. You don't have to believe me - just ask my neighbours who are both vastly more experienced and competent than me, but who both (like me) have, and use their bow thrusters for safe berthing .
 
As far as I am concerned windpower has zero attraction for a yacht, that includes offshore sailing, inshore cruising, Northern climes, the Caribbean and living on the hook. As others said, they can be noisy, are useless for charging in light to even moderate winds, especially the smaller sizes, and are often perfectly situated to catch fishing lines and other gear. My neighbour had a large one on his cat. It was unpleasantly noisy, that is until a seagull flew through it, then it kinda exploded and scattered pate de gull and shrapnel all over his deck - oh blessed silence.

We switched to solar and would never go back; there is simply no comparison.
 
Laminar Flow said:
As far as I am concerned windpower has zero attraction for a yacht, that includes offshore sailing, inshore cruising, Northern climes, the Caribbean and living on the hook. As others said, they can be noisy, are useless for charging in light to even moderate winds, especially the smaller sizes, and are often perfectly situated to catch fishing lines and other gear. My neighbour had a large one on his cat. It was unpleasantly noisy, that is until a seagull flew through it, then it kinda exploded and scattered pate de gull and shrapnel all over his deck - oh blessed silence.

We switched to solar and would never go back; there is simply no comparison.
Click to expand...

Ours is a dual unit the Aero4aqua gen, which might have been 'replaced' by the DuoGen. On a beam reach with the solar in shadow (or a cloudy day) the aqua/hydro gen beats solar and wind - hands down. When in wind mode, I agree the available power can be minimalist (as most of us anchor in shelter) but leave the boat during a cloudy week on its mooring and the wind gen is working (quietly - not all wind gens are noisy) for the 24/7.

We use all three, solar, wind and aqua/hydro = and would not be without any of them.

For a yacht - I WOULD prioritise solar - but you don't get much room for solar on a monohull, unless you build some pretty heft y real estate, and this then introduces different issues - I would live with the maximum solar that is possible - and then consider wind and hydro.

I don't think its one or the other. There is nothing quite as nice as having never to worry, again, about the available power (as then you can also have a De Sal unit.

Jonathan
 
I had friends with a Ampair/aquair convertible. Towing it at 6kts it produced 6 amps in the 800 times denser medium of water. In wind mode it was comparatively useless.
By the time my Ampair showed any reasonable output I would not be sleeping that night.
Wind generators are not a cost effective investment, IMHO.
 
12 years ago we started out with a Duogen (wind/ water generator). That’s long gone and we now have 360w Solar.
Solar is relatively cheap, quiet, zero maintenance (apart from the occasional clean) & reliable.
 
Two people have now suggested wind turbines need maintenance. What maintenance ?
A good turbine should easily last many more years than a solar panel.
On grey overcast British winters solar output is not good.
There is no comparison in the summer, solar is far better but in winter wind produces more, 24/7 .
 
My last boat had 300W of solar plus an Air-x wind generator. The solar panels produced plenty of power and we had 400AH of battery to keep systems going overnight. The job of the Air-x was to make an annoying noise, periodically spinning-up then slowing down as its regulator kicked-in. I have to say, I was glad to have it as a stand-by, but I hated it in practice. My next boat will not have a wind generator, it will have plenty of solar, plenty of batteries and an alternator in case we need some juice at 4 in the morning.
 
In simple terms , if you want both pv and wind gen, go for it.

In terms of noise it is WELL worth wandering around a marina on a stormy day, and listening, some generators are acceptably noisy and some are downright awful , howling and antisocial !

But, at sea, on passage , I have been jolly glad of a smallish Rutland and before that an Ampair

(In the future of electric motors , I expect regen will be ‘the Go To thing’ fitted as standard in all new electric propulsion ..
 
djr said:
Hey folks,

So I have been tinkering a lot with my HR34 - and I am thinking one of the last things to do - I want to understand is it worth putting a Turbine on it? I’m not using it all the time - and I want to try and be “off grid” as such.

So I wanted to know - who has done this? What is best? Seems like so many options so would like so advice from people who have done this before?

The boat has all the latest electronics, even put in a new bow thruster - so have a fair few batteries to keep topped up.

I also have a torqeedo to keep charged up onboard too for the tender

So go on folks - hit me with some advice please

D
Click to expand...



Aerogens were great, quiet and very reliable. Having said that I think the main attraction now is for a boat moored to a buoy where you just want a modest battery bank topped up each week. In a marina you generally set off by motoring at least half an hour and a windgen will generate little in there anyway.
Having said that itf you can find a workable balance between a wind unit and smaller solar panels you may have the best of both worlds and avoid having to build a dreadful scaffold tower on the back of your boat.


If you do invest, avoid owt that looks like this or you won't sleep:


1634550302717.png

Though they do have the marginal advantage of clearing an anchorage as you arrive.


.
 
I replaced our wind gen with a 50w panel and the output is order of magnitude better. I fitted the panel on the windgen pole to tilt and to swivel. It is amazingly efficient but unbelievably ugly .. hey ho

windpole.jpg
 
Last edited:
Rappey said:
Two people have now suggested wind turbines need maintenance. What maintenance ?
Click to expand...
My Rutland 913 WG spinned for 20 years, in that time I replaced the bearings twice and they needed doing again when I removed it in favour of just PV this year, so bearings were lasting 6-7 years. The blades had lost their sheen and become out of balance causing a lot of vibration. Replacement blades were expensive and a replacement 914 would have cost in the region of £600 plus I would have had to upgrade my regulator.
For the comparatively small output it produced it was an easy choice to remove it and go solar only.
Anyone want to buy a Rutland 913 at a very competitive price ?
 
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