heating a bus with wind turbine

bazzah0
bazzah0 Registered Users Posts: 13
I am an Aussie living in Sweden and planing on living in a bus over the winter .l am going to have a hot water sytem in the bus element system and heat with wind turbine and also have the circulation pump run from wind also.l do know that it is not going to suply all my needs so Fidel generator and a gas heater as well to have a few options to heat.
When it is the coldest it is normaly no to little wind .
I would like to have a direct dump from a AC wind turbine .is it 220V from wind turbine and can l take that straight to the water tank element .l do not think it would have a lot to boil the tank water?
Looking at all options so have soler panels as well .would also like to have direct dump from them also but maybe use a MPPT also.
I am new to wind and solar and even power talk so be gentle with me. Thanks

Comments

  • bill von novak
    bill von novak Solar Expert Posts: 891 ✭✭✭✭
    bazzah0 wrote: »
    I am an Aussie living in Sweden and planing on living in a bus over the winter .l am going to have a hot water sytem in the bus element system and heat with wind turbine
    Bad idea. It takes a tremendous amount of high quality energy (electricity) to heat water. Much better to use low quality energy (solar heat) or waste heat from the engine, generator or gas heater. Using waste heat from the generator would be quite efficient, and would allow you to regularly charge your batteries (important for long life.)

    Also - wind turbine in a bus? Seems like a bad idea as well. It's not like you can just bolt it to the roof.

  • bazzah0
    bazzah0 Registered Users Posts: 13
    Thanks for the reply.
    The bus will be stationary seeing its a 1967 scania vabis .I have a lot of jobs to do on it to get it on the road .
    The water tank would only be 25Litres about same size as motor .l relise that it would take a bit of energy but I would about 50-60c and just to warm a bit of that with wind and solar would be good .its not a large system ,elements just have a pipe all way round bus with air drawing fins
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Do you have utility power available now? If so, you can measure how much electricity to run the bus--Then size the system. Right now, we are guessing.

    Honestly, as mentioned already--Wind and solar electric harvesting with a "bus sized" system is not going to be very much power... Looking a the sun for the region:

    http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html [h=3]Stockholm
    Average Solar Insolation figures[/h] Measured in kWh/m2/day onto a solar panel set at a 31° angle from vertical:
    (For best year-round performance)

    Jan
    Feb
    Mar
    Apr
    May
    Jun


    0.93

    1.96

    3.42

    4.56

    5.19

    5.03



    Jul
    Aug
    Sep
    Oct
    Nov
    Dec


    4.97

    4.47

    3.60

    2.16

    1.26

    0.71



    So--Is this intended to be a summer residence--Or year round?

    For wind--Enough power for LEDs and possibly to top off a laptop is about the the best (on average) you are going to do. A 3.7 meter diameter turbine mounted on a 20 meter tower in a fairly windy region may generate 200-600 kWH on a good month. Not really practical for a bus portable system.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • bazzah0
    bazzah0 Registered Users Posts: 13
    Thanks again great info .
    I am wanting to do it to see what the output would be .a bit of a hobby you could say .at the moment no mains power but a good idea will try some time .

    I have 2 spare generatorsof one of my motorbike and am tinking of playing around just to see what v I can get out of it .I tried it with a drill that was going say 3000rpm and it was outing out .049.v keep my spare battery from motorbike that I am using in bus for water pump roped up as a test .just looking for blads. No brake on it so we see if I burn it up or not.l see you have a Honda Wu2000i does that work well and how much fuel does it take .
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    My Honda eu2000i is just for emergency use--So I have not not run one very much... Most people get between 9-10 hours per gallon of fuel (400 watts or less)--And about 4 hours at 1,600 watts (full load).

    Of course, you are welcome to experiment with small wind turbines--But don't expect too much out of them. There are folks that build their own larger turbines and have some pretty good results--But it has to be high enough, large enough, rugged enough, and enough safety mechanisms (brakes, furling, etc.) to survive wind storms. Conversions of alternators/generators from other sources usually do not survive the challenge.

    And when you are talking about wind turbines--Besides the safety issues of lightning strikes (if you live in an area with high chances of lightning), throwing blades, dropping nacelles, and toppling towers are all real dangers. And just the noise from turbines directly attached to structures (homes, vehicles) where people sleep is noisy and can shake apart the structures too.

    Most of this stuff you can model pretty easily with math--If nothing else, measure/estimate your loads, then compare them with a model for solar or wind turbines--Very quickly you will see what that disconnects may be.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • bazzah0
    bazzah0 Registered Users Posts: 13
    Thanks again .very good info again .l have a lot more to think about l can see .
  • bill von novak
    bill von novak Solar Expert Posts: 891 ✭✭✭✭
    bazzah0 wrote: »
    The bus will be stationary seeing its a 1967 scania vabis .I have a lot of jobs to do on it to get it on the road .
    Again, doesn't matter for wind. You can't mount a wind turbine on a bus even if it is stationary.
    The water tank would only be 25Litres about same size as motor .l relise that it would take a bit of energy but I would about 50-60c and just to warm a bit of that with wind and solar would be good .its not a large system ,elements just have a pipe all way round bus with air drawing fins
    You are always better off heating water directly with solar.

  • 706jim
    706jim Solar Expert Posts: 514 ✭✭✭✭
    Oh, you could mount a turbine on a bus, but would you really want to?
    When it was actually working, the noise and vibration would drive you nuts!
    Island cottage solar system with 2500 watts of panels, 1kw facing southeast 1.3kw facing southwest 170watt ancient Arco's facing south. All panels in parallel for a 24 volt system. Trace DR1524 MSW inverter, Outback Flexmax 80 MPPT charge controller 8 Trojan L16's. Insignia 11.5 cubic foot electric fridge. My 30th year.