Spdlmt150, right. Thats how this would be set up. I have been playing around with the idea of solar power too, both systems would require charging batteries for power. A wind turbine, specifically, wouldnt produce a smoothe enough elctrical flow to make use of directly, unless you wanted a light bulb that dimed and got bright with the wind hehehe. I would also have to rectify it before the current went through the charge controller.
I was hoping to switch over to wind power, rather than solar power, because I can build a turbine for not a lot of $$ compared to a decent size solar panel (which I cant make, easily anyway). I figure I need about 30 watts at 13.5 volts to keep up with my main radio in normal conditions ON THE LOWEST TRANSMIT POWER I CAN GET (5w). The solar panel idea would work, but the panel would be expensive and to get the 30 watts on cloudy days to keep up with the radio I would need a much bigger panel (I havent even gone that far with it though). The way I figured out the 30 watts is by calculating the current consumption on rx duty cycle and tx duty cycle (in this case, 3/4 rx 1/4 tx). In most situations I would not be that active on the radio though, so the time I dont have anything on is time for the battery(ies) to charge back up.
Speaking of batteries, a decent size car battery, say the old one out of my truck (I think its about 800ah) would power the radio for a day or two with out a charge. I would need sufficient current to keep the battery charged up though. I could combine wind and solar, but thats more stuff.
The other item of consiteration with wind power is I can break down a turbine to fit in a backpack - pull the blades off, the alternator, and the fin thing and it wouldnt be very big at all. I am thinking more along the lines of portable operations, ie - camping, not necessarily hiking 20 miles. Even a 6' turbine would be manageable - the blades would be slightly less than 3', no bigger than my broken down fly rod. A few sections of surplus aluminum tent poles would get it up to 15-20', and also not be very heavy. The trick would be to build the alternator not too heavy (ie, break rotors = lots of weight) and have a small battery (7-8ah SLA). A solar panel on the other hand is going to be one solid piece, unless I go with a roll-up panel, but those are even more expensive. I could go with a couple 15 watt panels, but they are still pretty good size rectangles, and again cost is an issue there.
So back to the wind turbine. I am going to be harnessing the power from the higher sustained winds and gusts then. It sounds like, from what you all have said, that 10mph seems to be the key number. Anything 10mph or higher will produce a decent amount of electricity. I live in Ohio, if I remember right we are in the 1 or 2 wind category (I know, not very good). This power system will be used all over the place, all the way up to my family's place in Canada (and it does blow pretty good - we have an open 8 miles of lake to the south, nothing to stop the wind), so I wont be confined to using it in one place. Heck, I could build a couple of these and power our whole cabin hehehe. Then, the expensive part would be batteries. And lots of them, well.. and a few inverters.
Steve
