I currently have four 100 watt Siemens solar panels mounted on my wheelhouse roof aboard my boat and I also use a Honda EU2000i to help recharge my pair of Rolls-Surrette CS25 6 volt, 820 aHr@20 amp rate, batteries. At my latitude (42-43 degrees) in New England, the solar panels take care of about 85% of my consumption in the Summer and I use the Honda genny to make up the difference to top off the batteries with a 100 amp charger/inverter using a 3-stage regulator. I've done a lot of research over the past month in an attempt to validate the practicality of a small wind turbine in the $1000 range to offset some of the use of the Honda genny. Using the 12 volt Rover performance videos, I put a best guess spreadsheet together based on a 50% reduction of genny use and determined that I could likely achieve a 5 year payback on fuel savings. Generator and Rover maintenance were not taken into consideration. With all that said, I hope to have sorted out the chaff and snake oil performance specifications of most players in the small marine turbine category, including Chinese junk and crazy people from Missouri. I've learned more about Betz and turbine efficiency than I care to have learned since all I have been seeking is a turbine with reasonable performance with a strong value proposition. To that end, I've narrowed down my choice between the Rover Marine and Air Breeze. Both are at about the same price point but are significantly different in their implementation and warranty policy. As of late, I had been leaning to Air Breeze with their limited lifetime warranty, but just found out it has been replaced with a 5 year warranty. It doesn't take an MBA to figure out Southwest Wind's warranty expense has probably been higher than anticipated. Besides, as I found out, the blades and circuit board on the turbine weren't covered anyway. But, I digress. My question to the Windy Nation team or members of the forum is: Has there been a side by side shoot-out comparison of the Rover product against the Air Breeze? Beside the disadvantage of on-board circuitry and use of heavier gauge DC cable for the Air Breeze, what other performance aspects are there for the Rover Marine that set it apart from the Air Breeze? Thanks much, John
We have never done a side by side comparison of the Air Breeze and the Rover Marine. Honestly, I have never tested or touched an Air Breeze. I have only seen them on sailboats in the harbor. That being said, I have nothing positive or negative to say about an Air Breeze and I am definitely not in a position to promote it or criticize it. I know our wind turbine makes its rated power at its rated wind speed. I know the power curves we publish are accurate. I know our turbines are reliable. And I know we provide excellent customer support.
I have an air-x with windy nation blades. I wish i had never purchased this over engineered junk. What i do have to say is i have had a couple of items warrantied by windynation and it is easy to deal with josh on warranty. In fact i had a slip ring go bad and he confronted me about warranty i didnt even have time to approach him in regards to warranting the defective product. Check around on southwest warranty see what comes up. Hope this helps.
