Photo of undershot waterwheel

[zbery1]

Waterwheel my DH recently installed, no drop is necessary.

[PaulNKS]

That's interesting.... What is the black box? How far is it from your house?

[zbery1]

The black thing is the cover of a boat motor that DH attached over it to protect it from the weather, It is only 2-300 ft. from the house. The culvert goes under our driveway.

[tufhelp]

The black thing is the cover of a boat motor that DH attached over it to protect it from the weather, It is only 2-300 ft. from the house. The culvert goes under our driveway.

I guess I'm coming in late - What is the outboard motor cover protecting from the weather?

[PaulNKS]

She had told me about this in a pm. Her husband built it to produce power for a dehydrator, I think is what she said. I was curious how it worked since they, and I, live off-grid.

I would like more details. Not sure how the boat motor fits in to the scheme.... does the wheel turn the boat motor and somehow produce power through the motor?????

I guess I'm just not catching on. lol

[tufhelp]

The black thing is the cover of a boat motor that DH attached over it to protect it from the weather, It is only 2-300 ft. from the house. The culvert goes under our driveway.

From the description it seems like it is just the outer cover for an outboard motor serving as a weather proof cover for something... And now armed with the info that their intent was to generate power; I'm guessing it is the electronics for the generation of the power that are being protected from the weather...

[flatwater]

Thats my take on it also Tufhelp. I know it takes a good ten mile an hour wind to generate acceptable power from a wind generater , so I wonder how fast a water wheel has to turn to get the same energy and with the 300 feet away how much power drop ? come on zbery1 Help us out here. Let us know how it's working out

[zbery1]

hello all I am the dear husbund......ok the boat motor lid is just a cover over the alternator.The alt is a permanant magnet alt made for low speed wind generation.It starts making power at just 150 rpm at 12 volts...at 350 rpm its at about 15 amps.It can be wired either dc or ac.I have it wired ac to the house and then rectified to dc.Doing this i can use just an extention cord for the wire runing to the house.Dc would use very large wire.it is about 150 feet from the house.I use two heat coils for the divertion load...that I use to heat a dehyderator and just vent it out when not in use.The wheel is 4 feet in diameter and 2 feet wide.You can see one just like it on you tube under water wheels.It has been very dry here this year and I only have 1/2 inch of water running through right not and it is still turning.

[zbery1]

the wheel is stepped up two times with motor cycle sprockets.I am going form a 2 inch to a 10 inch twice.The way i figure it it is stepped up about 10 times what the speed of the wheel is.I get about 300 rpm out of it with about 3 inches of water.If you turn your finger in a circle and count you will see 150 rpm is very slow and that is where it starts making power.It works great...With 2 inches of water 2 feet wide is all it takes to work .I dont have an amp meter so I can say exacty what I am getting but at 150 rpm I am getting 3 amps at 12 volts,at 300 rpm i am getting 6 amps at 25 volts,at 500 rpm I am getting 9 amps at 42 volts at 1000rpm I am getting 15 amps at 90 volts

[zbery1]

O and with it wired ac i dont lose power on the run to the house.

[oeb]

Zbryl1's DH,
Your gizmo looks pretty interesting. I've got some more questions if you please:
1. What kind of wood is it?
2. What kind of shaft, bearings, and attachment flanges on the wheel?
3. How soon will your creek freeze over :-)?
Wishing you well,
Otis

[zbery1]

marine grade plywood with 2x2 wood screwed and glued to the outer circle and then the paddles are plywood screwed and glued to the 2x2s.it is best if you coat it with boat building epoxy ....will last for ever.5/8 shaft, block bearings .Shaft is wielded fo a peace of 1/4 steel.Thecreek will stay open through december and open back up in march.

[zbery1]

Here is a close up of the gears

[oeb]

Thanks for the pictures and explainations. Nice rig.
Otis

[Prairie]

Good idea, but I'm wondering. I though that 120-220VAC used less gauge wire and had less voltage drop due to the higher current/less amps, verses 12VDC. I didn't think it had to do with the AC/DC. I figured that residential used AC since it was a lot easier to transform into different voltages back in the day, and used 220V because of the less voltage drop through distances.

[zbery1]

If i used dc it would be at 12 volts and would not be alternating curent.Ac does not have the volt drop problems that dc does that is why it is used in the grids.If i used dc I would have to use like 4/0 instead of 10 ga .

[12vman]

Very nice! I enjoy folks building projects like this and sharing. Thank You!

[ol_hoot]

Would an automotive or tractor generator rigged up to a wheel like this get spinning enough to charge batteries ?

[gunsmoke]

MIKE BROWN

http://www.mikebrownsolutions.com/aenergy.htm

Is VERY MUCH into STEAM POWER and distilling alcohol for fuel. He publishes all manner of stuff but of particular interest to THIS discussion is

"Power Plant Prints $20.00
Build a 20 kw to 50 kw induction generator out of a used 3-phase motor, a car engine, and other parts from a junkyard, and a couple of machined adapters. Most of these units can be built for under $500.00."

That is a great undershot wheel you built please keep us informed of your progress. HYDRO is the most misunderstood of the alternative energy options and is so because the issues involved are over-complicated by those who are often motivated by the desire to sell other bforms of alternative energy like SOLAR and WIND options which IF YOU HAVE A GOOD LIVE WATER ACCESS are no where near as cost effective as hydro!

[silver wolf]

no a car, truck alt would not work un less it was wound right.I am reworking the wheel right now ....tryed gearing up and didnt have enough hp to work past the gearing i have now.I am going to try using it as a pump and run a turbine.I have found rotary hand pumps that can pump 15 gal / min at 20 psi and am going to try two of them on the wheel one on each side.Going to make a turgo type turbine to experiment with if it works I might buy a different one.Still using the pma for alternator.

[Tod]

Thanks for posting this!

I have a creek running through my property and the garden isn't far from it, so this has given me another idea for pumping water to a tank next to the garden for drip-watering.

One note: marine epoxy (such as West, MAS, System Three, or similar) will break down in UV, so it is good to coat it with paint (or UV inhibiting varnish) for long-term protection.

Tod

[gunsmoke]

You have given us an excellent example of what a motivated do it yourselfer can accomplish. Many many more people could have the opportunity to explore micro-hydro as a source of independent energy so I did a quick BING search and found a few articles for anyone who may what to explore their options best of luck to all and please keep us posted on any progress any of you may make you never know when you'll make a discovery or have an idea that can help countless others.


http://www.absak.com/library/micro-hydro-power-systems

http://www.hipowerhydro.com/

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/

http://www.microhydropower.com/

http://microhydropower.net/

http://www.absak.com/library/hydro-power