Wind Turbines, Are They Not All The Same?

There are several different types of windmills out there and it is hard to know which one would be a great fit for your location. There are so many different ones you can go with and it all depends on where your property is situated. So what are the different windmills out there to choose from? First, we can seperate them into two different categories, horizontal and vertical axis.

Horizontal axis windmills are your typical windmills that are designed with one to twenty blades that sit up high on a tower. These are designed to have all of its equipment installed high in the air where the tower is situated. That is the place where it collects all of its power and then moves it down the tower to a generator to store the energy for later use. Horizontal axis windmills consist of three major types and all three types of wind turbines are created in a way that must be pointed in the wind to be effective. The three types are:

Classical modern - are those wind mills you usually see on the side of the road. These windmills usually consist of 1-3 blades that rotate around to gain its energy.
Horizontal Darrieus - is a wind turbine altered by having 6 blades.
Pumping wind turbine - is a wind turbine with twenty blades.

Vertical axis windmills are less common. These wind turbines are designed to have blades going from the bottom of the mill to the top. This allows the blades on the windmill to rotate when the wind blows from any direction. This gives the vertical axis wind turbine a large advantage over the horizontal axis. There are five major types vertical axis wind mills which are:

Aerofoil - this wind turbine has ten blades. These ten blades sit on top of a tower and rotate in a vertical manor.
Windside - this wind turbine has 2 blades with material between the blade and tower making it look like a rolled up flag spinning.
Helical - this wind turbine is designed to have 3 blades joined from the top to the bottom of the tower slanted at different angles.
Savonius - Savonius and the vertical rotor wind turbines are going to look similar with having 2-3 blades that twist vertically.
Vertical Rotor - has 2-3 blades that twist vertically.

Now, it is clear on how many various types of wind mills have been created over time. As technology grows people are able to start creating wind turbines that create electricity with minimum amount of wind. As of today, there are windmills that can generate electricity with merely 6 mph wind speeds! This is going to give people the ability to stop relying on the power company and start making their own energy at no cost!