So, a couple of guys who came out to the property and saw our creek suggested we should look into powering up with hydroelectric using a Pelton Wheel. Anyone out there doing that, or do you have any links I could explore?
I have only seen a few of these on the web. I had a nice one b'marked but I don't know what I've done with it. d* I do remember it was located someplace where it froze; ID maybe? They had to build a small dam to get a pool deep enough to have liquid water at the pipe intake in the winter. It worked all year round. They used a UV sterilizer sytem for sanitizing the water.
and maybe their first dam attempt washed away the first spring? ??? ??? ???
I saw a really neat hydro-electric setup near Creede Colorado at a place called 30-Mile Resort. They didn't use a dam to generate head pressure. They ran a big pipe upstream and diverted some water into the pipe.
I don't know what sort of pressure and flow rate you would need, but as long as the stream is capable of that flow rate you are good to go.
-f-
The pipe is what I had in mind.
Here is the Wiki link. I have seen a simular type of configuration (the wheel) used for a wind generator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelton_wheel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelton_wheel)
Hmmm... operation through the winter would be tough, even if you built a dam or buried your pipe. I would think that the wheel would get quite a coating of ice.
Would be fun to play with though!
-f-
Found this company on the internet. I am now trying to find out how we measure our rate of flow. Using hydroelectric power makes sense along with solar because we have lots of sun/lazy creek in the summer, no sun/close to whitewater in the winter.
http://www.utilityfree.com/hydro/
Creative, you build a small dam and use a notched weir to measure the flow. I used to do it once in a while when well drilling and air lift pumping. Make the weir out of a board - plywood etc. Nothing fancy req'd.
Here is a calculator and instructions that I think will work.
http://www.lmnoeng.com/Weirs/vweir.htm
Quote from: NM_Shooter on November 21, 2008, 06:18:57 PM
Hmmm... operation through the winter would be tough, even if you built a dam or buried your pipe. I would think that the wheel would get quite a coating of ice.
Would be fun to play with though!
-f-
As long as the intake to the pipe has sufficient water covering it and there is an insulated box (house) for the gen. unit, While the generator is making current it will make heat as well and should warm a small enclosure enough to keep ice from building up.
A rancher I knew had a water/generator he built for his round up cabin on the Nev. border. He had a concrete spillway with his wheel (couldn't see it) permenantly mounted inside and a Love Joy style coupler on the outside he just slipped the gen. unit (Made from an old generator that had thrown a rod that he gutted, cut the crank and attached the matching Love Joy to the stub) over some rods and had two big springs he told me he stole off his grandsons rocking horse to keep it pulled up to the coupler. We would ride UP, I mean UUUUUUP stream and he would take some rocks off of a pipe and when we rode back to the cabin the lights would be on, Not exactly sure how he set it up but it worked the whole week were there both years I helped him gather cattle. One year we had a foot of snow and day time highs were in the teens with a wind chill temp. similar to a tax collerctors heart! ;)
I suggest the following video:
Residential MICRO-HYDROPOWER with Don Harris
There are a number of sources. Here is one:
http://www.econsciousmarket.com/site/Vendors/Sustainable_Village/Residential_MicrohydroPower_with_Don_Harris-DVD/
-Dave