New wind generator install

[michaelmrc]

im running 12v

Originally Posted by skenn_ie

12 or 24V electrics ?

[Briggers]

If you are going Chinese, go bigger than you require - they tend to be prone to exaggeration, the Chinese that is 😉

[scarlet]

I personally believe we should avoid buying anything from China. If you are in the U.S., buy American... if not patronize manufacturers in your home countries or those countries that don't use slave labor... steal intellectual property, put Muslims in "concentration camps", kill off political opponents, censor they citizens and freedom of the press.. I could go on and on. I'm sorry to get political. I just hate the idea of rewarding people who do bad things…

As for the wind generators.. this is a really great discussion. I'm going to follow as we are currently looking for one ourselves. really want one that is quiet...

Carry on..

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by scarlet

I personally believe we should avoid buying anything from China. If you are in the U.S., buy American... if not patronize manufacturers in your home countries or those countries that don't use slave labor... steal intellectual property, put Muslims in "concentration camps", kill off political opponents, censor they citizens and freedom of the press.. I could go on and on. I'm sorry to get political. I just hate the idea of rewarding people who do bad things…

As for the wind generators.. this is a really great discussion. I'm going to follow as we are currently looking for one ourselves. really want one that is quiet...

Carry on..

The second paragraph was germane. I hope your first doesn't derail the discussion...

[michaelmrc]

https://www.practical-sailor.com/mar...r-field-tested

Originally Posted by michaelmrc

i live on board my 37ft sailboat. last year i installed a new air breeze wind generator. have been very happy with its performance and its noise level. i researched a loy before purchasing read reviews practical sailors review etc. some things i liked about the air breeze was the slower wind speed required to start it up. makes a bit of power at 10knots decent power at 15 and im getting 15-18 amps at speeds over 20knots. noise level is wuite good with the new redesigned blades. support has been excellent ive had several presale questions as well as installation and operational questions. support was very helpful.

[Wolfgang.Schau]

I have a D400 and people are amazed how quiet it is. Noise is the main problem, don't get sidetracked by products with whisper in their name, they make more noise than the D400.
You MUST have a good controller with a shunt to avoid overcharging your batteries.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang.Schau

I have a D400 and people are amazed how quiet it is. Noise is the main problem, don't get sidetracked by products with whisper in their name, they make more noise than the D400.
You MUST have a good controller with a shunt to avoid overcharging your batteries.

The D400s are great wing-gens. I probably would have bought one, except they were like 2-3x more expensive as the rest, and they are quite a bit heavier.

My sense is the D400s are quieter than SilentWind, but not by much (I've never done an ear-to-ear direct comparison, just one-off comparisons). These days there are lot of wind-gens that really are pretty quiet. There's no reason to put up with a noisy one.

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

The second paragraph was germane. I hope your first doesn't derail the discussion...

Sorry about that... Was having a discussion with my sister-in-law who works in china, and the discussion got me a bit upset... shouldn't have brought it here... So, anyone who is ready... I apologize, and please ignore...

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

The D400s are great wing-gens. I probably would have bought one, except they were like 2-3x more expensive as the rest, and they are quite a bit heavier.

I like the d400 output, but trying to get a 17kg beast up on the mizzen mast would be a real pita. Even w/the Rutland 913 weighing ~ 10.5kg we had to make a harness to make it easier take it on/off the mast for maintenance.
Will say having the wind gen mounted up higher on the mizzen mast gives it much better air/energy production than compared to the pole mount off the stern.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Bill O

I like the d400 output, but trying to get a 17kg beast up on the mizzen mast would be a real pita. Even w/the Rutland 913 weighing ~ 10.5kg we had to make a harness to make it easier take it on/off the mast for maintenance.
Will say having the wind gen mounted up higher on the mizzen mast gives it much better air/energy production than compared to the pole mount off the stern.

So true, on both counts. It's one of the reasons I miss my old ketch.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by Nightsky

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with Chinese turbines on your boat.

I have several Chinese electric motors in my shop that are of very good quality. I have a power hacksaw that is flawless, (and identical in castings and every other detail other than color to a Hitachi), for a fraction of the price.

I have several Johnson small squares (with built-in level) (Just like the Stanley ones that have been around for many decades) that were made in America. At one point, I bought 4, one each for four student stations in my tiny boatbuilding school. 3 of the 4 were obviously defective. (Woodworkers know how to check a level in a couple seconds: these had been sent out without any quality control whatsoever. I had to sort through many (10?) at Home Depot to find four good ones, after returning the junk ones.

