Solar PV vs. Wind

[Beeno]

Hello Everybody,

 

I have recently moved to an unpowered mooring and I am looking to get kitted out with Solar PV panels and possibly a wind turbine. I work a lot from home and we have quite a lot of mod-cons, so I get through a fair few amps.

 

I've been pricing up the eqiupment, and after a fair amount of research I'm not convinved a wind turbine (namely the Rutland 913) is going to be good value for money. I was wondering what other liveaboards are using and how they rate the performance of solar PV and wind turbines.

 

I reckon a 913 will generate about 30W per hour on average, and when you cost up the turbine, the regulator, the mounting pole and the fact that I'll want a hinge bracket welded to the roof, is going to cost as much as £700, which is a staggering £23.50 per watt!

 

Compare this to solar PV, I could get 250W of panels, and a regulator for about the same price if I'm lucky on ebay, this would generate an average of 50W per hour which works out at £14 per watt.

 

Now on the surface the decision looks simple, but there will be times when it is sunny, but calm, and conversley times when it is overcast/dark, but windy. This is the case for having a mixed renerwable solution.

 

What do people think?

 

Cheers

 

Mark

Edited June 4, 2007 by Beeno

[NB Willawaw]

I work from the boat and believe that neither are the total answer.

They will contribute to your boat needs in a small way, but unless you use very little

electric power, I believe you will still need a shore supply or generator.

 

I have a Windgen which is a lot more powerful than the Rutland, but it can only be erected

with care (due to risk to towpath users) and a lot of places on the canal are very sheltered

due to trees/cuttings etc.

Edited June 4, 2007 by NB Willawaw

[Beeno]

I work from the boat and believe that neither are the total answer.

They will contribute to your boat needs in a small way, but unless you use very little

electric power, I believe you will still need a shore supply or generator.

 

I have a Windgen which is a lot more powerful than the Rutland, but it can only be erected

with care (due to risk to towpath users) and a lot of places on the canal are very sheltered

due to trees/cuttings etc.

 

I have a 3.5kW gen-pack on the engine and charge through my inverter/charger as it's more intelligent than the alternator. I realise that solar/wind will never supply 100% of your energy needs, especially in winter, but come September I won't be working form home anymore, and ultimatly I don't want to have to run the engine for 2 and a half hours EVERY FLAMING DAY. (althought the endless hot water is a perk!)

 

You have also picked up on my other concern about wind, ie, it can cause an obstruction and is a pain to set up. The cut lies east-west here and the prevailing wind is westerly, so I should be able to catch some air.

[Lesd]

If £££'s allow I think a combination of both wind and solar is the way forward, particularily if your moving around a lot and you therefore never know what local conditions you will find when you moor up. That said I guess your home mooring may be better suited to one of the other.

[Beeno]

I work from the boat and believe that neither are the total answer.

They will contribute to your boat needs in a small way, but unless you use very little

electric power, I believe you will still need a shore supply or generator.

 

I have a Windgen which is a lot more powerful than the Rutland, but it can only be erected

with care (due to risk to towpath users) and a lot of places on the canal are very sheltered

due to trees/cuttings etc.

 

Out of interest, what turbine do you have? Is it noisy? Does it turn in light winds?

 

Cheers

 

Mark

[NB Willawaw]

I have an Air-X turbine.

It makes some noise but its not particularly noisy. It starts up in quite light winds

but I usually dont put it up unless there are fresh breezes.

 

I have mounted the mast on rubber mounts to stop the vibration travelling down into the hull, which causes

noise at night.

[Gibbo]

Compare this to solar PV, I could get 250W of panels, and a regulator for about the same price if I'm lucky on ebay, this would generate an average of 50W per hour which works out at £14 per watt.

 

"Averaged" over what pariod? The daytime? The full 24 hours? Summer? Winter? all year?

 

I think 50W average over a year is *extremely* optimistic.

 

Gibbo

[Beeno]

"Averaged" over what pariod? The daytime? The full 24 hours? Summer? Winter? all year?

 

I think 50W average over a year is *extremely* optimistic.

 

Gibbo

 

Yeah, sounds optimistic to me too!

 

It's supposed to be "all year", Based on the south of England, unobstructed, facing south and angled at 30 degrees. Can't rememebr where I read it, somewhere official-ish, ie. not on a website selling solar panels.

 

*edit* I think that assumes a peak-power tracking reguator too, not the cheaper PWM type.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Beeno

[tomandsophie]

We have 128w of unisolar panels and they provide MORE than we need. We don't have a TV, but we do use a laptop and stereo every night, and our lights are all 1W LEDs. Bloody amazing. NEVER need to run the engine. Brilliant.