Has anyone purchased one of these? Reviews?
www.batterybusiness.com.au/store/product_detail/spreco-silentwind-wind-turbine#estimates
I would love to know...doing a refit and i dont think solar is the best answer for a yacht?
Love to hear others opinions?
Its our home most of the time
Solar is the best mate, windgen is a back up for cloudy days and at nights. I believe the D400 and the spreco silent wind are the best on the market , the D400 is expensive and heavy.
2 x 120 watt solar panels and I took my noisy dangerous wind gen off. Now looking for a tow gen for long ocean passages. I have an electric fridge, auto pilot and other various power hungry things to run.
The wind gen would be great if we anchored in the wind and sailed when the wind was abeam or forward. But we tend to look for protected anchorages and plan to sail with the wind with us or no further forward than abeam.
Wayne
my solar panels supply enough power for the freezer and fridge and any of the electronic gadgets I have wind generators are very noisy.
I bit the bullet and ordered the spreco silent wind last night totalling $2240 .....I will do a video next week once I have installed it with my new solar panels.
lucky my battery's only cost me $1.20 and then again $120.00 I think I may go and pay the rest today which should actually total $1200!
Wind power works for certain conditions but it's a little tricky. Solar is the way to go mainly. Despite what manufacturers say, most wind generators don't make enough amps to be useful under 15knots of wind. Now, solar works though the day and if you're sailing along then there's a good chance that your wind turbine will be too. BUT it's not there for the days (solar does that) it's there for at NIGHT. THe problems with that are: it's noisy at night whe you're trying to sleep, you probably don't NEED the power at night, (especially if you have decent batteries), and apart from the odd time when you're passage-making, at night you usually hope to be moored up somewhere OUT of the wind anyway.
My two cents.
I live on my yacht as you might have gathered.
I have an airbreeze fitted and two solar panels that are fitted only when moored or static.
The wind gen provides most of the power I need.
The solar supplements it in summer.
When it's breezy or when sailing the wind turbine work perfectly, giving enough power for auto pilot, all nav equipment plus phone charging and when it's windy enough, the fridge can be switched on too.
Moored up in summer when there's not much breeze, the solar panels just about cope, though ideally I should have two more to make it fully self sufficient.
A combination of the two works well for me.
Im thinking a combination would suit me best.
Things break...if I lose one I will have the other systems.
Its a costly excise...can anyone recommend the best battery banks?
I really do value my wind generator as has been said supplies power when solar does not . Noise and vibration means its use is not when sleeping
Unfortunately i have damaged one of the blades and cannot source a replacement , it is an older design from Poole England branded Selectronic perhaps miss fit can keep an eye out for me.
Interestingly it's generator is a Sturmey Archer (bicycle) dynamo hub and can supply my Autohelm , navigation (garmin gps72) , navigation lights and still trickle charge the house battery , begins charging above 15 kts , quickly stows away in a cabin locker when not in use and is a great bit of kit.
Select to expand quoteChopesBro said..
Im thinking a combination would suit me best.
Things break...if I lose one I will have the other systems.
Its a costly excise...can anyone recommend the best battery banks?
To me golf cart batteries / fork lift / floor scrubbers make the best best house batteries.
We have two floor scrubbers at work both use Trojan 6 volt batteries nine in each scrubber . Both scrubbers get so much use on a daily basis.
and `top up over night when its needed
AGM or Gel batteries do not like more volts than 14.2 max or the tend to dry out so make sure your solar charger/ alternator is set below 14.2 volts
Select to expand quoteAmbler said..
2 x 120 watt solar panels and I took my noisy dangerous wind gen off. Now looking for a tow gen for long ocean passages. I have an electric fridge, auto pilot and other various power hungry things to run.
The wind gen would be great if we anchored in the wind and sailed when the wind was abeam or forward. But we tend to look for protected anchorages and plan to sail with the wind with us or no further forward than abeam.
Wayne
This about sums it up perfectly. My single worst investment was the 300w wind generator. I ended up buying more solar panels and putting them out when I anchored up. Plus run the engine to charge the batteries when needed. The wind generator is excellent at making noise (with vibration) and that's about it.
It's the irritating noise from other peoples yachts equipped with wind generators that's the real problem. Mounting them on brackets so they don't maim people just ads to the racket. The residents of the houses near the moorings just love them!
Looking at buying a lithium battery for starting my track car and think this might be a better way to spend money. The ability to rapid charge and their capacity as a deep cycle battery I think is the future for yacht power systems.
I think you guys are missing the point. There are 2 wind generators that are very quiet. I know the d400 is and I was seeking a review on the new Spreco silent wind. Anyway I have made the purchase now so we will see.
p.s i only switch it on if I need it in emergency . With my new 280watts of solar I doubt I will need it much at all.
My airbreeze wind gen has a particular sound
I had a rutland 913 fitted before the airbreeze.
The airbreeze is several KG's lighter, and a lot more powerful.
the sound it gives is a pretty distinctive and I quite like it.
When im becalmed or ghosting along and the airbreeze starts, I get all excited and start mucking about with sails n stuff. the point where the air breeze starts to spin is the point where the boat starts to drive under sail (8kts of wind)
it doesnt start charging until the wind is a bit speedier though.
I don't notice it most of the time. but thats probably because I mostly sleep in the forward cabin and I also have music playing most of the time. I rarely turn the turbine off.
unless its proper howling wind and then I pull the bit of string round to stop the blades when it's too windy for the automatic braking system.
I currently have the air breeze. I upgraded the blades to the wind tip carbons which reduced the noise a little but found just a little change in sound and it seems to make a feathering sound when the wind increases or degreases. I believe I will be happy with the new Silent wind, I will post a video next week once it's installed.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
It's the irritating noise from other peoples yachts equipped with wind generators that's the real problem. Mounting them on brackets so they don't maim people just ads to the racket. The residents of the houses near the moorings just love them!
Looking at buying a lithium battery for starting my track car and think this might be a better way to spend money. The ability to rapid charge and their capacity as a deep cycle battery I think is the future for yacht power systems.
Totally agree. I have a 260AH house bank of LiFePo batteries and they are excellent.
Lighter, more amps in and out, more cycles and cheaper per AH of useable power storage
They are definitely the future.
I will also install one in my track car when it is finished.
http://m.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Wind-turbine/p/sm/1128149478.htm?MobPPUpsell=Y
I got the 500w. It's 1/4 of the price of other popular brands, distributor in Springvale vic, 3 yr warrantee. Using mine for over 6 months, i can't complain. BTW, 1.2m span is huge...
