Anyone have any idea if a 500 to 1000 watt wind generator could be used to heat the electric elements of a GARN?

And how many batteries it might take for storage to convert it to useable AC?

 File this under things to remember;

1000 watts = 1kilowatt

1KW = 3,415 BTU

 So, if you are planning to use the 1000 watt wind generator to keep the Garn from freezing up if left unfired while you are gone, the answer would be maybe. If the Garn was super insulated......maybe

 If you are talking about using the generator to produce usable heat in the Garn the answer is no way. 1000 watts would be about half the input of only one of the elements in a Garn.

Now if you had about 50-60 of those 1000 watt wind units you could do something..........:)

Terry - 1Kw as Steve stated is no where near what you will need.  Most heating elements are 4.5Kw, and I believe the GARN specs call for 5.5Kw elements, so you will generate onely about 1/5th of the power needed to heat a single element.  The GARN backup array has ports for nine(9) elements.  Three at minimum would be needed for supplemental heating, but a single element should keep it from freezing.

Conversion from DC storage to AC power requires an inverter, which introduces at least another 20% in efficiency losses.  Not a viable option.

Generally speaking, ANY kind of electric resistive heating method is unsuitable for a low output DC generator like wind, pico-hydro, or solar.