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I had a 50 watt and later a 100 watt unit on a sailboat. 2 Group 29 batteries were maintained by the 50 and 3 by the 100. I still have the tired old 50 but the blades are no longer available, I only have three or four, and I have never been arsed to make them myself.

Wind generators are pretty common on cruising sailboats - and are made to withstand a salt air environment - so I would be looking there first.

PHM
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Originally Posted by jmac00

anyone have any experience with wind generators for weekend/vacation cabins

I have an off grid cabin that I power with solar panels, but I want to install a wind generator that's less than 1000 watts.

anyone know which small generators are good, which ones are not-so-good

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Originally Posted by safebustr

I see lots of sail boats here on the inland waterway that have small wind generators mounted on them, might look into a West Marine or other supplier for more insight.

I think at this point, I would stick with solar panels. those little wind generators tend to make a lot of noise and do require some maintenance. PV panels just sit there and do there thing, no maintenance and wait for rain to wash them

Originally Posted by safebustr

I noticed you are using PEX plumbing. Is this exposed to sunlight and if it is do you have any problem with it failing due to the exposure?

sorry for not responding sooner its been a little crazy around here. The Pex has only been up since last year. it hasn't been up long enough to really 'test it'. even if it does deteriorate some, we can always wrap it with insulation, which I might do anyway?

I see lots of sail boats here on the inland waterway that have small wind generators mounted on them, might look into a West Marine or other supplier for more insight.

Originally Posted by jmac00

I think the Tankless 202 was originally designed for farmers that want to pressure wash their equipment with hot water. its designed to installed outside the building/cabin/home.

I put a large sheet of sheet metal behind mine to keep the mice out.

I noticed you are using PEX plumbing. Is this exposed to sunlight and if it is do you have any problem with it failing due to the exposure?

Originally Posted by RexCauld

Haha, you should write stories

Thanks for the sheet metal tip. And for sharing your experience!

no problem, have fun, good luck

Haha, you should write stories

Thanks for the sheet metal tip. And for sharing your experience!

I love the thing, ours is about 6/7 years old. when i first installed it, we would turn it off and leave for the week, when we got back on Friday night, I turned it on and burned up another mouse nest. Turns out, once a mouse finds a place they like, you can catch them, relocate them, but they will always find a way back to the spot they like.

So on the fifth weekend, I just pulled it off the wall, put it on the picnic table and when I pulled the cover off to clear the mouse nest, a mouse came flying out and ran right over my wifes key board to her laptop, in the ensuing confusion, screaming and battle to capture this little field mouse ( by hand--them little shits are fast) my wife is screaming at the top of her lungs, the dog is barking, Im trying to grab the little guy, my wife yells SHOOT IT, I finally captured it in a baseball hat and flipped the little guy about 25 feet on to the lawn. He just sat there startled, the dogs still barking, the wife is screaming to kill it, so, me being the great white hunter I am, pulled my trusty 629 Classic in 44 mag and shot the little thing.

Now don't panic, I just missed the little devil by about 2", not bad shot for a 'gunslinger style" shot. but I was juuust short and the ensuing dirt geyser threw the mouse about 4' in the air. He hit the ground completely stunned looking at me with those beady black eyes like "you jerk" and he ran off, never to be seen again.

Thats when I got the idea to put up a large sheet of sheet-metal so the little guy ( and his relatives) couldn't walk up the wall and get back in.

The sheet-metal did the trick. since doing that 6 or 7 years a go, no mice.

but the thing does work very well. This weekend Im installing a new 12v variable speed water pump, a new pre-strainer and whole house water filter. The new water pump can push 5.5 gal/min at 70 to 80 psi. (we'll see about that)

Originally Posted by jmac00

I think the Tankless 202 was originally designed for farmers that want to pressure wash their equipment with hot water. its designed to installed outside the building/cabin/home.

I put a large sheet of sheet metal behind mine to keep the mice out.

What's your experience with EZ 202? Would you recommend looking for other brands?

Originally Posted by RexCauld

Thanks for the heads up! Tankless sounds interesting too.

I think the Tankless 202 was originally designed for farmers that want to pressure wash their equipment with hot water. its designed to installed outside the building/cabin/home.

I put a large sheet of sheet metal behind mine to keep the mice out.

Originally Posted by jmac00

Honestly, I gave up on wind generation a few years ago. I went and upped my solar to 606 watts, installed a "Tankless 202" wall mounted water heater, which is propane powered and fires off two *D* cell batteries ( this thing works great, look 'em up on line) and changed ALL my lighting over to LED.

when I bought the place in 2009, the cabin was running off the Lister generator. and had almost 590 watts of lighting. By replacing all the lights with LED, my total wattage now is 204 watts. I can leave every light in the cabin on all night and not run the batteries down.

Micro-wind generation is, for-all-intents-and-purposes, DOA. I have not read a single, decent article about it in 5 or 6 years.

Good luck with your search, hope you find something decent, if you do, post it here so we can all see what you found

Have fun, seeya

Thanks for the heads up! Tankless sounds interesting too.

Honestly, I gave up on wind generation a few years ago. I went and upped my solar to 606 watts, installed a "Tankless 202" wall mounted water heater, which is propane powered and fires off two *D* cell batteries ( this thing works great, look 'em up on line) and changed ALL my lighting over to LED.

when I bought the place in 2009, the cabin was running off the Lister generator. and had almost 590 watts of lighting. By replacing all the lights with LED, my total wattage now is 204 watts. I can leave every light in the cabin on all night and not run the batteries down.

Micro-wind generation is, for-all-intents-and-purposes, DOA. I have not read a single, decent article about it in 5 or 6 years.

Good luck with your search, hope you find something decent, if you do, post it here so we can all see what you found

Have fun, seeya

Sooo, the thread is 7 years old, but I have the same question now.

Could someone give their recommendations or should I create a new thread?

Here is an inverter that can supply a greater amount of wattage for a longer period of time.
http://www.theinverterstore.com/4000...r-charger.html

Hi,
I was on the road for years building wind farms. GE was the one I liked the most. I do believe they make a residential one. There are other ones out there too.

Originally Posted by DDC_Dan

True. In my case, I live in an area (sunny Phoenix, AZ) where wind generation would be completely useless, but solar is very attractive. Hope you find some good info.

thanx

Originally Posted by jmac00

Not many people know about or understand wind generation, at least micro-wind.

True. In my case, I live in an area (sunny Phoenix, AZ) where wind generation would be completely useless, but solar is very attractive. Hope you find some good info.

Originally Posted by DDC_Dan

Is your Morningstar controller an MPPT (max power tracking) type? Most MPPT controllers can only be used for photovoltaic, not wind.

I think you maybe right, I just got it and have not read up on it. A friend recommended it, so thats what I got.

Not many people know about or understand wind generation, at least micro-wind. there seems to be a boat load of mis-information out there, thats why I was hoping someone here had some experience with them