▲ | norome 17 hours ago | |||||||
Would be great if someone could build wind turbines to look like the windmills of old | ||||||||
▲ | aqme28 16 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||
Those are really short and therefore much less efficient. Wind power scales as a cube with speed, and speed scales as a power with height. A little more height can make a big difference. | ||||||||
▲ | bluGill 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |||||||
What type of windmill of old? They look like a scaled up Jacobs wind system from the 1920s. No surprise, Jacob's wind got a lot of things right back then. If you mean the old water pumps used in the American west (they are still made today!), those are good for water pumping because they produce high torque in low winds, but they make less horsepower and that is what we care about. If you mean the Dutch style windmills/houses, we could do that, but the big house blocks a lot of wind and so it is not efficient. I can't think of any other style of old windmill. However if you can the answer to your question is likely because that style is much less efficient. | ||||||||
▲ | robin_reala 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||
Why? Presumably we’re trying to optimise on generated power? | ||||||||
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