Charging an Electric Car with a DIY Wind Turbine?!

In this episode we set ourselves the challenge - can we charge an electric car with a DIY wind turbine from KiteX?! Brace yourselves for an accidental production crew team effort and some silly, wholesome Everything Electric Show and Fully Charged Show flavoured fun! @fullychargedshow @EverythingElectricShow

00:00 Unboxing a wind turbine!
00:39 Shoving it in the MG4
01:15 Robert gets building
02:10 KiteX
03:36 Power
04:20 Top or bottom
05:48 Calling in backup
08:31 It's going up
09:14 A deadlock...
10:39 A bit later....
12:05 The big test!
14:08 Can it charge a car?!
16:52 Concluding thoughts

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Everything Electric (UK) LONDON - ExCel - 16th, 17th & 18th April 2025
Everything Electric EUROPE, USA & (UK) NORTH - dates for 2025, 2026 & 2027 to be confirmed #electriccars #electricvehicles #homeenergy #cleanenergy

[EverythingElectricShow]

We really hope you enjoy this episode - consider it some cockel-warming content to get you through your Wednesday afternoon!

[skebokvarnsv]

The rated power of the KiteX Wind Catcher is 200W @ 5.5 m/s wind speed, that is the max power output. Average wind speed at UK measuring stations is 4.5 m/s, measured over the last 20 years. At 4.5 m/s it looks like it would output 125W. Wind should be turbulence free to reach these numbers. A lot to carry for a tiny bit of power.
The car charging is mostly a test of the power station, not the wind turbine.

[nickcockayne]

Use a wind turbine to power a hair dryer? just cut out the middleman and dry your hair with wind..

[AtentieCadMere]

16:20 "It's not completely fake, just complicated" Awesome review and very self aware. always welcomed.

[GreenJimll]

I'm just amazed the crew let Robert near both a multitool knife and a jigsaw. 🙂

[JamesScholesUK]

When Robert pulled out that little Jackery I knew the answer! 😂

In all seriousness, the question is really two questions:
1. Can a portable wind turbine add power to a portable battery? Yes
2. Do portable batteries exist which can run a domestic car charger? Yes

Did Robert have one of those available? No

[lucianbakerii]

I'm glad it wasn't windy. Those packing materials would have flown half way across the farm. 😂 Admittedly, it would be funny to watch Robert chase them down.

[airsoftworld]

Looks very well engineered but overly complicated for a true portable ‘leisure’ product. Emergencies maybe but nobody on the normal scale is going to enjoy building and dismantling that more than once, or at all :) As for EV charging, you’ve a good sense of humour :p

[RobertBoerner]

The assembly portion made me think I was watching Scrap Heap Challenge/Junkyard Wars again :-)

[kensmith]

If the makers of the windmill are taking advice, suggest:
You can for quite a low cost make your product a WiFi hot spot and make all the software a web page so that it doesn't matter what phone is used.
Making it not need any sort of app would be even better. You have to run a cable to bring the power down so a few extra wires is not a problem. Some sprinkler controllers make it all work with 3 push buttons and a two line LCD display.

[danielfleuty]

Almost a glimpse into your household at Christmas. “Have you read the instructions?” 😂❤

[kasmstamps]

I think if I went camping I would be using the car as the power source using V2L. And use a level 2 or DC charger to top up.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Two things you could do to get _some_ charging from a lower powered (cheaper) battery bank or power source :
1) Set the current limit on the granny cable - different GCs have different settings available, the minimum possible (due to the J1772 protocol) is 6 amps.
2) Set the battery bank/source to output 110v - most cars' onboard chargers will accept this, and it haves the minimum power at which some charging is possible, . as the J1772 6A limit is regardless of voltage.
On many cars, charging at low powers can be pretty inefficient due to the power drawn by the systems that are on while charging.

[MichaelEricMenk]

An EVSE can, according to the standard, request a current draw of 6A and upwards in 1A steps..

In other words, with the correct EVSE you need an inverter that can sustain 1400W continually..

As far as I know the inverter they used in the video is 600W.

Bjørn Nyland (AKA Tesla Bjørn) uses portable AC power banks (AKA "Solar Generator") to recharge the cars after he tests how they have implemented their low battery shutdown.

[lmaoroflcopter]

This is more of an advert for a jackery battery pack than an advert for the kite X! 😂

The kite X looks less portable than a non portable setup 😅

[busog]

Such a great adventure with friends -- putting together a wind turbine! KiteX- a portable wind turbine... Amazing! Thank you for showing what wonderful things are being developed AND already being used. Love your enthusiasm, Mr. Llewellyn.

[zapfanzapfan]

I hate putting up tents with all the lines and weak tubing falling apart. This is putting up a tent squared!

Can you try a foldout solar panel next?
"A" for effort and entertainment though 🙂

[Mrianmarshall]

You could of pointed out the farmer working in the background was using one of the most up to date technology to sow crops with one of the lowest co2 footprint. Not say I hope he’s not spaying toxic chemicals
You could spend some time investigating it and you may find farmers are doing a lot to lower their co2 emissions.
And as you said in a previous episode the farm spewing fumes with his tractor and doesn’t care.
His tractor will have add blu. Admittedly this is not perfect but at this point it’s the best and only option the farmer has.
Because there’s no production of electric or hydrogen tractors.
Maybe Samsungs new 500w per kg battery could change that in the future I hope so

[randymch]

In my humble opinion there is a MASSIVE gap in the UK market for a reliable self-limiting wind turbine that can generate a solid 150-500Watts in decent wind.

People with an acre or more are generally screaming out for a wind turbine to compliment their solar PV.

Alas, I dont think this does the job.

Harmony Turbines in the USA have got me quite excited but they're still in development plus I'm not entirely sure they're wanting to export to the UK.

Every new housing development should include a 10kW turbine where a small maintenance fee is included in the contract.

[deanbrayshaw]

As another of your TV programmes would say - Proper Job 😁