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Three-phase motor windmill

(Click to enlarge photo)

Now we come to one of my more recent machines. This is half of what will become a dual output machine. Once again, costs rule the design, so the rotating base is a car front wheel mounting (you can see the disk brake in the close-up). The generator is a standard 2kW three phase motor sealed to IPW55 (Ingress Protection Water), and produces power using a method known as asynchronous generation. This is a very simple form of generation and does not require any special electronics so it is cheap, reliable, and can easily match the input power to the propeller during storms. The propeller is of a welded construction (please see my section on propellers), and taper-mounted with accurate twists to allow high speed rotation. The diameter is my predictable 1.2m as I have found that to be the best size to balance reliability against power.