Home Made Water-Wheel Electricity...

[ultrarunner]

While visiting a cousin's farm I notice there was a small lined creek nearby and asked about it

The creek belongs to what was once a Blacksmith Shop and powered the shop going back 150 years...

I told my cousin I was interested in seeing the water wheel in action just as her neighbor, Mr. Smith was driving by...

The House/Shop is not really used for blacksmith work anymore... the water wheel is connected to a large 480 volt DC generator that runs day and night and powers a heating coil which heats the domestic water and heats the entire home via radiant floor heating...

It also has the capability to produce electricity, but no longer used for that because the current varies and it's DC. The system is set up to be very low maintenance.

He showed me the records going back generations and about every 40 years the wheel is replaced...

Kind of got my imagination going... now if I can only find a source of water and build a water wheel???

 

[wjoerob]

I was interested too in what's now called "microhydro" power. There are several sites, and products that can generate electricity to be stored in a battery array. This COULD be much cheaper to set up than solar, and of course solar is not dependable in many states like ours. Seems like a natural, with all that flowing energy going by, untapped power 24/7!

The problem turned out to be that my little creek varies too much in size, getting way out of its banks when it floods, and going down to a trickle other times.

 

[2manyrocks]

I think you're talking about those Delco DC alternators that they use with water wheels to recharge golf cart or similar heavy storage batteries for off grid power. Pretty neat idea.

 

[caver]

You might like Jim's micro hydro system. I saw it in person while passing through the area years ago.

 

[MikeD74T]

The problem turned out to be that my little creek varies too much in size, getting way out of its banks when it floods, and going down to a trickle other times.

I have an interest in micro-hydropower & a similar problem with my brook. I'm planning to dam it up enough to create a 12" drop in low water with the water discharging thru a trough. The wheel & alternator will be mounted on a raft, like a paddlewheel boat, that is tethered in the trough at low water but can rise with the brook level - which varies by 3-4 feet seasonally. Am going to power a couple small 12v lights in my covered bridge & put the rest into resistance heating.
There are also submersible turbines, basically a propellor in a pipe that lays in the creek bottom parallel with the current. MikeD74T

 

[/pine]

[fwiw]
while researching the fabrication of a water wheel several years ago I ran across an interesting factoid...

The number if blades/paddles in a water wheel should be a prime number...without going back and finding the material I can't cite the exact reasoning but it has something to do with the harmonic balance...

It may not be as pertinent for a home use water wheel as it is in a jet engine turbofan but I found it interesting...

 

[jimmyj]

Very interesting. Could you make a big "wheel" to have the air rotate? Sort of like a water wheel version of a windmill? Maybe made of 1/2 45 gallong drums or something?

(Sorry, a bit of a hijack)

We have freinds who have an old mill like the one in this thread. It's run by a strong flowing stream and they sell the electricity back through the grid. I don't know about the mechanicals but it is very neat.

 

[Ductape]

As an ignoramous question....... wouldn't must states require some foolish jumping-through-hoops permitting process for you to use hydro power, even if its on your own property . I ask because I was thinking of using it when my wife and I were looking at very remote properties in the past.

 

[MossRoad]

As an ignoramous question....... wouldn't must states require some foolish jumping-through-hoops permitting process for you to use hydro power, even if its on your own property . I ask because I was thinking of using it when my wife and I were looking at very remote properties in the past.

I imagine there are different rules/regs everywhere. For example, I have a drainage ditch running through my property. I doubt it drops an inch in a few hundred yards. If I were to dam it up to make a pond to generate electricity, it would flood a hundred properties upstream of us. So here, you cannot dam up a stream or ditch without going through some giant hoops. However, if I could dam it up and the flood waters would only flood my property, there would not be a problem.

If I lived where there was a stream on my property that dropped a couple/three feet or more within the confines of my property, I would look into diverting the water through a penstock to power a wheel or turbine with the gravity drop.

 

[hr3]

Indiana,, I think your better suited for wind there arn't you???