Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations microhydro

I built my fifth pond in 2007. It is one acre in area and 14 feet at the deepest point. The water level is 13 feet above the lowest point at the backside of the dam. I am considering putting a two inch line with a shut-off valve through the dam 1 foot below the discharge pipe and down to the low point at the backside of the dam where I would install a small turbine with a twelve volt generator. I would have one acre foot of water and a head of 12 feet. Would it be possible to generate enough power to charge a couple twelve batteries (to run some lights, pump water, etc.). I have no electricity as the location is quite a distance from any power source. Anyone else tried anything similar to this?

Bill, it's possible to do, but you may have a problem to generate enough power, with a wide micro turbine about 3', using light graphite, and a good generating coil. The problem is, if there's any break in flow due to poor flow condition, even though you have the head, your turbine will not be able to re-initiate the rotation because the coil generator tension. You can manipulate all you want on paper and come up with varying scenarios, but when you put into real application, well, let's just say you'll get an awaken call.

The hydro-electric dams around here are always have close to twice the head pressure going through the turbine rating because of that possible scenario. Some will just stick with the 1-to-1 (flow pressure to generator tension for re-initiation) because they have people monitoring it, with a nice capacitor of reserved power to help the coil generator to move along if it happens to just stop due to poor flow. How about combination of solar and mini-hydro, or better yet, wind turbine with gear drive to help the hydro turbine to flow when it stops (a direct drive effects), and when there's sufficient head and water to keep the water turbine going, the wind turbine will just free spin until it's needed again. A new invention in the works?

mrbill with 13 ft. of head and a 2" pipe you'll be drawing about 80gpm and be generating roughly 100 watts, if that's not enough a 4" pipe would atleast triple that, but like Leo said that could depend on different variables.

I'm planning a 120 volt microhydro system, the generator comes with electronic load controller and dump load coil for about $1200. I'll run a 4" pipe from above a waterfall and it'll have about 25 ft. of head. Here's a link to a good website with both 12 volt and 120 volt systems.
Let us know how your system develops, a lot of people could benefit from a low head system using the outflow from their pond.

http://www.rockyhydro.com/High_Head_Micro-Hydro.php

I was looking at building a 12 volt DC system using an alternator from an automobile or something similar with a turbine blade and using a couple 12 volt batteries. I would only be using this charger as needed. The batteries will run LED lights, a radio, maybe some type of aerator and a water pump at my cabin. The acre foot of water is approximately 326,000 gallons and ten months of the year there is at least some water flowing through the discharge pipe. If the 80 GPM figure is right, I should have at least 4075 minutes (67+hours) of charging time in my reservoir. I have a solar charger now but I wanted to try to harness some of the water power that at this point is just running away.

mrbill if your not sure of the continuous GPM that your pond can support you might want to wait untill you have more data on the outflow.
Since you mentioned building a system from a car alternator and do most of it yourself you wouldn't have alot of money into it and experimenting with it now would not risk much.
For a low head, low flow system you could mount a plastic Turgo wheel on your alternator, the Rocky hydro website has these and more info on small systems.

Good luck and keep us updated on your progress.

Canadian spam?

AP, The user was a spammer, who copied a piece of a random post to make his advertisement look genuine.

DMRBG, you're right. I was in a rush earlier today and didn't read any posts before that one; I just did now and you are 100% correct. It'll be gone in a minute.