Quote:
Originally Posted by Super-G
Can you share (preferably with pix) how you have your wind turbine set up? I'm curious how high you had to go to best capture the wind and if you have it stand-alone or make use of the RV's height and stability to anchor the unit.
TIA
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This thread is almost three years old. I sold the wind turbine about two weeks ago. I found that I wasn't in places where I could set it up often enough to be worth the hassle of carrying it around everywhere.
That said, I did post a video in 2022 showing how I set up the wind turbine. That can be found here:
Off-grid Power in Quartzsite – Amazing World Adventures
I set mine up on an 8ft steel pole and set it out relatively far from my coach. I had outfitted the pole with a standard electrical outlet. I installed a plug on the charge controller, so I could connect the turbine using just an ordinary extension cord. (This is covered in the video.)
At this point, I'm up to 1700W of flat-mounted rooftop solar, plus an additional 200W deployable panel. I have 755Ah of 12V AGM batteries.
I have long since uninstalled both rooftop AC units and replaced them with roof vents with bi-directional fans. I also replaced the original 30A power control center (which was making an annoying buzzing sound) with a brand new 55A power control center. I found the ATS and reused it, as it seems to still be perfectly good.
Of course, as far as the coach knows, it's on shore power 100% of the time. I still have plans to uninstall the generator. Just need to find a time, place, and a couple of helpers to get the job done. (My 5500W Onan weighs over 250lbs dry.)
Back to wind turbines. I spent the last two winters in the LTVAs in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California. Wind turbines aren't too common, but I've seen a couple dozen setups and even helped a friend get his set up.
Even ones that extend above the height of the coach/trailer they are next to don't generally go more than a few feet above. The highest one I've ever seen was only maybe 15-16ft off the ground.
Multiple people have advised against mounting it directly to your coach as they inevitably have some vibration that will annoy the hell out of you. The few that I've seen that were sort of attached were actually free-standing but tethered by straps to keep it upright. (I've seen a couple that were actually mounted directly to the RV, but did not talk to their owners to get their opinion of the setup.)
In my observation, the 5-bladed HAWTs spin more readily than 3-bladed ones. VAWTs are good in theory but are almost always lower in power and efficiency.
Just because a turbine is spinning does not mean it's producing power. There is often a minimum speed before they start producing meaningful power. I met a couple of guys who specifically sought out marine turbines (that go on sailboats and the like) because they are far more efficient.
Hope some of that helps!
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