HappyHippy
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tinker said:No, dont go the genny route. Spoils any place that you wild it. I have a two panel solar set up and find this sufficient for my needs. I have another 3' x 5' panel to add and will be able to run the PC on board when I upgrade my invertor. Remember to use a charge controller, easiest way to not ruin a new leisure battery. If you want to try wind power, try looking on eBay for the sturmey archer dynamo hub. A bridge rectifier is needed to boost the six volt to twelve, but with the right instructions these are easy to make. Benefits, 1/10 the price of a Rutland and so much more fun to use something you have made, not bought of a shelf. I am experimenting at the moment with a savonious generator, the benefits are that it takes less time to set up when you park up and is a much more compact unit. I have eperimented with alternator style generators and the downfalls were, you need to excite with a live twelve volt connection, meaning that in time of no wind it still uses the power. There is also a minimum wind speed needed, the average rpm on a car is 900, this has to be worked out for size, pitch etc of the blades to be used and sufficient wind speed. Hope this answers your question.
HappyHippy said:Has anyone got any experience of using a small wind turbine like a Rutland 503 or those sleek but expensive thin flexible stick-on solar panels you can get for the roof of the van? The idea is to be able to keep a leisure battery charged indefinitely without a mains hook-up or running the engine. This is not cheap kit, so I would like to hear from anyone who has tried this kind of thing. Would I just be better off with a small genny? I have even toyed with the idea of building my own windmill using an automotive alternator of the same type as my engine uses which could then simply be connected in parallel with the existing alternator to charge both the leisure and the vehicle battery at once, as if running the engine but without using any fuel. Probably a good bit cheaper than a Rutland, but probably not as efficient though.