Being in a similar situation, I will say a small wind turbine certainly will help in the winter. If there are trees, it will not do much except in the winter.
It won't need to be much of a turbine. The small battery can only accept so much power, so fast. Even a 1A windmill will make quite a difference. Here, in winter, there is no wind power for 4-7 days, then too much for 1-3 days. The 1 to 3 days will bring the battery voltage up higher than it should be, even with a relatively small or tiny windmill. I often bring my windmill in the house after the battery is full. Really. LOL. Keeps kids from messing with it.
I would recommend a HAWT to start with. There are not many successful low speed VAWTs. A windmill close to the house has less turbulence than many people would think. My best overall spot is 2 meters out from the corner of the house, so it can catch almost clean wind from most directions. Might Google search the board (top right) for "box fan" to get started with some ideas. And their blades work fairly OK, and they are quiet.
"Fungus" has chronicled a tiny simple stepper windmill making a 1/2A. My luck isn't that good. But a half amp will do quite a bit for a small system. G-
40Ahr SLA 'supergel' in fact, though one way or another I might increase that fairly soon...
I'd put my turbine on a charge controller so that it can't overcharge the battery.
Yes, 0.5A@12V would be wonderful, but how many hours per day in winter do you actually get that 0.5A?
Will go and check out "box fan" right now...
Thanks again,
Damon [ Parent ]
A solar controller will not work with a wind turbine. G-[ Parent ]
Yes, I understand that I'd need a separate wind controller, but I'm assuming that it will be quite safe to dump power via such as wind controller into the same battery as my solar controller does, providing each controller does its job right.
Really this is all about experimenting with what is possible and at least semi-practical without annoying the neighbours 5 yards away in urban London!
Rgds
Damon[ Parent ]
