Powering An Old Mill - 1.5 Kw Lake District Overshot Waterwheel Project Part 2
2023 ж. 5 Қаз.
1 798 420 Рет қаралды
After all the hours of work in the workshop and two years in planning and design we finally go to the location of the waterwheel and get it installed. In this video you will see the now galvanised and painted wheel get installed in it location and some initial testing done. We will go back to it in a few weeks once the proper cables have been run and make some final improvements and do some more test.
Hi Kris, regarding the water splashing over the wheel, years ago when I was working at a small gold mine, we would attach a heavy rubberized tarp (maybe 8mm thick) to the top of the trough which draped over the top of the sluice to prevent splashing, essentially creating a cowling. The tarp was the same width as the sluice (or wheel in this case) and maybe a meter long and rode on top of the flow of water. It created a really smooth delivery.
I have seen that before actually. I might give that a try when I back there next. it will be interesting to see if that would help. thanks for the comment.
Maybe alroper screw driven sluice gate...and an adjudtable spillway lip that will stop side losses and aim at correct angle and depth onf water drop...why not make a curved corner out of ss steel and ckntain overslill ..?
@@KrisHarbour I'm wondering if it is necessary that the spillway they build follows the original flow. What would be the problem if you would make it straight and adjust the wheel to the right angle? Okay, maybe you have to put new footings in the riverbed. But it is also possible with a few beams and glueclamps on the existing structure to straighten the spillway, and with two planks you could support the wheel temporary, after all it is an experimental setup.
I can't help thinking that for longevity it would be better to make the whole thi thing from gal coated steel.
@@KrisHarbour Any idea what the flow rate is in metres / second?
Your quality and workmanship absolutely amazes me!! Found you just a couple days ago with the “1.5kw” build, and started “binge watching”. Just finished the water wheel part 1, and was bummed I had to wait for part 2….but obviously you just needed a couple minutes , because here I am! Thanks for documenting all of this, man!
Craftsmanship like in the 50/60's
Same I went full rabbit hole on his channel the other day. Ended up pinching myself at 2am and telling myself off to go to bed. He's the British Andrew Camarata!
@@tbrowniscool so true!!
@@tbrowniscool you've got alot of content to look 4ward 2
oh boy, I wish I were you... then I could binge watch him all over again. :D
Met a man who was a retired attorney from New York city. He bought an old ( 1800's ) mill and 30 acre millpond with a high flow rate in a rural part of Connecticut, USA. The property included a dozen or so workers cabins. He restored all the cabins to rentals and converted the mill into his private residence. He converted the site of the old rotted out wheel to a down draught 6 foot diameter vertical shaft turbine with about a 20 foot head column over top of the turbine. The 2400 volt 3 phase 250KW alternator was mounted in a generator house over top of the turbine. Power went to an electric distribution building and transformed to 120/240 for the residences and another transformer for 120/208 3 phase for his shop building. Excess power feeds into the grid. Hydro electric power rocks!
In a world where fewer and fewer of us are in work that does anything very useful, it is great to see someone doing something so inventive and clever.
If Kris went and became a fully qualified Electrician, with the skills he has in building water wheels and hydro turbines etc he'd be able to provide a full service with this stuff. Definitely something worth thinking about.
Yes. De facto, the most qualified electrician is the one who adjusts the power. The other one will pose the cables.
4 year apprenticeship to become a sparky
I'm sure Kris is 100% qualified, in that he knows how to wire up a safe and effective system already, including attaching to mains. The piece of paper saying he knows all that, on the other hand....
Best get a qualified guy in to make sure everything is up to spec and regs, also if things go wrong it is only Krises work that would need to be check on.
@@axelusul Electricians are perfectly capable of goofing up too.
The best 47:10 I'll spend all day. What a wonderful project with beautiful workmanship. This turned out even better than I imagined it would. Congratulations, Kris.
