Rutland 914i Windgen: New Kid on the Block

[Dockhead]

I installed a Rutland 914i on my boat and spent a long sailing weekend with it.

It is indeed very quiet, and I hope that it will be silent once I have put rubber gaskets under the mount.

It puts out less power than I expected. In 12 knots of wind, with the blades appearing to spin quite well, it is putting out only about 1/2 an amp of power at 24v, or only about 12 watts. I got all of 2 amp/hours during a 12 hour period at anchor when I consumed about 80 (well, the Eberspaecher was running most of the night). And it was not all that quiet a night, in terms of wind.

I am not extremely impressed so far. I've now left the boat on my new Hamble mooring ( ! ). We'll see how much power it produced, and in what shape the batts are in, when I return in a couple of weeks.

[LeaseOnLife]

12 knots = 6.2m/s

at 12V the spec shows 2A for 6m/s, at 24V it would be half of this. you should get 1A at 24V = 24 Watts.

Where are you reading windspeed? On top off the mast? Do you have a handheld wind speed sensor to see windspeed at the hight of the wind-gen?

Specs for wind-gens seem to be always exaggerated. I welcome real measurements!

Thanks

Dirk

[Dockhead]

Indeed, the wind speed on my boat is measured 75 feet above the deck. I understand that at deck level it will be less.

At 5 m/s, which I think is about 10 knots, the charge is already half -- about 1 amp at 12v nominal or about what I was getting (0.5 amps at 24v nominal).

[Ianmark]

I fitted the 914i about 18 months ago, it is quiet but the amount of power it puts out is pathetic. The most I have managed to get out of it is about 2 amps on a windy anchorage. The green LED comes on at about 5 knots of wind but when I check my amp meter it shows nothing or maybe 0.1 amp. Don't waste your money go for the D400.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Ianmark.

[Ianmark]

Re: 914i
In my last message I think I might have inadvertently spoken to highly of the 914i. On the windy anchorage the 2 amps is only momentarily. When sailing, the movement of the boat tends to turn the whole generator slowing down the turbine. I think in practice it produces about 3 to 4 amp hours a day. Even in England (not known for sunshine) a solar panel that can be directed at the sun would do better.

[dodge99]

I have had a 914i installed on my westerly fulmar (on deepwater swinging mooring with 320ah domestic and 110ah engine start) for 5 weeks now and since installation the unit has generated 820 amps. Whenever leaving the boat for 7-10 days, on return my batteries are always in float/regulation mode.

I cant understand why people are disappointed with the 914i, I can only think your moorings are too sheltered to get clean air.

I couldnt be happier with mine

[StuM]

Originally Posted by dodge99

I have had a 914i installed on my westerly fulmar (on deepwater swinging mooring with 320ah domestic and 110ah engine start) for 5 weeks now and since installation the unit has generated 820 amps. Whenever leaving the boat for 7-10 days, on return my batteries are always in float/regulation mode.

I cant understand why people are disappointed with the 914i, I can only think your moorings are too sheltered to get clean air.

I couldnt be happier with mine

I presume that you mean 820 amp hours? That's about 24 amp hours per day which is an average output of 1 amp - similar to what other posters have found. I'd expect better output over five weeks from a couple of small 40 watt solar panels, strategically placed.

[zboss]

That low output is not just limited to Rutland... I am growing increasingly disappointed with our silentwind, which is putting about 15 total amps per 24 hour period, on average. The reality is that unless you are in a location that is blowing 15 plus knots day and night, you aren't going to get huge output.

With that said, 15 amps is 20 to 30 percent of so of our daily consumption at anchor.

I have heard that the Bahamian winters blow 15 to 20 all day night so we will see this next season.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by dodge99

I have had a 914i installed on my westerly fulmar (on deepwater swinging mooring with 320ah domestic and 110ah engine start) for 5 weeks now and since installation the unit has generated 820 amps. Whenever leaving the boat for 7-10 days, on return my batteries are always in float/regulation mode.

I cant understand why people are disappointed with the 914i, I can only think your moorings are too sheltered to get clean air.

I couldnt be happier with mine

That's a pretty bad result, actually, but it may not be the wind generator's fault. How drained were the batteries when you left? If the batteries were pretty full, then they won't take many amp-hours. Not the wind generator's fault. You can really only evaluate how the wind generator is doing while you're in the bulk charging phase.

[Candoo]

I installed a Rutland 914i 2 months ago, output disappointing reset HRDi and the last 686h produced 149 ah = .217 amps per Hr, this is in a windy estuary and in open water.
After considerable waffling from Marlec they will accept the unit back at my expense for testing,
I would recommend that anyone contemplating fitting a WG carry out your own test either mounted on a pole in a windy location or run it up to about 700 rpm in a jig without the blades before fitting it to your boat, to carry out the tests you will require an amp meter, volt meter and a battery, when I get my 914i back that is what i'm going to do, as it it is quite clear that the output calculations supplied by the manufactures have seriously been massaged with a considerable amount of fairy dust.

[leftbrainstuff]

Without logging the actual wind speed to be able to determine the mean and thresholds related to your particular wind generator its difficult to work out what to expect.

We have an old four winds windgen which works well. By glancing between the wind speed indicator and our heart interface its easy to see whether the unit is providing charge current within spec.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[cwyckham]

I'm sure that you're already doing this, but of course you can't put current into a full battery. When you do your test, you need to have a partially discharged battery and understand what the battery will accept.

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

I'm sure that you're already doing this, but of course you can't put current into a full battery. When you do your test, you need to have a partially discharged battery and understand what the battery will accept.

Quite so - Once a battery had reached about 80% capacity the charge acceptance rate drops of rapidly.

I don't much like the controllers supplied with the 914i and got rid of mine after a couple of failures (I used to be an electronics/communications engineer so fixed it myself with about 50p worth of parts). I have now replaced the controller with a simple load dump regulator that has a lot less to go wrong in it. I was monitoring the current before and after changing out the charge controller and see no real difference.

It's just a gut feeling without any real science, except observation, but I don't think that the MPPT type controllers are worth their money on small wind generator installations. They definitely help in solar installations though.

FWIW I put one of these in as cheap monitor, nothing stopping you putting in a couple; one on wind and one on solar.

[Candoo]

That would only apply if there was a regulator fitted, the last test I carried out was with a separate battery that was standing for a month wired direct to the geny with amp & volt meter in the circuit for two days with the amount of wind that I was getting this should have fried the battery it got up to 15v & 2 amps in 20kt plus gusts and the battery temperature did not rise above ambient, when the wind was down to about 12kt the volts fell back to 14.2 & .5 amp, I think a 5 year old with a rubber band & stick could do better.