Jack And Jill Windmills Society - A Registered Charity

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IL 1831














SmartMolen














SmartMolen
Home
The History of Clayton Windmills
Open Days and Mid-Week visits
Current and Archive Photographs
Events
Links to Windmills in Sussex and further afield
Details of Society Membership and activities
Contact Us
Site Map
 
 

Website Design : Simon Potter & Kevin CramptonSmartMolen digital monitoring

Windmills are vulnerable to storm damage (particularly from side-winds and tail-winds) though risks are mitigated by ensuring that Sweeps are aligned towards the wind. The Fantail mechanism catches any side-wind and, through a system of gears causes the mill body to rotate, ensuring the alignment is continuous, however, in certain circumstances this can fail, leaving a mill vulnerable. Physical monitoring can be difficult due to the limited availability of personnel and the remoteness of locations.

Smartmolen

 

Jill is part of the SmartMolen scheme, a digital monitoring solution for traditional windmills, developed by members of the Friends of Upminster Windmill.

Frequent compass bearings of the direction of the Sweeps are compared to wind direction, both actual and forecast. The alignment of the Sweeps towards the wind is monitored and alerts are issued, if a risk is perceived, by means of text messages to nominated contacts.

At our request, alerts will be sent should the temperature exceed a specified threshold.

Smartmolen

The Live Dashboard page shows the live Sweep direction, Sweep rotation data, temperature and current wind conditions in both graphical and data formats, supplemented by a weather forecast at six-hourly intervals for the following three days.

Wind directions are shown by arrows, which are colour-coded to show the level of threat.

 Smartmolen

The Analysis page provides further analysis of the data captured. The three displays show an analysis of the wind speed and direction at the site since the installation of the equipment, a graph comparing wind direction with Sweep direction over the preceding 30 days and an analysis of the observed movement in relation to both the speed and angle of the wind.

This project is one of a series of undertakings supporting the restoration of Upminster Windmill. In addition to Jill and Upminster, the system has been installed at more than 30 windmills. Additional monitoring equipment has been installed at some the these mills to record the RPM of turning Sweeps and Fans as well as advising whether the Brake is on or off.

 Smartmolen

The full dashboard and analysis can be viewed here.

Below, ( technology permitting !! ), is the live SmartMolen data for Jill Windmill.