Tell me about windmills

[Susan-V]

I am wondering how a windmill could be used to make electricity? How many would it take for an average household of say four people? Would this be complicated to do? Would you have to live near a waterfall and if you did could you use wind power and water power? Would you be able to heat your home and cook from this power? And finally could you put a cage around the windmill so that it didn't kill the birds?

[PaulYukochan]

THere are wind power generators in the uk. They are those big white things - not technically windmills, as they don't function as mills. You don't need to be near water for wind power, but you can create hyrdo electric power using either tide or falling water - turbines. Check out the book, 'the way things work' which features pictures and explanations. I htink the technology may still be a bit expensive - what aboout a solar cell

[j2buttonsw]

The cage is an interesting idea, perhaps the lack of it accounts for the absence of dead birds on the streets(question 22895 they are all mashed up by windmill blades.

[KARL]

Nice question. There are various ways to do this but a very simple DIY way, for example in remote areas, is to fix an alternator from a vehicle to the tower and have it turned by a belt linking the blade axix and the alternator. You would then charge up ordinary 12V batteries (truck, van or car type), probably several in a parallel set-up. This wouldf give you enough power at least for lighting but in DC. For AC (like on the mains in towns, etc.) you could hook up an "inverter" which converts 12V DC to 230 AC in a simulated fashion which is close enough for most purposes. If you need substantial power (e.g. for heating or cooking) then you will need a larger installation, either with the arrangement repeated to add up to a larger total, or else a purpose made wind generator large enough to meet your demand. Both wind and water power genetors are available commercially but in this country there is some sort of absurd legal obstacle to generating mains voltage direct. Finally, there is a company developing a gas powered generator small enough to serve a normal household and using waste heat for domestic heating to boot - if these were adopted nationwide there would apparently be an enormous reduction in emissions because so much power is lost in transmitting to the grid, etc .