Small Wind

The Only Sarge

Not a big fan of Big Wind power. So many horror stories of less output than advertised, Chinese stuff, Missouri Wind and Solar drama etc. etc.
I have 500 amp hours of batteries sucking juice from two arrays.
Array 1 is 2 Kyocera 135W panels and 2 UL Solar 125W panels into a Xantrex 40 amp controller.
Array 2 is 2 120 watt UL Solar panels and a USA WindGen 150 watt wind turbine. Array 2 goes through a Coleman Air 40 amp controller and a 2ohm dump load setup. Simple really.
1000 Watt Xantrex Inverter.
I power the shop/house lights etc. I also have a transfer switch into the house wiring and can flip the switch and power fans/lights/TV etc.

The small wind solution has worked well. Rainy cloudy days it just spins. Makes enough to keep the batteries happy.
Nice trickle charge. Not going to bulk charge to 14.8 but it will run them up to the mid 13's.

Nice thing about small wind is all the towers up to the Gods/ Unrestricted wind etc. really do not apply to these little things. At about 10-12mph they turn and make a few amps. 20+mph I consistently see 8-9 amps. This all from the edge of my roof over the shop surrounded by house and trees.

We have had 45mph gust in thunderstorms and it was just fine. No damage at all. And when it does get burnt up/ blown away heck the replacement parts are nothing. The entire thing was $125 shipped new. So who cares anyway

It was more of a experiment that turned out well really. We have decent breezes here in South Texas so it turns probably 20-30% of the time.

You can parallel these things to get more power.

I am happy with the power it produces versus the cost and the installation requirements.

Just thought I would give a shout out for small wind. Here is mine on the edge of the shop....

Cariboocoot

Re: Small Wind

Good to see you post again, Sarge.

Yes small wind can work. Biggest problem is people swallowing the hype and thinking they'll get the inflated output some companies advertise. Asking only 150 Watts from it and settling for less keeps the disappointment away.

Of course it has to be asked: why do you have a solar array and wind turbine attached to the same controller? Expedience?

The Only Sarge

Re: Small Wind

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Good to see you post again, Sarge.

Yes small wind can work. Biggest problem is people swallowing the hype and thinking they'll get the inflated output some companies advertise. Asking only 150 Watts from it and settling for less keeps the disappointment away.

Of course it has to be asked: why do you have a solar array and wind turbine attached to the same controller? Expedience?

Hey Coot...NHRA gets in the way sometimes....but I do enjoy reading what others are doing with alt eng and of course this is the place to do that
I have Array 2 going through the Coleman Air controller cause I had it laying in the "solar stuff box" and it takes care of solar and wind both with the dump load. 12V 40 Amp auto relay and a PCB and a couple of LED's is all it is. But it works great so I have no complaints....I mean for $50 bucks where else are you gonna get a controller for wind and sun?
I guess I could just have the wind going through it and use a spare 15 amp Morningstar controller I have for the other 2 panels. I dunno. It works well and the two controllers play well together.

I like the idea of redundancy in my small, simple setup frankly. If one array has an issue I can still be in business while I fix/repair one side of the system. Comes from the performance auto hobby...redundancy is good when you can have it.

Cariboocoot

Re: Small Wind

If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

I had a look at USAWind's web site. They appear to present product honestly. The section on how to pick a turbine could save us a lot of bother; just paste the link in instead of writing the same info by hand as we always do.

I don't suppose you took any close-ups before you put it on the roof? It would be interesting to see how well-made they are.

But don't climb up there and take it down just to get pics!

The Only Sarge

Re: Small Wind

I could no problem. I can tell you he uses racing go cart generators that are nuclear warhead proof. Waterproof and tough as nails.
Solid welds, simple construction, blocking diode included, built very well. 100% made in the USA. Oh hell...I am sounding like a commercial.....he is a good guy, honest and provides a decent aux power solution.....I think he has a 250Watt version now.....No, he makes no stupid claims...just they are tough and produce power. I think he is selling them way too low but don't tell him that.

I am getting another one to put up at the barn...so I'll do a picture "slide show" for you.