Units

[Capt Slog]

I've read through quite a lot of the pages on here and I'm getting further along the fairly steep learning curve.

I just wanted to check a couple of things.

Wire gauges.  I'm guessing that most of you use AWG? (why wouldn't you of course!), it's just that the uk equivalent is about 1.5 to 2 numbers different.  Your 20awg is about our 22swg.

I often read something like, "6 foot prop".  

As in here

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/alt_from_scratch.htm

Does that mean 6 or 12 foot diameter?  (I've also seen it written as "6 foot blades".)

What's the convention here?

[Flux]

Yes units can be a problem, so can terminology.

Normally anything in gauge or number here will be AWG, as you say it is not the same as SWG. I don't know why we can't measure wire in diameter ( inch or mm) it would be easier, but that is how it has come about.

I agree with your other problem, it often causes confusion. The best term would probably be wind rotor, but it causes confusion with magnet rotor and alternator rotors in general.

Blades is a term I try to avoid, to me 6 ft blades means 12 ft diameter, but others don't see it that way. I tend to use prop and then I think it is fairly obvious that it means diameter. It's not strictly a prop at all but I have called it that for 60 years and will not likely change now.

The other one to watch out for is the confusion between number of magnets and poles.

With a dual rotor design a 12 pole machine will have 24 magnets, most other designs have one magnet per pole.

Normal practice is to consider wind rotors in terms of diameter, but often here it is not clear.

Flux