water wheels for power

[DiscusMad]

Been pondering about this for the past few week and thought of trying this for powering the heaters so the only power I'm useing in the fish shed is the water pump. I'll I have to do now is find where I can get the parts from and hooking it all up

[DiscusMad]

anybody has any idear on what would be best to use as a generator?

[valk]

Hi, DM
Just recalling from mechanical engineering study. You will need high water flow to turn the dynamo and charge the battery of some type and then covert it to the require power output such AC or DC, Amps and Voltages. Sound simply but can be very complicate. lot of calculation involved. When converting energy from one form to another there is always high losses. Don't sound to be discouraging but lots of research and stuffing around if you don't the basic.
PM if you still want to try it, I may be able to asist a little.
Regards

[valk]

Hi, DM
Just recalling from mechanical engineering study. You will need high water flow to turn the dynamo and charge the battery of some type and then covert it to the require power output such AC or DC, Amps and Voltages. Sound simply but can be very complicate. lot of calculation involved. When converting energy from one form to another there is always high losses. Don't sound to be discouraging but lots of research and stuffing around if you don't the basic.
PM if you still want to try it, I may be able to asist a little.
Regards

[Bald_noggin]

Hi DM,

I know Silicon Chip magazine did an article a while back (with in the last 2 years) on Wind Turbine's to generate electricty. You may be able to adapt that method to your project.

It involves re-wiring (not re-winding!) of Fisher and Paykel direct drive motors that are used in their washing machines. They have done some calcs on the parameter that are mentioned by Valk.

If you wish I can try and track down the article and send you a scanned copy.

Cheers,
Col.

[DiscusMad]

Hi DM,

I know Silicon Chip magazine did an article a while back (with in the last 2 years) on Wind Turbine's to generate electricty. You may be able to adapt that method to your project.

It involves re-wiring (not re-winding!) of Fisher and Paykel direct drive motors that are used in their washing machines. They have done some calcs on the parameter that are mentioned by Valk.

If you wish I can try and track down the article and send you a scanned copy.

Cheers,
Col.

seen a DIY of the Fisher and Paykel for a wind turbine on the net one of the many projects I have in mind LOL

[DiscusMad]

Thanks Col and valk

The other thing I thought of with getting a higher turning by useing cogs.

Also have seen an artical where they use gravity fed water to turn something like a fan to generate energy.

any other idears or help with the planing or idears would be most welcome

[Bald_noggin]

The other thing I thought of with getting a higher turning by useing cogs.

Only problem with using any sort of gearing is you'll have inherent losses both inertial (in the forces required to move any object) and frictional (bearings and contact point of the gears).

Gravity fed water would work quite nicely so long as there is a good head pressure to be able to turn some sort of a turbine.

I have often thought about a solar setup to run just an aquarium setup but it is a rather large captial cost. Initally it would cost way more than the aquarium but once it's up and running, is operational cost would be very low. I have researched this a bit in the past and you can buy inverters to run of a 12V system and when the 12V starts to drop, ie batteries are drained, it switches over to mains supply. The inverter even syncronizes itself with the mains so that when switch over occurs there's no 'flash bangs' of any sort.

In fact if you have a big enough solar system and your power requirement from it is small, you can sell your surplus back to the electricity company during the day and of course, draw from the grid at night. But we're talking in the range of a $50,000 system for this one.

[DiscusMad]

well I thought i could have 3 water wheels set up on a 2 tank stand with a sump so I figure to give it a go. I have read about one made out of a 5Lt bottle and plastic spoons that generated enough to light a light bulb very well. Night lights for outside pond useing the water flow LOL

still keen to give it a try