Wind generators not common?

mena661 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

I don't know about you, but I am heading for SAFER shelter if I have constant wind speeds of 15MPH or better!

Oh cmon! There's nothing dangerous about 15 mph wind speeds. If you lived in my area you'd be scared to death everyday if that was the case. Nearly EVERY evening the winds reach 15-20 mph in the warmer months here. My and everyone elses RV's do quite well. We drive in it, tow in it, I see hundreds of people going up and down the freeway in their rigs.

I would HIGHLY doubt that YOU would be "comfortable" inside or outside a RV with a continuous 15MPH or even 20MPH wind blowing across the BROADSIDE of said rig. Not to mention potential gusts well in excess of 40+ MPH.

Everyone tends to think they are going to get something for nothing with wind power. They read the hyped up marketing brochures from these small wind gen companies selling folks a real snow job.

It takes a LARGE rotor sweep area to really capture any substantial power from the wind. Pretty much all of these 500W and smaller wind gens use a three blade setup and typically smaller than 3ft of swept area. That means this blade WILL HAVE to be spinning at a very high speed at the tips, this makes a lot of noise but nets very low wattage.

Most will start SPINNING around 7MPH but the cut in will be well above 10 MPH and when it makes it to the cut in you will be getting only a couple of watts of power..

Pretty much all of these small wind gens spec the FULL output well over 30MPH and some even as high as 40 MPH.. Anything BELOW the full rated windspeed you get MUCH LESS.

I don't know about you but for me I would have a hard time keeping my camp chairs firmly planted on the ground at 30MPH..

You do realize that if you put an alternator on a stationary bike you can provide 50 WATTS of power for as long as you can sustain it.. and short bursts of power above that..

I would suggest that you go to FIELDLINES.COM and start reading instead of reading the marketing double speak form those wind gen vendors.

Recently I was camped at a beach, our campsite was 100 yards back from the beach.. Down at the beach we had one day with 18MPH constant wind with 26 MPH gusts. The wind was picking the sand up and whipping it at us, felt like I was using a sand blaster.. ON ME!

Back 100 yards at the campsite behind a sand dune the wind was just under 10 MPH and was picking up our chairs and anything else that was not strapped firmly down to a heavy object.. That day was not fun and I can not imagine intentionally wanting to camp in high winds..

Pack as much solar on as you can, much quieter and a bit more reliable than wind.