Hey cps, glad to hear from you.
csp: Rolling ATV’s over sounds like fun, but EASY does it?!? Heal quickly.
So you someday decide you DO want a greater source of power at your trailer, I have done it all and had lots of fun doing it. See my “Travel Trailer to Tower Trailer Conversion” thread, it’s my next project, going to morph into more of a self-sufficient mobile communications platform. Fun.
So, let’s play:
Alternates to solar power: wind, water. Often it rains when there is no sun. The wind blows often during storms. It's really cool to have all three. On a small scale, is called "micro-generation". We’re talking Water wheels and turbines here:
Look up "Pelton Wheel Turbine" and Home Power Magazine, also "Permanent Magnet Alternator". Amazon has a bunch of offerings too! Some are really tiny.
Half a mile is a long way to transmit power, buy by NO MEANS impossible.
And let me just say, “You wouldn't use my Treadmill Motor/generator over 50 feet from the trailer, so forget that. it’s low voltage. That’s me just fussin’ around ‘cause it was FREE! And I’m cheap.”
There are commercial water turbine/alternators available out there, majority of which utilize permanent magnet alternators that conveniently produce rather high voltage Alternating Current. This output is directed to a rather sophisticated “charge controller” which converts the AC to DC and manages the charge of the battery bank. If the "transmission line" between the two is super long, one can step up the AC voltage from the turbine/alternator, and step it back down at the trailer end. That allows lower loss and requires much lighter gauge wire for the long run between the two, which is a lot cheaper for such a long run. The transformers may be shaped like a small donut. Commercially available too. The manufacturers and dealers make all this information readily available.
Of course, it would be the best of both worlds if you had a water source above you on the mountain that you could channel down hill, closer to or at your trailer with some really cheap poly pipe. The higher the source is, the greater the head pressure. If you were able to bring it all the way to the trailer, THAT would be deluxe, as you would have a source of fresh water too! There are folks out there who run hundreds and thousands of feet of pipe!
So look for the practical side: how much head can you gain from the top of the water source to the turbo location, how short can you make the power transmission line to your trailer.
Ya don’t need me to figure it all out, there is a wealth of info out there, like charts and on-line calculators that tell ya what kind of power you can get.
Enjoy!
Holmzie N2EXG
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