Hello Kris, great project :) I built a water wheel with an electrical output of 13.5kW. Runs 24/7 since 2012 at up to 40,000kWh/year. What I notice about your water wheel is that the water falls too far into the wheel and you haven't provided any ventilation. The water jet hits the blade at almost a 90 degree angle. It is recommended to make the wheel slightly wider than the channel so that air can flow away to the sides. The kink in the channel creates a wave that swirls the water as it flows into the wheel, this should be fixed. The water should flow into the wheel just before the upper apex at as shallow an angle as possible to avoid this impact effect. You can make the side rim a little wider than the effective diameter of the wheel, which acts as a side splash guard. You should keep the bearings well covered as they rust fairly quickly. Use a fat that does not combine with water, otherwise an emulsion will quickly form. Many greetings from the upper mill HUBI :) kzhead.info/sun/fZmAeLGygIN9dGg/bejne.html
Tag Hubi, hatte auch an dich gedacht beim Video schauen :)
Very interesting process. I would have never guessed there was as much calculation and adjusting on such a project as this. I appreciate the idea of harnessing clean energy.
Ahhhhhhhh so excited to see this, but I'm AT WORK and can't watch it right now! I'll let it run and just listen so you get more play time out of it. Kris, you really are living the dream. Out of all the KZheadrs I follow, you are my absolute favorite, and building a life that's closest to my own definition of utopia. Thank you for all that you do, thank you for sharing it with us and taking us along for the ride. Really looking forward to making a cup of tea, relaxing after work, and watching this properly.
Where do you work?
Bet ur sick of hearing about the ring piece audio only😅
@@you-know-who. And sitting on his....
WOW ! These people truly went all in for their water wheel. As others have said; absolutely love your content PLUS watching you go from building your first power system and house to THIS, outstanding sir. What a beautiful life you have created. Be Safe Out there
Damn, that's pretty impressive for a fairly small wheel! I did the numbers, the average domestic rooftop solar array here in NZ is around 3kW, at a cost of ~£4,000 and obviously isn't super consistent. So this one wheel is running half of that on its own, with no need for consistent sun, no downtime at night and all the rest is amazing - and easily enough to run my house by itself
3-4kw would cost about 28-35k installed in the US. >.>
Great job on the installation of the waterwheel! The attention to detail in the galvanizing and painting process is commendable.
Kris. What can I say. I love these engineering videos. Highlight of my KZhead week. Thanks so much for the balance between doing and the reasons why. It’s spot on
Hi Kris - just a point to consider. If you want 1.5kW out of the alternator, setting the voltage to 100V means that you are essentially generating 15A. It is possible that this is too high for your alternator stator (without me knowing the nameplate rating of course) & the current is causing the windings to get hot, but unfortunately, this also increases the resistance in the windings & this makes the problem worse. The heating effects from the increased resistance & reactance of the windings can be reduced by decreasing the current & increasing the voltage without power loss & you might find your efficiency improving. Something else to consider is the conductors from the alternator. If the cross-sectional area is too small for the current being generated, this will create additional problems & also check the resistance & tightness of your electrical connections. Another point to consider is the flow of heat from the stator heat sinks on the casing. From a still image of the vid, there doesn't looks to be any air gaps in the casing, so if your cowling around the alternator is preventing the heat escaping &/or not allowing a reasonable air flow across the casing, it might be trapping the generated heat which could also have an effect. However, it looks fantastic & you should be justifiably proud of yourself - well done sir!
Gearing up the alternator speed would make it worthwhile to make a fan to mount onto the alternator shaft. Make a disk of sheet metal then cut some radial flaps to bend. Even if it only moves a little air over the alternator it would keep hot air from stagnating under the cover. A hole in the top, covered by a plate spaced up a bit and larger than the hole, would let heated air out. Would want to put a temperature sensor on the alternator to test if the fan helps any.
@@greggv8 that's what I thought of also. The air inside that large cover must me kept moving. In the dead of winter it will not be much of a need but on the warmest days of summer that will burn out with forced air over the unit. The only other ideal solution is an alternator with a water jacket that can take a small hose from the sluice and feed some water over the alternator and let it be water cooled. That's a different design concept.
