7 Responses to “DIY Windmills Are Cheap & Work Great. Build a Homemade Windmill”

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  1. graclu312

    Why do windmills have three blades? Wouldn't more blades be better? In theory, more blades would generate more torque, so the benefit would be there, even factoring in friction. You can think of it as though each blade offers a given amount of force that converts to torque. Each blade you add offers a little more, until the blades become too crowded to get the benefits of the air passing by. The main reason large windmills have less blades is that 1) they’ve less weight being supported, making them less likely to fail (i.e., fall down), and 2) less cost from less materials. The benefits you get from more blades aren’t that much, compared to the increase in cost.

  2. lelafa252

    Rick Roberts came to my attention via the Flying Burritos , he was the singer after Gram left . Rick’s songwriting prowess lifted the remaining Burritos from a good band to a great band and when he left to go solo it was the real end for them. Windmills is stronger than She’s a Song (probably due to the inexperience of the latters producer) but the songs are all shining examples of the West Coast Country idiom before the Eagles polished it out of existence. The session players are all top musicians and the songwriting is up there with the best. Sail Away is simple but a tour de force from Bass player Leland Sklar (who effectively plays lead throughout this beautiful song) and Jenny’s Blues as good as anything JD Souther wrote.

  3. graclu312

    A windmill is an ancient device for grinding corn, sawing logs, or other low-speed application. These often have many blades, vanes, or sails fitted in various ways. If you’re looking at a machine with only 3 narrow blades, it’s called a Wind Turbine, and most of these are for generating electricity. A wind electric turbine is emphatically NOT a “windmill.” In wind electric turbines, the optimum speed of operation calls for long, narrow blades, and the simplest way to construct one so as to be easy to balance and easy to assemble is to fit it with 2 or 3 blades. At these speeds, it’s the “disc area” rather than the surface area of the combined blades that determines the power output, like an airplane propeller. So the fewer blades of a certain length, the better.

  4. dpool799

    Dan Lombardo’s “Windmills of New England: Their Genius, Madness, History & Future” is written in a very scholarly manner, yet it’s obviously a labor of love and as a result he has created a fun and interesting read. This blog has something for everyone. Not only is it full of history and wonderful historical photographs for the history buff, but there are literary elements here as well. Mr. Lombardo has collected a compendium of windmill sayings for the reader to discover the origins of “Daily Grind”, “Rule of Thumb” and many more. I also enjoyed the easy-to-understand explanations of how windmills and wind turbines work, along with the glossary of windmill terms. He really makes the history come alive and presents wind power in a historical context.This beautiful, oversized cloth blog makes a wonderful read. I am excited for warmer weather, so I can try the driving tours that are provided at the end of the blog for Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

  5. barle951

    I read this somewhere, it said something like: two or three blades are the most efficient, if there are more, the blades would prevent wind reaching the blades next to it, affecting all the blades.

  6. suzanneb538

    Little Chute Windmill. Little Chute Windmill, Inc. Is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising 2.8 million dollars to build an authentic functioning Dutch windmill and heritage

  7. clarchan526

    No, the extra weight from the baldes causing friction on the gear counteracts any benefit from having more blades.

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