Anyone have a small hydro electric system?

[Ktm rider]

My Sister in CA has enough solar capacity to run her whole house plus some, but if the grid goes down at night, their 22KW generator fires up and runs. Batteries would require an additional investment and maintenance issues that would affect their "retired lifestyle".
We all have to choose what we have available and what works for us, within our means.
David from jax

wait, wouldn’t the 22kw generator cost a pretty penny ? Then the fuel costs in todays prices would add up quickly.
While the new lithium phosphates are very pricey there is virtually zero maintenance involved. They are leaps and bounds better than lead acid batteries and even AGM batteries.

 

[check]

I could generate lots of power in the Spring, when the creek directly in front of my place just roars, but not in the summer when it goes down to a trickle.

 

[bdhsfz6]

you might be surprised the amount of power your creek can generate. Have you done any measurements? If so what are they? As far as storing the power, in my system I have six LifePo4 lithium phosphate batteries. You’re right that they are very expensive, they were the single biggest expense in my entire system. However, there is no maintenance at all with these batteries.
i Don’t understand what you mean when you say you would have to use your generator also ( unless you plan on going totally offgrid)
my inverter will “blend” power from the grid if for some reason I’m not making enough power with my system.
if you wanna discuss further you can PM ,me and i will give you a call. I am by no means a professional and I also have a lot to learn about it but I’ll answer what I can and I can turn you on to the guy I bought all my equipment from. He is a pro and has been working with this stuff for years

When I said home "generated power", I was referring to the hydro, wind or solar options, not a backup generator.

Blending equipment must be approved by the local power company, as does anything connected to the grid. It is a possibility though depending on the cost, but I'll look into it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[ponytug]

FWIW: I have roughly 40kWh of battery storage attached to our solar (a grid tied system). Costs on batteries have come way down, and there are reasonable options these days to roll your own battery from an electric car battery, e.g. a Leaf, especially if you aren't connected to the grid any longer.

A small hydropower system and batteries go a long, long way toward grid independence, and adding in a different source, e.g. solar can make a huge difference. 6kW of solar makes us grid positive for the year, and energy exporters for about eight months of the year.

The flip side to generating is consumption. You can get by on less power, if you have gone through your home to make it efficient. (LED lights, well insulated, etc.) I know of one person who put a cheap power controller ($40) on a chest freezer to make it into a refrigerator that used something like 160Wh of energy per day to keep his food cool. Of course, there are trade offs in terms of costs in efficiency vs adding more generating power and storage. I find these decisions are very local, what meets your needs will be different from the next person's needs.

Don't forget to look around for local energy programs and grants. About 90% of our battery and installation costs, wiring, two new service panels, breakers, etc., were paid for by our utility.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Roric]

I am a believer in lithium battery storage but found them to be too high priced. Even with a tax credit,
it was not a good fit for my grid-tied system. I bought a 5200/4000-watt inverter generator to be used in case of a power outage.
We have lost power rarely here, except for intermittent hiccups. Installed a twist lock receptacle and a manual transfer switch. It should cover emergency demands of our house including 240-volt loads such as the well pump and lift pump. Load calculations says lights and heating will be covered too.

I may go with the batteries at a later date, but I hope that soon electric cars will be able to provide power to the grid and power to the home. Then my battery back-up will be in the car in the garage.

Things never move as fast as I am led to believe. I still await my flying car. Oh well.

Regards,

R

 

[sandman2234]

wait, wouldn’t the 22kw generator cost a pretty penny ? Then the fuel costs in todays prices would add up quickly.
While the new lithium phosphates are very pricey there is virtually zero maintenance involved. They are leaps and bounds better than lead acid batteries and even AGM batteries.

Yes, the 22KW generator costs a pretty penny, and isn't cheap to run, but it is only needed when the grid is down at night. The solar panels carry the house during the day, but don't do much in the dark. They could have gone with batteries instead of the generator, but a generator maintenance program is cheaper than the battery maintenance program!
David from jax

 

[Ktm rider]

I could generate lots of power in the Spring, when the creek directly in front of my place just roars, but not in the summer when it goes down to a trickle.

That’s exactly why I added 20 solar panels in my system

 

[Ktm rider]

Here is a pic of my weir and Coanda box. This is my typical flow from now till June. I don’t have the valve open yet in this video however but everything looks great up at this end

 

[MossRoad]

You may want to look into it again. you can make power with very little head if you have decent flow. That low head turbines have come a long way recently

Yep, you need force. That's developed by drop (head) or flow (gallons/feet per minute). We have a creek on our property that has neither. It only drops maybe an inch in a couple hundred yards on our place. Only about a 2-3 mph flow. If I could dam it up, and force it through a pipe, I could get some force, but that's agains the law here, as it's a county ditch and would back-flood people up stream.

 

[MossRoad]

Here is a pic of my weir and Coanda box. This is my typical flow from now till June. I don’t have the valve open yet in this video however but everything looks great up at this end

Boy that's nice!