This is a run-of-river scheme and all r-o-r installations have changing water availability through the seasons; setting the inverter to work in 'constant voltage' mode was never going to allow the wheel to work in all seasons: when water is scarce, the alternator pulley may not turn sufficiently fast to generate the 100v he set, whilst when water is plentiful, as in the video, and as @old-seadog has said, the current is too high and risks damaging the alternator. Kris's plan, at the end of the video, is to increase the size of the drive pulley in order to get a higher rpm at the alternator (and thus higher voltage) whilst achieving the slow rpm he wants at the wheel. This would provide the combination of higher voltage / lower current which will see the alternator not getting overheated, but it risks the open circuit voltage, - the highest voltage which could ever be produced when the alternator is not under load, - being too high. Grid tied inverters are rated to receive a maximum dc incoming voltage of around 600 v; if changing the ratio of the pulleys makes the open circuit voltage encroach on the maximum permitted for his inverter, then some form of voltage capping will be needed to cover those times when the inverter is going through its self-check before connecting to the grid, and for when there is a grid outage. There are always 'trade-offs' to be made, - a trade-off being "a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property in return for gains in other aspects".
@@KEhydro An excellent explanation sir, I love generator theory (& transmission, transformers, protection, switchgear, etc & yes, I *am* _that_ dull!).
@@KEhydro It needs a two speed drive between the wheel and the alternator. Fix two pulleys on the wheel shaft then have the pulleys on the alternator shaft run on bearings. Fit a clutch between the alternator pulleys to engage one or the other or be in neutral. When one alternator pulley is engaged, the other one spins independently from the shaft. The extra tricky bit would be automating the shifting to accommodate two ranges of higher and lower flow, and shifting to neutral when there's not enough flow. Also useful would be controlling bypass flow for when there's too much water to run through the water wheel.
Really nice work and I can't wait to see the follow up. For me, coming back to a big project after a bit of time has always added some clarity that helped the current project as well as future ventures.
I hugely admire your workmanship. The concept popped into my mind when I was watching your "flow slow-mo" and I'm absolutely sure that if you get the water input closer to a laminar flow, you'd have way more efficiency. turbulence=efficiency loss.
Absolutely marvellous piece of work there, and there was me thinking there aren't any engineers out there anymore. I don't think there's anything more thrilling than to watch a waterwheel come to life and supply all that much needed power. Congratulations that man.
I could honestly spend an entire day just watching that wheel
More to the dynamics of a waterwheel than you first think! Enthralled by the whole process and Kris’s unfaltering enthusiasm. Can’t wait for the next instalment.
Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. kzhead.info/sun/eMinc9NxqYGMlKc/bejne.html
Brilliant build, you should be extremely proud, not only did you design the whole thing you've built the water wheel single handedly. The place that did the finishing, galvanising and painting did a brilliant job, should last for years.
I’ve been reading the comments on this video and I’m amazed just how many water wheel experts there are out there.
It’s not rocket science
Has anyone told you that you are brilliant. I have been watching you since just after the start of the first layer of earth bags, you are very inventive. I hope your mum and dad are proud of you.
That's what i'd call a good job Kris. A keeper plate is good practice to retain the driveshaft key,I've seen them work themselves out and it damages everything, a belt and braces approach and you'll not have to go back to it,do the same with the belt pulleys. Cracking job, want to watch the next installment now...
Is there anything you can't imagine or build? I think not. What an amazing and innovative mind you have Kris. Love all the videos. Been with you since the start of the round house. Keep em coming. Many blessings to you and yours. The barn is looking awesome!! Brilliant! Watching from Alberta, Canada
Proper job, love hearing you work through and understand the problems.
That whole system is so intelligently designed, and I love how you put it together like it's an art piece -- because it IS that too!
Thats so cool and interesting to see the details of the waterwheel being installed and running. Waterwheels always fascinate me.
Fantastic job Kris The wheel is absolutely stunning. A real work of art!
So cool. I was mesmerized for 47 minutes. Love the tweaking you're doing to get the most bang for the buck in terms of efficiency. Good Job, Sir!
Top notch. Not only doing all that work but then filming and editing on top of it! Hats off. 👍
I had the thought that if the bucket angles were a few degrees more "open", you'd lose water a little earlier at the bottom, but get better bucket filling, therefore more torque where it counts. Really enjoying your videos, Kris. Your ingenuity is most impressive.
