How Do Windmills Work

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How Do Windmills Work?

Windmills were formerly used in ancient times to pump water out of the ground to irrigate systems and to grind wheat. Due to progress and technology, people have found another way to utilize these windmills. Through innovation we have been able to produce electricity. But how do windmills works?

Wind energy is a renewable kind of energy and it is a powerful source as well. It is considered as one of the most practical and ideal sources because it produces zero emission and it is abundantly free. The best thing about the structure is that it can reduce the power bill of any home by 50 to 80 percent.

Read how you can build your own wind generator in one weekend

Windmill - Basic Structure 

Before we tackle how windmills work, it is best to describe them and their components to give us a general idea of how they work. Basically this structure consists of 2 to 3 blades that are connected onto a shaft. These blades are used to collect the wind energy that flows over them. The shaft meanwhile is wired into a generator, which then is linked into a battery. The generator is also called the heart of such a mechanism, as it is the one that converts the energy gathered.

Upon gathering and converting, a battery is needed for storing all the collected energy, which then can be connected or linked into a home's electrical system.

The Sequence On How Do Windmills Work 

- First of all, it slows down the speed of the wind using the blades, which work similarly as airplane's propellers.

- When the wind flows over the blades, these blades collect kinetic energy.

- Then the blades, which are linked onto a drive shaft, revolve slowly and send a lot of the turning force into the gearbox.

- The gearbox then modifies this turning force, and instead of turning slowly with a lot of force in every revolution, it goes faster with less force in every revolution.

- At that moment, the generator, which is connected to the gearbox, creates electricity through the many magnets and copper wires inside of it.

Important Factors Of How Do Windmills Work 

An important factor that plays a vital role on the way this machine works is the size of the structure itself, as the amount of electricity produced depends upon it. The bigger it is, the stronger it can drive the shaft, which means the greater electricity it can produce.

You might also notice that some windmills are situated on top of valleys and mountains. This is because the mixture of hot and cold air can create moving air. Sometimes they are placed near bodies of water, because this also generates wind due to the change in temperature brought about by the sea and the sun.

Windmills Equal Up To 100 Megawatts Of Electricity 

A noteworthy fact on how do windmills work is that a single turbine can produce 100 megawatts of electricity. Imagine then how much electricity a wind farm with large turbines grouped together can produce to provide bulk power to an electrical grid.

Click here to discover how you can build your own windmill generator in one weekend

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