So, there is no way, unfortunately, of knowing whether something from China is as good as, better or worse than something comparable from any other country. I have experience with products from Germany, usually thought to be well-engineered that were of very low quality. On the other hand, I can think of nothing I've purchased from Japan that has not been of very good quality.

I cringe a little at the question: there are certainly very high quality turbines from China and very low quality ones from China: it's not "China" it's the individual company. In my experience, I have more often than not been favorably impressed with products from China. Of course, essentially all of the electronics of any description, marine or otherwise are from China. Much of that stuff is of very high quality.

However, many Chinese companies seem to actively earn and pursue their reputation for low quality: When I get stuff from China that has comprehensible documentation, I am stunned: typically such stuff still shouts "we don't care if you can make sense of this or not." That cannot help but call into question the quality of the product itself, which might otherwise be hard to assess: your cell phone is shiny and smooth on the outside, but how can you know about the thousands of important parts inside? I cannot imagine why they do not have the translation done by native speakers of the destination language. The cost would, for many production products, work out to 2 cents per item... or less. There are millions of people in China who speak and write destination country languages perfectly.

[Sputnik]

I tried one of these Chinese units:
1-Power output overstated by 50% (As another member stated, this applies to most of their products, including Inverters)
2-Noisy operation, both in wind noise and "cogging" (this is the noise generated by the magnetic field passing through the windings, the power pulses create a noise that is similar to a noisy bearing )
I managed to sell it on via ebay and returned to my Rutland unit (I was going to have both units, but mounted the Chinese unit on the Rutland mast head to trial it)
The Cogging noise is really annoying as it is transmitted into the hull of the boat. So I recommend you mount the Wind Gen' (which ever one you use) somewhere where the noise is attenuated. My WG mast was just above my head in the rear cabin, I have moved it to the other side and made some anti-vibration mounts which has helped enormously.
Best of all I created a frame on the stern to take 800W of solar and a good MPPT controller.
Neil

flickr.com/photos/185472387@N04/49675145598/in/dateposted-public/

[Jim Cate]

-Power output overstated by 50% (As another member stated., this applies to most of their products, including Inverters)

Lots of folks have similar reports of wind gens underperforming their specifications, Chinese and otherwise. And indeed, no doubt some do in fact fail to meet the claimed outputs...BUT:

It is hard to accurately make the measurement of output vs wind speed without a wind tunnel. Wind near the surface and around boats and shore objects is always pretty turbulent, and never stays constant for long, and this variability confuses the measurement. Further, most boats have their anemometer (if any) at the masthead while the wind gen is on a pole usually only ~15 feet above the waterline... and there is a big wind shear between the 50-80 foot heights of masthead. This means that the speed measured up there will nearly always be significantly higher than the wind gen is actually getting. The power output curve for the gen isn't linear at all, rather going up roughly as the cube of wind speed, and this means that the discrepancy between masthead and wind gen flow speeds has a BIG impact on the apparent performance. Finally, very few yottie anemometers are actually calibrated, for in situ calibration is quite difficult to accomplish. Most of us just leave the factory calibration alone and don't expect it to be scientifically accurate.

So, such reports as yours, citing 50% overstatement of output are pretty meaningless without damn good practice and verification of the measurements.

All t hat said, it is quite possible that your Chinese wind gen was a real dog!

Jim

[dave777]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

balancing your blades will both minimize vibration (read: noise) and blade noise. Our new blades are admittedly quieter, but being brutal about accurate balancing had our originals very quiet, too.

Hadn't heard of that. How do you actually balance the blades?

[HankOnthewater]

Originally Posted by Aurora38

Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting, it is a question probably lots want to ask but don’t. I’m glad to hear all the open-mindedness here. I agree that Hank’s advice is good. You’ll also see from his description that he has owned many “high-end” brands, which also suggests that they may not last long either.......snip A.

yes, I have owned a few wind generators, and helped friends install quite a few other ones as well, mostly Air Marine or Air Breeze. My current boat came with a Kiss and 3 Air Marine units (2 mounted and x1 spare). I don't like the latter ones, the noise, and low output at low wind speeds, so sold these last 3. The Kiss unit.... the only wind gen that failed for me, in high winds, overheated literally broke, from the paperwork that came with the boat, I believe it was 18 years old. I have now x2 D400 and x1 aerogen 4.
Yes, my boat looks like the pic below.... must be genetics, as I was born not far from these.