Quietest Wind Generator

[bmacfarquhar]

I wanted to see if anyone on here knew what wind generators were quietest?

Which ones offer good bang for the buck and last a while?

[night0wl]

Personally, I think the KISS has the best bang for the buck overall. $1100, so only marginally more expensive than the Air Breeze, and much quieter and runs at lower wind velocities.

I've heard those Air-X/Air Breezes at anchor...made noises that made me want to mount a canon on the foredeck and aim shot at my anchormates mizzen mast.

[bmacfarquhar]

Your cannon though cracked me up :-)

Has anyone ever tried one of these? Wind Generator Comparison Table

Am intrigued by the idea of finishing the blade myself and saving a pile of cash.

[JeffBurright]

This kind! 200 bucks all-told and it's *actually* whisper quiet (silent in low winds, sounds like a low swish in high winds). The only problem is that since I don't have a knotmeter I can't tell you when it produces 12v, and I only have a website to tell me that it ought to be producing 5 amps when it gets blowing since I don't know how to gauge it myself.

On the down side, the blade hub flew off in the last 50 kt wind storm, but that's probably because it was only attached with JB Weld. I need to get a drill that can go through metal . . .

[xort]

Jeff
You'll need to post more details!

As for Air-X, there is a Portugese maker of blades for the Air-X that make it extremely quiet Silentwindgenerator

[JeffBurright]

Here's a post I made some time ago about the construction:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electr...tml#post529061

Since the last post I added a charge controller that I bought on ebay ($45 for a pre-assembled kit, which is part of the ~$200 total cost) and setup two 30-W lightbulbs in the lazarette to act as my dump load when the battery gets overfull. I have my trip point for the dump set around 14V, but for some reason when I have the shore power charger hooked up the battery won't charge past 13.5. I can't tell if this is because the charger somehow has its own dump point, if it's the age of the batteries, or if it's just hooked up wrong, but I do know that if I turn down the trip point on the turbine controller the lights will come on when the wind blows. That's about as scientific as I get.

Admittedly it's not the best system if you have more funds, knowhow, and power requirements than I do, but it's a neat hobby and a nice way to top off your bank for weekend trips and the like.

(photo of charge controller setup: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...j/IMG_0342.jpg)
(photo of turbine: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...j/IMG_0341.jpg)

I uploaded a couple videos too if you want to see/hear (not hear) it on a relatively low wind day. The address is YouTube - JeffBurright's Channel

[Architeuthis]

The quietest is the one not installed.

[Zanshin]

The D400 is the quietest one I know of.

[xsboats]

I have an Electrovent wind generator, made in Canada. It is always the first in the anchorage to start spinning in light air and the quietest I 've heard.

[LandLocked66c]

I like the home built idea, $1100 bucks OUCH!!