Wind generators are a great way to help cut down the costs of your energy bills as well as to help you to reduce your carbon foot print and save the environment. Wind generators have been used for many years now and a lot of people are turning to wind power to use for their own homes. But what is the best wind generator for you? There are several wind generator designs available, but the two most commonly used wind generators are horizontal axis wind turbines and vertical axis wind turbines which are not used quite as much but still do the job just as well. Take a look at this article to find out a little bit more about wind generator designs.
Horizontal axis: a horizontal axis wind generator will usually have the rotor shaft and the electrical generator at the top of a tower which is then pointed in the direction of the wind. Small wind generators or turbines are often pointed by a wind vane, although some newer designs do not need a tail vane at all. Larger horizontal axis wind turbines or HAWT tend to use a wind sensor together with a servo motor. Most of these designs have a gear box which turns the blades of the wind generator fast enough to produce a drive big enough to power an electric generator. A tower wind generator designs produces a lot of turbulence behind it and this will mean that the generator is then placed upwind of the tower. The blades of the turbine will be stiff to reduce the chance of the blades being pushed into the tower by excessive winds. The blades are usually placed a good distance in front of the tower and are tilted upwards slightly. You can also get downwind wind generator designs which are good because they don’t require an additional mechanism in order to keep them lined up with the wind and also because during high winds, the blades can bend which in turn helps to reduce the wind resistance. Most horizontal axis wind turbines are made with upwind designs. There are many sub types of the HAWT wind generator designs as well.
Vertical axis wind turbines: these designs tend to have the main rotor shaft placed vertically and the advantage of this is that the turbine doesn’t need to be pointed in the direction of the wind in order to work. These types of turbines are good for use on sites where the wind direction changes a lot because vertical axis turbines can use winds from all directions. Because of the design of the vertical axis it is hard to mount these turbines onto towers which mean that they usually need to be installed closer to the base where they rest on the ground or a roof of a building. These designs can make it easy to access the mechanical components, but the wind speed is usually slower which means that less energy from the wind is collected depending on the size of the turbine.
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