I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.

In "Nigel" writes:

I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.

I have experience with Aerogen wind generator. Reliable and QUIET. If
you like beating into the wind, you will be happy as you produce the
current you need. On the run, you are not as well off.

- Lauri Tarkkonen

On Tue, 4 May 2004 13:49:54 +0100, Nigel wrote:

I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the
choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.



I have a Rutland 913 in use since 1996. It's quiet, does not interfere
with HF radio reception ,it puts out about what the spec.s claim, which is
not much. The tail on the unit is completly worthless. Underway or even
sometimes at anchor it will spin drunkenly about. I made a new tail fin
about 2.5 times the size of the original. The new tail keeps it charging
in everything but light downwind conditions. After about 5 years in the
Florida sun the plastic housing got yellow and brittle and the blades
began showing fibers as the outer plastic powdered away.
A couple of coats of epoxy paint seems to have stopped that process.
If I was buying a new unit now I would look at the KISS. Everyone I talk
to who has one seems happy with it.
Russ Barron




--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

I realize that Windbugger is a US based unit, however I am extremely happy
with mine. This is my second season of living aboard with wind and solar
power.

Last night it was charging between 15-20 amps in gusts of 25 knots. Normally
it charges around 5-10 in just the moderate breeze in my anchorage.

I can just barely hear the 'swish' of the 3 blade prop. Hardly noticeable
until it reaches higher RPM, went the overspeed break starts regulating.
Nothing objectionable, just a reminder that the wind is over 25-30 knots.

I have been maintaining an 800 amp/hr battery bank with the wind gen as
primary source and two 55 watt solar panels.

My electrical load is presently, 2000watt inverter (for micro wave, toaster
oven, tools, etc), 12 vdc frig., TV, VCR and lighting.

Anyway, if you have chance to pick up a used WindBugger, it would be well
worth considering.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

I'd go with a KISS. Quiet and generates more power than any other using.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Nigel" wrote in message
.. .
I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the
choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.

I have used the Rutland 910. I vowed never to use it again after a solo
transatlantic. The noise resonating through the hull was awful but it
did the job. After trying to use only solar power for a few years i will
resurrect the wind gen but try to insulate the pole from the boat with
rubber bushings.

Lauri Tarkkonen wrote:

In "Nigel" writes:


I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.

"Nigel" wrote in message
.. .
I'm looking at buying a wind and or towed generator for my boat, the
choices
seem to be Aerogen, Ampair, Duogen or Rutland, does anybody have any
expirience with any of these, or any recomendation for other makes, I'm
based in the UK.


I've a Rutland 500 - it has a rim around the fins
so you don't lose anything if you go too close, but
that's the only good thing I can say about it. Very
little power output and the bearings give up too easily.

Alisdair

Another vote for a KISS. While not as popular as say, the Air Marine,
they are indeed the quietest.

Although here in American Samoa, the Air Marine units do have value.
My anchored neighbors (one to the east and one to the west) are each
to windward and leeward of me, depending upon summer or winter
conditions. Their Air Marine windmills are my "early warning device",
for as soon as a gust hits 32 to 34 knots, their units "depower", and
the resulting turbine-like WHINE is loud enough to wake me out of a
sound sleep and give me 1 second or 2 notice to "hang on".. Note that
my neighbors are about 70 meters distance...

Note that you may want to also order an extra diode/rectifier kit when
you order the unit. Mine was bad out of the box, and (due to mail
schedules here) I have been waiting 3 weeks for a replacement.

"mitch" wrote in message
m...
Another vote for a KISS. While not as popular as say, the Air Marine,
they are indeed the quietest.

The KISS generates about twice the power as an Air Marine as well.

Although here in American Samoa, the Air Marine units do have value.
My anchored neighbors (one to the east and one to the west) are each
to windward and leeward of me, depending upon summer or winter
conditions. Their Air Marine windmills are my "early warning device",
for as soon as a gust hits 32 to 34 knots, their units "depower", and
the resulting turbine-like WHINE is loud enough to wake me out of a
sound sleep and give me 1 second or 2 notice to "hang on".. Note that
my neighbors are about 70 meters distance...

Even in a reasonable wind they are annoying. The new units are
quieter, but nowhere as quiet as the KISS.

Note that you may want to also order an extra diode/rectifier kit when
you order the unit. Mine was bad out of the box, and (due to mail
schedules here) I have been waiting 3 weeks for a replacement.

Nice thing about the KISS is that the diode pack is an off-the-shelf
Motorola unit that can be bought at most any auto parts store.

The following is a log from 3/13/2004 regarding a failure that I had
with my KISS wind generator. While I own one, and generally think that
they're very good, they do have definate problems.

-- Geoff

*****************************

I just experienced a failure of my KISS wind generator of a nature that
I've been worried about for quite some time. The KISS generator has a
thermal breaker on each of the 3 outputs of the generator. These open
when the generator is getting too hot by generating too much power. This
sounds OK in principle, but the problem is that when the breakers open,
the blades freewheel at a very high rate of speed. The power curves that
KISS supplies shows the generator producing 18 A at 20 Kts and 25 A at
25 Kts. However, there's nothing in their literature which shows the
maximum sustainable power output.

A switch, located between the generator wiring and the connections to
the battery provides a method of feathering the generator by shorting
the outputs to ground or each other. In winds of less than 25 kts this
typically causes the blades to spin at a very slow rate of speed.
However, once the thermal breakers have tripped, this switch does
nothing. To me this is a serious design flaw. The system should feather
itself instead of letting the blades freewheel.

I first noticed this on the trip from FL to Guatemala last summer. I had
just installed it and was quite surprised when it wouldn't feather in a
squall that blew through. I contacted the US KISS distributor about
this, and their response was that I should take a boat hook and use it
to pull the generator sideways into the wind via a string that goes from
the tail of the generator to the support pole. Yeah, that's a great
concept until you're at sea with the boat pitching all over the place
and probably a lot of other things going wrong at the same time.

Today we've been at anchor at Lighthouse Reef in Belize with a cold
front blowing through. The winds have been in the 15 to 25 kt range all
day. This morning the breakers tripped twice when the winds gusted over
30 for brief periods of time. Each time I was able to grab the string
and swing it around to feather it. This afternoon the winds have been in
the 15-20 kt range and the breakers have tripped twice. We were only
generating about 17 amps sustained when this happened. The second time I
was pulling the generator around when the string got caught in a blade
and yanked the boat hook into the tail, snapping it off. I suppose that
this is a lot better than having the boat hook strike a spinning blade
and potentially impale me, but I'm not happy at all.

While in general I am happy with the KISS generator's simplicity, I
think that this is a serious design problem which poses a substantial
safety risk. If you're thinking about getting one, consider this fact
before buying.