Anyone using a wind generator?

[eddiejenn]

Hello, I have a extra Air-X 400 watt generator and thought about using it with my airstream. I would use a collapsible pole, and run a line into the 12 volt breaker box. Any ideas? would this be good , bad? thanks

[freejack5555]

Did you get this working? I would love to do the same thing. I will be camping beach side and the wind coming off all day and night seems like it would power me all week long but I'm not sure.

[Jimcollins11]

That's not a lot of power but it would help keep a charge in your battery or batteries.

[freejack5555]

yeah I wouldn't expect a lot of power but if it could the batteries charging 24 hours a day it might be worth it to me. I don't use much power anyways when I'm there since theres no need for a/c or gadgets .

[Wabbiteer]

I love the idea of wind power but you have to control the beastie - it always has to have some load. If the batteries are fully charged they reject any applied current so its the same as running with wires disconnected. Run away turbine discs can/will damage themselves.

I always thought a treadle - saddle held down by driving the trailer wheel onto it would be a great base for a wind generator but you still need guy wires.

400W @ 28 mph is your peak POWER. If you see 5% of that on average you may be lucky... Air-X turbines use flutter of the plastic turbine blades to keep from over-speeding, they are very noisy turbines. In gusts or stiff winds when it flirts with the self-protection speed control it sounds like a chain-saw missing a muffler in an alley.

There are better (not easier) turbines - the neodymium rare earth magnets now have such brute force anyone can take a light trailer hub, some steel plate, copper wire and some cedar lumber and make a good wind generator.

This would be a good unit to copy or scale to fit your project.
Forcefield - Otherpower - Wondermagnet Online Store
Note the lower power rating - the Air-X units are groomed to be irresistible marketing wise, not engineering wise...

Here would be a good place to use the search with Air-X as search term...
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php

[NJtoNC]

wonder if you could mount it to the TT or TV while doing 60mph on the highway... hehe . that'd fill the batteries up real fast.

[B25guy]

I've been using an Air-X 400W for about two years now to keep my coach batteries topped off while parked in my driveway. Because of where I have to park the trailer, running an extension cord would've worked in a pinch, but I was able to scab a 20' pole to a no longer used basketball post in concrete to allow me to use less than 25' of 4ga wire to connect to the batteries.
My wind generator has a built-in overspeed brake that doesn't rely on blade flutter...it's reasonably quiet and pretty much takes care of itself.
I usually leave both my Fantastic Fans on most of the summer and the batteries stay charged without ever having to hook up to shore power.
When there's a storm coming, I just flick the switch off at the base of the pole to reduce the wear due to the overspeed/abrupt stoppage cycles.
Marc

[Wabbiteer]

B25guy - Very nice using existing base, few folks plan on tower being equal or even 2x the cost of their wind generator. Good info on the 400W version not putting out a great racket, thanks.

Alas - having usable wind resources is not available to the majority of people, and site problems from location or turbulence from nearby obstacles reduces the windy areas number of sites that could benefit. Marginal sites would need a greater diameter blade set to raise the harvest average.

[Ag&Au]

[QUOTE=B25guy;854091

.................................................. .........
I usually leave both my Fantastic Fans on most of the summer and the batteries stay charged without ever having to hook up to shore power............................................. ..

Marc[/QUOTE]

I saw this sentence, and got a great idea.

Use the fantastic fans to provide the wind for the generator.

Once again, perpetual motion in action.

Regards,

Ken

[Sierrapapa]

I have an Air X 400 with the drive on to stablize telescoping tower. The real keen thing about it is whenever I go to the trouble of putting it up, the wind quits. So this makes me feel quite powerful.