Yeah, I think if this thing would be more popular, they would come up with something without buckets. Similar to the "take in" he has at home. The goal is to catch as many water we can and drop it on the bottom. I don't think the buckets were the best solution.
@@szolanek If you want the most efficient solution for hydropower, you don't build an overshot waterwheel. But waterwheels are great to look at, fairly simple to run and this place looks like it has been setup for one in the past.
@@Finnspin_unicycles Sure, as long you have distances, drops and earplugs :) // This one is nice, and nobody can complain. Fish might swims back for one more round // Btw, do you know about bottom powering, is it inferior to this?
@@szolanek Among water wheels, undershot is the lowest efficiency. A type of wheel called "pitch back" is most efficient since it combines the positive aspects of each other type.
@@AkkerKid Thanks!
That is a beauty! Thanks for sharing and inspiring others. Congrats to you and all the skilled men involved.
Brilliant Krys, really superb and a major contribution to sustainable power production. What an important update and rebirth of ancient technology.
That is a thing of beauty. Looking forward to the final tweaks and testing to see final numbers. Thanks for the video.
Great episode, I think because the video editing was so good. I´m sure the gradual process of problem identification and resolution was a lot more stressful than you made it appear, but the consistent progress made this very satisfying (and exciting!) to watch. What a great accomplishment - like all your projects, well researched, planned and executed. Well done!
Beautiful craftsmanship on the wheel and systems! Well done!!
Great video. Clear instructions thoughtfully given. Great camerawork. Brilliant. I'll be revisiting this when I finally find that little bit of land within my budget. And with a stream. 👏👏👏
I have finally come up with the right word to describe your endevours .GENIUS ,take a step back Leonardo.
I watched this 16 minutes after it posted this morning. It stayed on my mind and I ended up watching it several times, each time noticing the views. This video picked up around a thousand hits every hour today. I'm feeling so proud of you and what you've brought into the world.
Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. kzhead.info/sun/eMinc9NxqYGMlKc/bejne.html
Hard to believe the amount of power in such a small amount of flowing water. First rate job of capturing and harnessing what Nature provides. It will be interesting to see how well the tuning process goes. Water wheels like this one are what powered the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s using belts and pulleys to transfer the power to where it was needed. Your creation proves that good ideas are timeless and never get old.
Interesting! I was very impressed with the thought, skill, and labour that clearly went into this project. Loved watching the video. But once the wheel started turning and the power was measured, my reaction was quite the opposite of yours: "That's it. . . ?" I thought, "All that effort and the result is about enough power to run a toaster oven?" I know this is just my own ignorance showing, but I thought it was going to power at least a single household!
@@eyesuckle 1 kilowatt is enough power to lift 2,200 pounds 1 meter in the air every second. One hour of running that waterwheel provides enough power to lift a ton about 12,000 feet in the air. "That's it."
Excellent piece of work. Love this type of thing. Must be great to be able to harness the water to generate your own energy. Love everything you do Kris, a master craftsmen at work. All the best.
Wow I've been looking forward to this what a lovely piece of engineering it sounded like a steam train you could feel the energy. It looks brilliant and works really well like you said it might need a bit of tweaking but for a first setup it's just fantastic. Free Energy who would't want one of these. Looking forward to the final setup and overall performance what ever it gives is green energy. Thanks for sharing this build and to the owners for letting you film the setup.👍
Impressive work you have done - these water videos are my favorite - looking forward to part 3.
your metal crafting skills have done a fine job!
That is one excellent video showing a great design in a superb location. - Thank You for sharing Kris
Thats incredible Kris, to see it been made and then put into situ and working, well done you! Super vlog and work undertaken. Its in a beautiful setting too. Can’t wait to see final check out. You were beaming ear to ear and so you should. Stay well.
Having watched all the other builds and lumber work and then watching the effort needed to fit the gearbox…if Chris is struggling with that…it is heavy. Depleted uranium lol. This build is so exciting! Never a dull moment!
Loving this build as much as your barn Kris. I am a retired Fitter/Welder so really enjoy all your build work and like how you design your projects, then reassess/redesign as you progress. Maurice
Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. kzhead.info/sun/eMinc9NxqYGMlKc/bejne.html
I like the mix between modern design, tools and materials and old techniques.
