Windmill Efficiency

The hypothesis of this project states that the longest windmill blades will produce the most electrical output. This research project was designed to find which length of windmill blade would provide the most electricity so that wind energy would be used instead of using up coal, natural gas, and oil.

Three different lengths wind mill blades were built. Each had four blades. They measured 5 inches, 7 inches, and 9 inches. A base and post were built. A motor was placed on top of the post. A voltmeter was secured to the motor. Each windmill apparatus was placed onto the post of the motor. A fan was used to make the wind at high speed, then low speed. The blades spun and electrical output was measured in the 2000m DCV range on the voltmeter and recorded.

The graphs were made by plotting voltage readings against the high and the low fan settings over 10 trials each. The results of testing showed that with the fan on high and low fan settings the longest blades produced the least output at the high settings.