Well I know it is an old post,but I just read it and have to leave a comment about it.All of you who said the wheel chair motor would not work as a windmill power plant well YOU ARE WAY WRONG!It made an awesome one for me.It was made from a Invacare wheel chail.I got two motors out of one chair.The bearings and all are inside the motor casing,so ripping the reduction gears off is no problem.In fact I was able to use some of those gears to add a little more rpms to the whole assembly.Just by switching the gears inside the reduction hosing on the shafts mounted inside the box.I ended up getting about 500 to 600 rpms out of a 15 mph wind that will produce about 400 watts of free power.15 mph winds is a calm day up here,and when the Santa Anna Winds start to push through I am pushing close to a 1000 watts.I have two windmills that I have made from the same wheel chair and on good nights I can run just off the mills with no power usage from the electric company(I even run around and leave all my lights on just because I can)My electric bill is about on average $15 bucks a month.Most people hate to see that electric bill come,but not me I LOVE to see it come.So as far as wheel chairs not making good windmills that is a bunch of garbage!They make some of the best ones.My windmills produce power when there is only 1 to 2 mph winds.They are excellent for windmills.The only bad thing I can see is the fact that they do run motor brushes that will ware out some time,but they cost about $3.50 for a new set,and have built mills in such a way that they can be changed in a matter of 10 min's time.For 2 free wind mills that is pretty dang good.
One more thing for all of you building your own windmills out there try using a clutch drive off a chainsaw and mounting it on you shaft and weld the outer casing to your frame. Works like a brake instead of starting the chain when you rev the engine it will brake the windmill when it goes to fast(works great).with the winds up hear hitting 60 to 70 mph for days and days I really needed that brake assembly to work and not fail,and not much is stronger that a chainsaw clutch(maybe a snowmobile clutch)that will come on with the next generation of windmills I build!
WORK HARD FOR FREE POWER....PEACE EVERYBODY
