We are planning on cruising the caribbean for a few years. So I was wondering which would be better to keep the batteries charged?
Wind generator vs Solar pannels
- Thread starter Southpaw
- Start date
SOLAR!
wind, if you must. From our cruising, any place we would get enough power from the wind, was NOT a place I wanted to be anchored at.
Greg
wind, if you must. From our cruising, any place we would get enough power from the wind, was NOT a place I wanted to be anchored at.
Greg
I agree with the others and up in the States would probably put no money into wind as it is just not consistent enough but if I was mainly going to be in the Caribbean with those steady trades down there for a good part of the year would also put in the wind power.
Sumner
===================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
Sumner
===================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
I was leaning towards solar panels. Was just thinking about space but I am not sure about the noise that wind generator put out.
Solar then Wind
I’ve got ‘em both and I’d say “it depends”, they both have their place.
Solar is very trouble-free. You just need El Sol, preferably without much serious shade. Solar requires a place to mount them and you guys down south use biminis all the time so the panels would have to stay out of the bimini shade. On the other hand, they could create shade.
Wind is a one-stick install setup. Sailing upwind it’ll really crank out the amps and keep the autopilot, refrigeration, fans, and the instruments happy. Ditto the electric head. Being anchored out probably not as good, but then that depends where you are. When we’re up at the north end of Vancouver Island and further north, the wind blows stronger in the evening and at night than it does during the day so for runing the forced air heater it’s nice. The forced air heater likes a good voltage and current supply. Oh, and it’s an old Rutland 6-blade unit and it really cranks.
The slip rings on the wind generator tend to get oxidized so they need periodic light cleaning with some 600 grit.
Noise: Ours is pushpit rail mounted, easy to remove in the off season, and noise is not an issue. My first installation setup did have an issue but it was kinda jury-rigged (aka Micky Mouse) and that was long ago.
I’ve got ‘em both and I’d say “it depends”, they both have their place.
Solar is very trouble-free. You just need El Sol, preferably without much serious shade. Solar requires a place to mount them and you guys down south use biminis all the time so the panels would have to stay out of the bimini shade. On the other hand, they could create shade.
Wind is a one-stick install setup. Sailing upwind it’ll really crank out the amps and keep the autopilot, refrigeration, fans, and the instruments happy. Ditto the electric head. Being anchored out probably not as good, but then that depends where you are. When we’re up at the north end of Vancouver Island and further north, the wind blows stronger in the evening and at night than it does during the day so for runing the forced air heater it’s nice. The forced air heater likes a good voltage and current supply. Oh, and it’s an old Rutland 6-blade unit and it really cranks.
The slip rings on the wind generator tend to get oxidized so they need periodic light cleaning with some 600 grit.
Noise: Ours is pushpit rail mounted, easy to remove in the off season, and noise is not an issue. My first installation setup did have an issue but it was kinda jury-rigged (aka Micky Mouse) and that was long ago.
The operative word here is Caribbean. All winter long and most of the spring and fall, you will get a lot of over 15k winds which will drive a wind gen well. Buy a good one that has high output and low noise like a D400 or MK400.
An idea I heard recently...mount the wind gen on port side. Why? Because you will be anchored into the easterly winds and the sun arcs south of you on starboard side. Your wind gen pole will throw its shadow over the water instead of across the back of the boat where yojr solar panels will be. And yes you will want some solar too.
Ultimately it will depend on your mounting options. If you have a ton of space for solar then that will be the better all around option. But many monohulls are a bit limited on good mounting options so a wind gen can make a good addition. Especially in the trade wind islands.
An idea I heard recently...mount the wind gen on port side. Why? Because you will be anchored into the easterly winds and the sun arcs south of you on starboard side. Your wind gen pole will throw its shadow over the water instead of across the back of the boat where yojr solar panels will be. And yes you will want some solar too.
Ultimately it will depend on your mounting options. If you have a ton of space for solar then that will be the better all around option. But many monohulls are a bit limited on good mounting options so a wind gen can make a good addition. Especially in the trade wind islands.
Over the years I've had three wind generators, a Windbugger (1990), a KISS (2004) and a D400(2013). The common denominator in these three units is excellent output. We sleep in the aft cabin and the Windbugger and KISS were great for alerting us when it started honking. It was an alarm to get up and have a look around and check the anchor. The D400 is so quiet it is useless in this regard. So you can get a quiet wind generator with excellent output. I miss the alarm.
After a bunch of research 4 years or so ago, I was so freaked out by the thought of a noisy windgen that we bought solar. Our system peaks out at about 22 amps, so during daylight it does it's job quite well.
Once we reached the Caribbean, the research began in earnest! One boat anchored a couple of hundred feet from us and his windgen was so noisy that WE couldn't converse in OUR cockpit in a normal voice. I immediately jumped in the dink and asked him what windgen he had, because I sure didn't want one of those! AirX was off the list, even if was only $400 dollars.
So it's gone for four years and just Friday we wired the money for our windgen.
I'd say you would best be served by doing your own research, but as a rule of thumb, if your windgen has three blades, you won't be making any friends in the anchorages, especially as the thing ages. At least the slapping halyards those wonderful neighbors have, don't slap continuously 24/7 like a noisy windgen does.
Good luck and perhaps by the time you are ready for a windgen the tech will have significantly improved.
Once we reached the Caribbean, the research began in earnest! One boat anchored a couple of hundred feet from us and his windgen was so noisy that WE couldn't converse in OUR cockpit in a normal voice. I immediately jumped in the dink and asked him what windgen he had, because I sure didn't want one of those! AirX was off the list, even if was only $400 dollars.
So it's gone for four years and just Friday we wired the money for our windgen.
I'd say you would best be served by doing your own research, but as a rule of thumb, if your windgen has three blades, you won't be making any friends in the anchorages, especially as the thing ages. At least the slapping halyards those wonderful neighbors have, don't slap continuously 24/7 like a noisy windgen does.
Good luck and perhaps by the time you are ready for a windgen the tech will have significantly improved.
This was us as well. We did all of the research, calculated our power usage and went with an over sized battery bank for our needs and solar. Our big fear is the noise. Everywhere we see a windgen I get up close and listen. Most of the time I am not disappointed with my choice to just go with solar.
We use about 40 Ah a day. By 1-2 PM we are typically back to 100% SOC. This has been going on for 8 weeks at the dock. Every couple of week I turn on the shore power charger, get up to 100% and do a known full reset on our battery monitor to check. So far everything works as I would like.
I also sized my solar system big enough to add 2 100-watt panels when we get to the Caribbean. With the super light weight semi-flexible panels you can hang them from the life lines with paracord. Our plan to have two panels that we put out when we will be anchored someplace for more than a day and will hopefully offset a water maker.