MircoHydro Applicatons to Solar and Battery Bank

Fritzgerald R Bernadel

Fritzgerald R Bernadel

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Joined
Jan 19, 2018
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Living i Haiti it has been difficult to collect used 18650 batteries or scrap of that sort.
:huh: While figuring out the WHYwe have no electric scrap or medical scrap.!!?!
Iwas offered the opportunity to build a Microhydro generatorto a current solar setup.

The source:

image_bfkntn.jpg


:idea:Any ideas.
 
Well first you need a large enough stream or river. I hope you live in an area where this is easily accessible. Second, there are many routes to build one. You can buy premade parts, or build one using a car alternator. Many many designs, especially with the wheel and gearing setups.

I suggest looking up Microhydro Generator on youtube as there are tons of videos on the topic.
 
I did come across this one just now.


It's just the connecting of the pipes and some general setup, but he's got a good system by the looks of it. Check it out and maybe get some ideas.

I wish I could hydro here, but our land is too flat to do it.
 
Korishan,Yeahi did find him too on youtude. Planning towatch some more of his videos.
:idea: For flat lands! Iwondered if at the bottom of a water tower you could produce hydro power recycling same waster.
 
I thought about cycling the water. Just not entirely sure how to do it. Problem is that it'd take just as much energy to push the water back up as it produces. Otherwise, it'd be perpetual, and we can't have that, now can we :p

Altho, if a wind turbine could help pump some water around, that'd help. Albeit, not a power turbine, but just a water turbine. Not sure if that'd be feasible either.

However, I have thought of another option, but it'd only work during the raining seasons here in Fl (aka, hurricane season). Have some large water totes that collect the water from the roofs, garage, green house, etc and then use that to drive the water turbine. But, not sure how much water I'd need to power for any great length of time.
 
Korishan said:
... Problem is that it'd take just as much energy to push the water back up as it produces....
Click to expand...

That's not a problem... it's a battery....
A solar or wind or water driven pump toelevate water to a higer reservoir, and use gravity at night to generate power with a hydro generator (kind of the same thing as a pump) and voila... you have a battery. :)
 
It takes energy to move water up to the reservoir. The amount energy needed to take it from ground level to the reservoir would be equal to or greater than the amount it generates. Otherwise, it'd be a perpetual motion machine or an Energy-From-Nothing machine.

Sure, a battery would work, but that battery needs to be charged. It gets its charge from the hydroplant (or other source). So you'd not really be saving or making energy. It'd be a net loss in the end.

Now, if it was built for just looks and a great lawn ornament, that'd be great.
 
Hello,
I have a small Pelton turbine here in France. My head is 64m, and water flow is 1 to 3 liters/second
there is a small equation for power calculation :

Lets say for example that you have a flow of 20 litres per second with a head of 12 metres.
12 meters x 20 liters/second x (9.81 (gravity)) = 2354 Watts
This result is for 100% efficiency
Most of time efficiency is around 60 / 70%
I have a few video about my turbine :

 
Thank you! great ideas. i been reading on microhydro much information on the internet. the hydro generator does need constant load, excess power has to be defused in heating or cooling units also need of load ballast. having a pump drive water back to the system in theory wouldn't be wasting power.
seems there are a couple mircohydro systems on the rise. low head with good watt generation.
 
In the following videos from the author I posted earlier, he states that in his build, he does not need a constant load as the generator was built to freely spin w/o blowing itself apart. Perhaps watching more of his videos or asking him directly how he did that, might be a good source of valuable information for your build.
 
Water is generally not affected in same way as wind systems are. Water systems often have a limitation of the pipes and all and can therefore not reach higher than xx speed and can be designed there after. Not all are though since it potentially can become useless if done so meanwhile on others they may operate at close to highest directly from start.
 
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