I can't stand my wind gen...

[fatherchronica]

In 1980 we bought a very remote ranch at 2500 feet above sea level about 10 miles from the Pacific a few miles south of Hearst Castle and it being miles from the grid we installed Arco solar panels and a Wincharger wind generator designed in the 1920's as I recall. It had a 2 blade propellor made of spruce. We built a 2 story cabin and to save time and money I built a tower on the ridge of our 12 in 12 pitch roof that had dual layers of essentially engine mounts both layers isolated with rubber so no metal touched metal. When the wind blew hard, and it blew so hard the first winter before the cabin was habitable that it stripped the aluminum off of the Airstream trailer we were living in, the Wincharger sounded like a B-52 was landing on the roof, until a gust, then the centrifugal brake locked it up and the cabin felt like we were once again experiencing the Sylmar Earthquake. Now we have for several years a Eclectric D-400 with 5 blades on Mana and wherever we are folks come down the dock or arrive in dinghies to inquire what brand our nearly silent wind generator is and comment that often, on really calm days, that ours is the only one moving. Just commenting. I am in the more blades is better, and calmer school of thought.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger

I have a KISS which came with the boat and worked fine for four and a half years. A few months ago we had a violent squall come thought, over 50 knots, and it snapped one of the blades near the housing, even though it was switched off at the time.
If anyone has a spare blade of the original Trinidad style, I would like to buy one.
PM me or contact though my website below.
Thanks. JR

Get a set of the new blades. You'll never look back. You'll have to take the hub to a machine shop to get a slight bevel put on the forward edge (the new blades sit in closer and have more surface area for thrust).

They are quieter by a lot - but see my earlier about balancing, which will add orders of magnitude of squelch to the blade sound. Very quiet.

There's also a new controller (KISS Extractor) you might want to look into...

[gmakhs]

The most silent one I have seen are
AEROGEN generators , silent wind is to loud for.me ,
I have had a AEROGEN generator and never heard it screaming or making a.sound .

[GILow]

Originally Posted by gmakhs

The most silent one I have seen are

AEROGEN generators , silent wind is to loud for.me ,

I have had a AEROGEN generator and never heard it screaming or making a.sound .

Likewise. My Aerogen 6 is whisper quiet, which is one of the reasons I get so frustrated by the blanket declarations on this site about all wind generators being noisey.

I think a lot of the bad press for wind generators has come about from pricing. Mapping the comments about noise to the purchase price, it’s no surprise that the noise complaints seem to be linked to the cheaper units. There is a good 100% or greater price range, so I can understand why people shop the way they do, but some quick Googling would save people from buying one of the real howlers.

[boatman61]

Aerogens rock.. Shame they're no longer being made.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Aerogens rock.. Shame they're no longer being made.

Oh crap! Is that recent?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by GILow

Oh crap! Is that recent?

Been trying to find one last years and none of the UK chandlers have one and even when Google suggests somewhere it comes up no longer in production.

[GILow]

Hmmmm. In that case I will be keeping my eyes open for one down south if it comes up for sale. Parts may become scarce. [emoji853]

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by GILow

Likewise. My Aerogen 6 is whisper quiet, which is one of the reasons I get so frustrated by the blanket declarations on this site about all wind generators being noisey.

I think a lot of the bad press for wind generators has come about from pricing. Mapping the comments about noise to the purchase price, it’s no surprise that the noise complaints seem to be linked to the cheaper units. There is a good 100% or greater price range, so I can understand why people shop the way they do, but some quick Googling would save people from buying one of the real howlers.

As happy as I am with my KISS, I have NEVER heard anything but effusive praise for a D400 among the great number of cruisers I've met with them on their boats....

YMMV, and there's nothing you can do with any issue, but, also, I've never heard of one needing service, either. If I'm ever faced with a no-fiberglass or other parts situation and I can't scrounge something from someone else, I"ll reluctantly give up my KISS habit and buy a D400. And I don't willingly let go of a boat buck, so that's saying a lot!

[GILow]

Yes, I’ve heard nothing but positive stuff first hand from the D400 owner I have met. Only one, but I trust his judgment and objectivity. Haven’t seen/heard one in action yet, hoping I will get a chance to do so when I get out into more frequently sailed areas.

[FlyingScot]

D400's are all around me. They are quiet and if I were to buy a wind generator, the D400 is no doubt the one I would buy.
Positives are quiet operation, long lasting, good power even under light wind (more than most apparently).

The bad: Not cheap, heavy, blades always rotate unless you manually lock them in place.

Having said all that, a wind generator on a pole would shade my panels, reducing output from solar just to gain it back by wind and more money.

I'd call the wind generator almost obsolete for anyone with decent solar/battery combination.

For those that say "what about the cloudy days?", I say with a big enough solar array and you can still charge during rain and clouds, just more slowly.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

D400's are all around me. They are quiet and if I were to buy a wind generator, the D400 is no doubt the one I would buy.
Positives are quiet operation, long lasting, good power even under light wind (more than most apparently).

The bad: Not cheap, heavy, blades always rotate unless you manually lock them in place.

Having said all that, a wind generator on a pole would shade my panels, reducing output from solar just to gain it back by wind and more money.

I'd call the wind generator almost obsolete for anyone with decent solar/battery combination.

For those that say "what about the cloudy days?", I say with a big enough solar array and you can still charge during rain and clouds, just more slowly.

We frequently have entire periods (many days) of little to no sun. And of course, there's none at night, which depending on your latitude and time of year, may be substantial.

A wind generator mollifies the anger of no charging happening from the sun

For myself, I like both, and the more the better, so long as it's regulated. My KISS has the KISS Extractor, which allows me to specify when it will turn itself off, as well as some intelligence to allow it to interrupt, briefly, current flow at high levels to prevent high-temp shutdowns (maximizing flow rather than merely responding to the overheat interrupts in the case).

OTOH, if I had unlimited real estate, and a reserve to allow many times the anticipated longest period of no-solar-charge, I would use solar. Unfortunately for me, and for most cruisers, I'd expect, the limitations of hull and topside real estate prevent that, even if we had the deep pockets to have massive battery banks and acres of solar at the highest available efficiency, along with the MPPT controllers to go along with those...

[a64pilot]

Overcast winter days, is what a little Honda is for. It can run a 100 amp charger, although I limit mine to about 80 amps to keep it quiet, but 80 amps is a lot of power.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Overcast winter days, is what a little Honda is for. It can run a 100 amp charger, although I limit mine to about 80 amps to keep it quiet, but 80 amps is a lot of power.

I have one of those, too, for the windless and sunless days. But it's not much use when we're not on the boat....

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

D400's are all around me. They are quiet and if I were to buy a wind generator, the D400 is no doubt the one I would buy.
Positives are quiet operation, long lasting, good power even under light wind (more than most apparently).

The bad: Not cheap, heavy, blades always rotate unless you manually lock them in place.

Having said all that, a wind generator on a pole would shade my panels, reducing output from solar just to gain it back by wind and more money.

I'd call the wind generator almost obsolete for anyone with decent solar/battery combination.

For those that say "what about the cloudy days?", I say with a big enough solar array and you can still charge during rain and clouds, just more slowly.

I had a wind generator for 7 years, I truly believe it cost me power over a 12 mth period due to shading.

For me good solar and a Honda gen for when the sun dosent shine for a couple of days. Solar is just great value these days.

A good wind generator and mounting set up isn't cheap, personally from experience I think they are over rated.