Wind Mill

Wind Mills are Generators that utilize the energy of the wind to produce EU. It is the hardest type of generators to deal with, depending greatly upon both placement (obstructions and height) and luck (wind strength). However if well managed it is the most powerful green generator.

## Usage

Optionally place any IC² electrical item in the upper slot. The Wind Mill will charge it or output power at a rate of 0-11 EU/t depending on placement and weather conditions.

 **Storage** | -

## Detailed Mechanics

* Windmills below sea level (64) will not generate any energy.
* The best way to retrieve the energy from the wind mill is through the bottom because the windmill is only affected by two air blocks beneath it.
* A Wind Mill will produce on average 480 EU multiplied by its height on the world minus 64 per minecraft day. (480 \* [h-64])

This number varies **greatly** due to the unpredictable and constantly changing wind strength in the world; this number can be anything from 0 to 960 EU. (Although numbers far below 240 or far above 740 are uncommon).

* A Wind Mill's efficiency can be hindered by any kind of block placed in a 9x9x7 area around it.

It's best to have the cable from the Wind Mill underneath it and down at least two blocks before turning.

* For each obstructing block, a Wind Mill's effective height lowers by 1.

* A Wind Mill treats non-block items like torches and Redstone wires as obstructions too.

* A Wind Mill doesn't treat the roof of the world as an obstruction.

* Wind Mills produce 50% extra EU/t in a thunderstorm, and 20% when it's raining but not in a thunderstorm.

* **If a wind mill produces more than 5 EU/t, it has a chance of breaking.** If a wind mill's effective height is no more than 147 (149 not counting the two cables underneath it), it cannot break.

### Examples

1. A Wind Mill placed as high as possible (layer 256), with no obstructions (apart from the 2 cable blocks under the wind mill) will produce roughly 91200 EU (480 \* [254-64]) a day or 3.8 EU/t overall.
2. A Wind Mill placed on tower setup will produce on average 39840 EU a day or 1.66 EU/t overall. This setup power generation is a bit low due to safety (aka wind mill breaking) restrictions.

## Height and Power Transfer

First, always use tin cables to transfer energy from windmills to an energy relay (Transformers). Maximum cable length between windmills and transformers is 39 blocks. Be careful to not exceed tin cable maximum packet size, which is 6 EU, so don't place your windmills too high or they will ocasionally melt the wire.

To people with considerable amount of resources :

Use Reverted MV transformers (or HV transformers) as energy relays and glass fiber cables to transfer the energy to ground level, which will be received by MFSUs or MassFab.

If you don't have much resources and is willing to use windpower do the following :

Use Reverted HV transformers as energy relays (Be careful, Extreme voltage, do NOT connect directly to a mass fab) and 4x Insulated HV cables to send the energy down to ground level, which will be received by another HV transformer to be converted down to HV. After that glass fiber is extremely recommended.

## Technical Details (IC² v1.112 | MC 1.4.6)

### Wind Strength

* Minimum strength is 0, Maximum is 30.
* Modified every 128 ticks (About 6.4 seconds)
* Chance to increase or decrease by 1.
* 10% chance to increase if current strength is 0 to 20.
* 10% chance to decrease if current strength is 10 to 30.
* Current strength of 0 to 9 have (current strength)% chance to decrease in strength. (E.g. 0 current strength has 0% chance to decrease, 1 = 1% to decrease, ..., 9 = 9%)
* Current strength of 21 to 30 have (30 - current strength)% chance to increase in strength. (E.g. 21 current strength has 9% chance to increase, 22 = 8% to increase, ..., 30 = 0%)

### Power

* Calculated every 128 ticks (About 6.4 seconds)
* Minimum power is 0, Maximum is 11.46 (y: 255, obstructions: 0, and thundering), **Maximum safe is 4.98 (y: 147**, obstructions: 0, and thundering). Maximum safe, with 2 cables, is 4.98 (y: 149, obstructions: 2, and thundering). Maximum safe, with 2 cables, is y = 191 if you wish to ignore high wind and rain storms.
* Calculation is: power = s \* (y - 64 - c) / 750; '**s' is Wind Strength**, '**y' is Block Height**, and 'c' is number of blocks (not including the windmill itself) in a 9x9x7 area around the windmill.
* Power has a 50% (\* 1.5) increase if it is thundering, 20% (\* 1.2) increase if it is raining.
* If the power is higher than 5, there is a 0% to 0.1292% chance (chance based on power) to change the windmill to a generator and drop 0 to 4 iron ingots.

## Tutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvKVe7oA6LY&feature=youtu.be

***Wind Tower setups ("compact" windmills) by SpwnX***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcM5xwgaXY8

## See also:

Kinetic Wind Generator (**Wind Mill** replace for IC2 Experimental)