Eclectic Energy D400 Wind Generator field review.

We bought and installed our D400 wind generator about 2 months ago and thought that some of you

might want to hear some actual results from a user instead of company printed propaganda that may

or may not be accurate. As we all know, while putting the product to the test in a marine

environment the phrase "Your results may vary" is certainly applicable.

To clear the air early and let the cat out of the bag I will say that the Eclectic Energy D400

has not disappointed in the slightest and has fully lived up to it's billing. Having said that here is my review.

Installation.

Installation of the D400 was fairly simple and once the pole, with proper supports, is in place

it will take a non-electrician, handy type 2-5 hours to install. Most of this time is simply

running the wiring and mounting the controller and heat dump in their respective places. The time

will vary depending on how long the run is and how accessible the run is from the wind gen

location to your batteries. One note, if you are outside the USA or traveling to your boat with

the D400, be sure to measure the length of the cable run from the top of the pole to your

batteries and mount location for the dump and controller as that wire is not included with the

unit. Everything else comes with the unit if you buy it from Southeast Marine Services located in Scappoose, Oregon. BTW, they were wonderful to work with and had excellent customer service with all of my questions!

 2" pole and supports just to the right of the blue barbeque.

 Our pole is 3 meters from the deck and on the aft, port corner of the boat.

We mounted the heat dump (which never gets even barely warm) and the charge controller on the bulkhead of the port lazarette.  Both come with the unit from Southeast Marine.

Actual performance.
 I would rate it "As advertised", or at least pretty close to it. The only

caveat to that is that you should not expect to see much of anything usable in the "turn on

speed" of 5 knots of wind. Realistically you will start to see an amp or 2 once you have 8-10 kts

of wind. After that the results of power production are noteworthy and seem to be very close to the graph shown

below. Once wind is in the teens you start to see numbers that make you smile. High teens will

produce about 8-10 amps/hour.  

 Actual reading in about 16-18 knots of wind. The analog amp meter is not included but I am a geek and wanted to actually see what it was producing at any given time so I wired it through this gauge.

This is hard to see but it is reading 29.3 amps of input into our batteries via the D400 and our solar at 11am here in La Paz Mexico with the D400 contributing about 8 amps. What you don't see are the 5 amps that are being drawn by the fridge and other items. So you can add those 5 amps to that net total on the Xantrex.  If that doesn't make your captain smile then he needs to find a different path for his life!

This is the graph that is found on the Southeast Marine Services website and we have found that actual performance is pretty darn close

Noise.

Another shining point of the D400! Right after we installed the D400 we had winds from 25-30

knots for an hour or so out in the anchorage and we could sit in the cockpit directly below the

D400 and carry on a perfectly normal conversation without raising our voices a bit. It is quiet!

We have both mentioned that the very slight blowing sound that it makes is music to our ears and

we smile knowing that we are putting in green power to our batteries. No matter what the wind

speed is we have never had a negative comment about any noise from the unit and to the contrary,

many visitors comment on how quiet it is. One note on noise...when we made and installed the pole, which

is 9.5 feet above the deck, and it's two angled supports, we mounted them directly to the deck

screwing the stainless steel feet on the bottom of the poles directly to the glass. I would

recommend putting in a form of thin rubber or plastic gasket between those surfaces to dampen any

vibration. In our case when the wind is in the high teens or twenties there is a vibration hum

that is not annoying but can be heard from inside the boat. When we are on dry dock this next

summer we will add those buffers.

Actual results on our boat as compared to cruising last year without the D400.

Along with the D400 we have 875 watts of solar which is plenty during the better solar months of

the year, March-September. However, during the winter months last year, due to low solar angle

and total solar hours available each day, we had to run our diesel generator about 1 hour/day in

order to keep up with our electrical needs. This year, after adding the D400, we have yet to

turn on the diesel generator! With solar and wind, we have had zero need to burn diesel. THAT

is a beautiful thing!

Overall rating and satisfaction.

Overall we are stoked! We have no regrets whatsoever. For us, the D400 has only two

drawbacks...the price as compared to some of the other units in the market and the actual weight

of the head unit. It is definitely a heavy unit, coming in at almost 50 lbs, which will require

you to build a solid tower. The price is a bit higher than many units but the phrase "you get

what you pay for" is true in this case. If you want the best, we believe the D400 is it.  

Clean power!

Where to get it.
I am sure that you can purchase it from various sources.  We bought ours from Southeast Marine
Services because they offered a competitive price with FREE shipping and they also package the
unit complete with a charge controller and heat dump that they have tested and know to be
complimentary to the D400.  No hassles, no worries.  Just plunk down the bucks, install it and
watch the amps flow.  A solid two thumbs up from the crew of the S/V Liahona!

That's a wrap!

SV Liahona
Bret and Marne

P.S.  Sorry about the spacing issue.  I wrote the blog in notebook and then imported it into blogger and it left me with this.  I am too lazy to re-type it all in blogger so this is the way it is.  My apologies.