RV Wind Power Generator

[rseagle]

I just stumbled on this new Air-X wind generator. It looks pretty cool and has a low carbon signature for the Green folks.

RV Solar Power Kits, Military, Motorhome, Trailer, Camper, TV, Lap Top Computer, Cell Phone

Anyone using wind power yet?

[overlander63]

I see what looks like those on sailboats a lot. Wonder if they are the same critter?

[Wabbiteer]

Halt. Stop. Whoa. When putting up an Air-X better be prepared for noise - with real wind they can sound like a chainsaw's snarl and that's if you can hear it over your neighbors' snarls complaining about the noise. Imagine something hard and plastic that needs to spin as fast as a weed whacker to make any useable power...

There are better alternatives though none quite as impulse-purchase groomed as the Air-X package deals are engineered to be.

Better methods include converting small eBay or other surplus 480V 3-Phase motor by adding magnets to the center armature, or building your own around a tiny trailer spindle & hub set... All it takes is a little imagination and mechanical skills. Soft Cedar carves into very nice turbine blades, though store-bought styles are available.

There are several people in my signature's renewable energy forums who have small wind turbines for their RV's. A fellow from Alaska has been doing it for years and has some system worked out...

[markdoane]

I thought having the mast base plate held down by the trailer wheel was a nifty idea.

[bill benton]

They can be had much cheaper at Northern tool.

[Silvertwinkie]

Great idea, but at about $2k, a propane powered generator seems like a better buy, though I admit, not the most green solution.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Silvertwinkie

Great idea, but at about $2k, a propane powered generator seems like a better buy, though I admit, not the most green solution.

Greener than a gasoline powered unit.

[lewster]

Wabbiteer has it right. I stayed in a surf camp for a week last year in a desolate part of Baja, Mexico. Great spot but NOTHING there! The camp ran on propane, wind and solar, and did it very well! They had 3 of these wind turbins and when they were cranking, they were LOUD!!

Didn't really mind as one got 'used to it' after a while. They ran almost all of the time due to the wind patterns there, and would even shut down on ocassion due to too much wind, but they kept the battery bank charged and did the job......just really loud!

Oh yea, did I mention that they were LOUD ???

[Silvertwinkie]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Greener than a gasoline powered unit.

Very true....

[Motoman]

I hope rsEagle doesn't mind; this is not an attempt to hijack his thread but I couldn't help offering a photo from my program on solar power for our CCD.. The dialog for this photo is "we considered other options to solar but found the installation to be too unwieldly or cumbersome". It's actually a vintage wind generator at a museum in north eastern Kansas at Hiawatha. They have many wind generators on display in a 1/4 mile path between the museum and US 36.

[KWilder]

Has anybody use a wind generator with their Airstream?

KWilder

[stevejones]

Originally Posted by KWilder

Has anybody use a wind generator with their Airstream?

KWilder

When I looked into this in the past, it seemed all the forum posts on the topic were over a decade old and everyone favored solar. Anything I found on line on this topic indicated wind was just not a viable choice for an RV. Drawbacks were a) weight of the units, b) complexity of assembling the unit, putting on the blades, c) units required a lot of time to put up and take down and did not store well, d) mast had to be pretty high to be effective, like 30 feet or more, so hard to do and you had to store the mast to travel, etc., and e) you need a pretty steady strong wind.

But time has gone by and products have hopefully improved. Are they lighter, more powerful, more efficient?

I am also interested in knowing if anybody out there is currently using a portable wind generator to augment their solar setup for extra power generation during the night or when it is cloudy/shady. Seems like everywhere we go these days it is windy as heck. Would love to put that wind to good use instead of it just blowing my stuff around!

Anybody? Would love to hear details of how you do it and what products you use.

Steve