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Overnight wind option for off grid charging
updated 4 months, 2 weeks ago
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I plan to use my Aptera as my commuter vehicle. I have a daily 125-mile round trip, mostly country expressway. So, I know I won’t be in the “never charge” category. But, when I return home in the evening I have been thinking about adding a wind turbine to supplementally charge overnight without plugging into the grid. Something like the attached link. It would require a supplemental charging port on the Aptera so I am hoping this has been considered seriously by the Aptera team. Thoughts on this option or other off-grid overnight methods?
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What you need is an inverter that puts out 120V AC. If you have that then you can plug the portable EVSE into it.
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That requires a turbine–>dedicated-storage-battery–>inverter–>EVSE–>Aptera. If there is a connector for supplemental solar I could use simply the wind turbine–>Aptera (assuming the Aptera solar controller handles the auxiliary port). Much simpler. The Aptera is the storage bank. I am not trying to develop an off-grid power source at my home, just a more cost-effective way to supplement charging the vehicle at night.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Paul Schultz.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by
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I would go for a bigger turbine. I think I read somewhere that a domestic wind turbine on average produces about as many kWh in a year as the rated power in Watts. Unless it’s very windy where you live, you would need about 5 times the windpower to get the required power not covered by the solar.
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The link was just for illustration and not a targeted product at this stage of the discussion.
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A similar question has been asked by those who would like to see portable “flex” solar panel supplemental charging of their Aptera via MC4 connectors. May I suggest you look through the FAQ google docs spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11Of3g6RYqstbXecs7j2UHHd_b8s5MebxEs-ZwkyMiiQ/edit#gid=1847163171) as well as simply using the search function on this Forum.
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I was part of the supplemental solar discussion so no need to search. We did not discuss wind turbines although I did bring it up in that thread. I am really interested in how well these work in low wind situations and whether a moderate wind overnight would provide any appreciable supplemental charge. Even an added 10 miles of range overnight on most nights would be a difference. I’ll go off to the wind turbine sites and study some more as it doesn’t look like we have anyone with the experience with wind energy piping in so far. Thanks though!
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Paul Schultz.
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My bad Paul! I focused on the “supplemental charging port” part of your question rather than the overnight part.
Regarding wind, my experience is pretty limited as I chose NOT to go with what was considered at the time as “small wind” like others in my area have done. What I found interesting in my research was that even though we routinely get some decent wind, the average wind speed was just below some magical threshold that would have made it more economical than solar P.V.
If you haven’t already, may I suggest googling: NREL wind energy
There are many great resources available at NREL’s various websites.
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Thanks Alain. That site appears to be geared toward higher-level wind turbines. But, it does look like it has some interesting info as well. I was thinking more along the lines of a smaller turbine that is easy to mount. The type I have seen on some RVs when camping with our travel trailer. These are used to supplement solar panels when boondocking. If the Aptera has a supplemental charge port for solar these would be an easy addition. But, I don’t know if they would be worth it as they are in the 400-800W range. They do require low wind velocity to get spinning and provide some charge. I’ll sort through some of the RV sites I frequent and see what type of energy is provided. I do hope that Aptera includes a supplemental solar/wind connection. My goal would be to have the car charge solar during the day while I am working and get some additional charge at night with a wind turbine set up to the side of my drive where the Aptera is parked.
Just some fun investigation while we wait on our Apteras.
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With respect to the various NREL websites, maybe try googling NREL residential wind.
Enjoy the research!
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by
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Paul, I think that is a interesting idea. There are several ways to approach it. Unless aptera puts in a standardized solar/wind turbine plug, you will need to build a battery system, converter and then use whatever source you wish to collect the power with. There are several companies making 800 w solar systems to charge Tesla’s. The turbine system you showed needs at least 2.5 miles per hour of breeze to generate any electricity. A combination of solar and wind with a battery backup and an inverter maybe more than adequate to give you a good charge overnight. It’s something I’m going to look into. On a side note I would consider two or three wind turbines and a block of 800 w solar cells with some kind of wall battery system that I could use for the house also. It would be possible to make the whole system portable with batteries linked in smaller portable units.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Vernon Michael Gardner.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Vernon Michael Gardner.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Vernon Michael Gardner.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by
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Even if aptera doesn’t put an auxiliary solar/wind power port their is definitely going to be the onboard solar charging equipment that can be tapped into to add power to. Not sure how difficult it will be to make sure you don’t damage the onboard charger but 700w of wind power shouldn’t be too different than 700w of solar power.
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Just to sort of tease out and maybe “accentuate” one point you made, whether external solar or wind, one would really have to understand the details of the “onboard solar charging equipment” as well as, of course, the external source (solar, wind, other) before “tapping in”.
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Wind would not be something I would attempt myself but really hope someone out there with the knowledge will at least share their findings for the rest of us.
My crude method for solar would probably be to follow the wires from the cars solar array to the onboard charger than read what kind of power is being generated on the most ideal of sunny days. Than have my solar array on the roof of my garage that would best match that peak output.
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In addition to power limitations, I highly recommend you really, really make an effort to understand the “onboard charging equipment’s” voltage and current limitations.
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I was thinking about this too – If you lived somewhere really windy like Iceland, you could build a custom retractable turbine to replace the rear hatch. Just park, pop out the turbine, and generate some power.
They also make trailer hitch mounted wind turbines.
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Or try this (I’m kidding):
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…or have a steel pad/base that has a post-type mount on one side. Roll the front tire over it to hold it in place and then place a pole mount with a portable “RV micro wind turbine”. Presto! Portable wind turbine power. The mounting pole could be sectional so the entire assembly fits neatly in the back of the Aptera.
The above is a nice option but I was really intending for an overnight wind turbine system that would provide an off-grid power option.
In response to another post wind and solar are not a 1:1 swap for a controller as the wind turbine at times can exceed its rating during a higher velocity wind. The wind controllers take this into account where the solar controllers do not. In a perfect scenario, Aptera adds an auxiliary connector port for solar/wind and has a controller that can handle both solar and wind energy.
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