I enjoy your content with the hydro generation and also the barn build! Keep up the excellent content!👍👍
What a great install Chris, fantastic work. Like all things there will be a bit of trial & error to get it all working how it should, nothing that a bit of head scratching won't sort out.
You are a very skilled man, I’m so glad I found this channel. I’d be interested to know a bit about how you have your skills, why you decided to live this way and any other bits you would be willing to share. Keep inspiring people and film whatever you make, something very therapeutic watching a man make a water wheel while have a pint!
What a lovely old source of energy. Excellent. Well done. 👍
I'm so glad you got it up and running already cause I couldn't wait to see it in action, after your last video! Well thought through, as always, you're a true inspiration. Thank you also for contributing to the independence of so many others, through your videos and work.
❤ Always an adventure with Kris! Amazing accomplishment! Thanks for bringing us along.
Fantastic project. Great design, planning and build. Well done to you.
Fantastic video! Glad you filmed the whole process. FUNCTIONAL SCULPTURE AT IT'S FINEST.
This is bloody awesome Kris! One of my favourite projects at the moment.
It's obvious you're genuinely having fun with this project and you deserve it after all your hard work. The bredth of your knowledge and skills is truly staggering and makes your videos inspiring and entertaining. Well done mate!
This is awesome. I am loving this build series. Well done mate!
Great job! The chute is problematic. In air-handling systems the flow rate in ducts with sharp corners are improved using turning vanes, a series of curved rudders running across the corner. The discharge should be a steel fabrication adjustable for length and angle, and perhaps a little bit of narrowing.
Thank you father
You’ve got to be very happy with the first run Kris. Well done!
That wheel is majestic, Kris. Way to go! So impressive!
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing this project with us.
Wow that wheel is a thing of beauty, I love the attention to detail on absolutely everything you do and it’s very inspiring..thank you for everything that you upload I really do appreciate it 👍
I used to rebuild those conveyor gearboxes. The part you showed about turning down the shaft and machining the keyway took me back to those days. Looks like Dodge green bearings? You are 100% not joking when you say the gearbox is heavier than it looks, the entire case is cast iron and it's mostly full of steel gears. That's a big lump of cast iron to be lifting by hand, especially with uneven footing while standing in running water.
It’s pretty crazy to see the difference in effort between him lifting it on the dry shop floor versus in a creek, much respect.
This is such a beautiful project. Such good work, well done. It's a pleasure to watch, so thanks for sharing it on YT 👍
A couple vanes in the sluiceway will solve the spillage issue and get a more even flow of water entering the wheel. Vanes will increase the likelihood of clogging though. To help alleviate this, make the leading edge of the vane taper up like a ramp. The water flow will help push the debris up out of the way. Thank you for the fantastic video!
Again Chris, you have done a spectacular job. Not only does it produce power but it also looks fantastic. Great job son..⚡️
Not being much of an engineer this video was surprisingly fascinating. The water wheel is a work of ingenuity and art, like everything you create. Well done Kris!
Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. kzhead.info/sun/eMinc9NxqYGMlKc/bejne.html
I work for an American company and have to source their renewable energy internationally. It's so nice to come and see one project coming together. This is the real work that changes the world. Hands on engineering. It's also nice to see it in such a sustainable context, working with the local community and having been built on a renewable smallholding :). This is my happy place
Outstanding Job, and awesome fabrication? Love any RE systems, and a old style wheel hydro system is wonderful to see!
They did a great job preparing for you. I know they had to be so pleased. You're amazing !
Absolutely fascinating Kris! What an amazing job done by all! Thank you for showing the process. You SHOULD be proud of the wheel you made, it is a work of art!!
I'm such a geek for these things. I'll never use anything like this but my brain 🧠 just loves to see and absorb the magnificence of creative, talented and capable people. Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽.
Brilliant video Kris - you must be so proud of all the hard work you put into this project! I have followed your journey since you started the round house; you never cease to amaze me with your capacity to learn new skills and produce amazing projects! My main interest is woodworking but I still find all your projects really interesting and look forward to Fridays in the hope of a new video. Keep up the great work!
Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. kzhead.info/sun/eMinc9NxqYGMlKc/bejne.html
I suggest adding a corner/radius inside the trough to improve the water flow (either from wood or steel). Will make a huge difference.
Yes, to round off the bend and possibly higher than the existing sides to give the water a "smoother" ride.
You're an amazing man, Kris. Thanks for letting us see this!!!
Thanks Kris , great wheel mate and you ironed out the problems and overcome faults out of your control. Done by one man and not a team of design engineers in some high paid workforce in a state of the art factory. It’s a credit to you buddy massive achievement and I hope and pray you build many more of these wheels that people can purchase from you or buy the plans etc to build their own. God bless you mate you are an incredible person with true grit who sticks at it regardless of the challenges I hope you make a fortune from this prototype 🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
What a great little project. It shows all the good human trades like : ingenuity , engineering , delay of gratification and cooperation. Would love to have seen it being fully functioning , but I think we get the hang. Archimedes would have been proud of you. This is good material to be used in technical education. Great idea to film this project.
The really low dump height should be good for minimizing erosion. Can’t wait to see what you get with a bigger pulley so the alternator doesn’t have to brake the wheel anymore.
The slow-mo of the buckets filling was so cool to watch! great work. this is a fascinating project
I love this, just wish I had a river running through my property. I think you have done a first class job Kris, it’s great seeing someone with your skills putting them to such good use.
Well even if you had a river running through your property i'm not sure if you could "monopolize" the river like in this video because other people might be affected by that . Only if the river started and ended in your property (that would need to be a BIG property :)).
@@TheNAGC I agree I would need a big property 😀. So long as the river flow is the same leaving as entering your property it would be fine though. Which is the beauty of this system. Just a pipe dream though 😃
Kris, this is BRILLIANT! Yet another of your videos that I watch in awe. Just a quick note on the electrical box at the Generator end - with that copex entering at the top, you'll end up with water ingress. The IP68 box will end up trapping the water inside and as it's the first connection, it'll short the generator out and cause quite a bit of damage. I'd suggest bringing both the generator and the output cables in from the bottom, and ideally fitting an isolator switch as close to the wheel as possible. I hope this comes across as constructive criticism. I'd hate for such a small error to cause any damage. Keep up the good work!
I would have used a rubber seal tight tubing from the box to the conduit instead of the galvanized MC cable.
This was my thought.,... I probably would have wired a 3 core shielded cable to the alternator and had less conduate. or have gear and shaft system back to the room where the isolator switch was and had all the alternators and such in there..
So-o-o, be sure to silicone-seal the connector to form a better seal against water, and mist incursion. Could use water tight connectors and outdoor flex cable that has a plastic flex jacket.
Your videos, your creativity and talent is a joy to watch Kris! Can't wait to see part 3 :)
Well done man! Love your work on projects like this! Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely brilliant videos! Thanks for sharing
Brilliant! Looking forward to the new pulleys!
Amazing build. Regarding the stainless bolts, it's actually good practice to use lube or anti seize on stainless bolts. Having worked in food grade stainless metal fabrication, lubing all stainless bolts was a must, for assembly aswell as for future disassembly, those stainless threads can seize up at any point in time.
Definitely looks like the position the water exits the trough before it hits the wheel could come forward more and perhaps fall off at an angle towards the buckets a tiny bit to direct the flow. Looking forward to part #3
GREAT job, looking forward to the next installment.
That looks absolutely stellar mate, fantastic job. Really great craftsmanship.
I would pay to work with you, that's how much I love your content, thank you!
It will be great when in the summer, it rains a lot, there is water... I should install a machine with the same large capacity as yours, enough to light up an entire farm.!
Hello Duong, nice to meet you here, I'm a fan of yours from America and following from America!
Hello Duong! Thanks for all your hard work over the years! I really like your videos, they make me very relaxed and satisfied, I wish you good health, Manh Tot!!!🥰🥰
Hello, nice to meet Duong here, the lack of light on your farm is obvious, you are living under the high mountains that will cover all your light.
Duong, I see you also have an electric machine that runs on water, how is it working now?
These beautiful videos I discovered are of indescribable beauty….
This is truly a labor of love. As an engineer and DIYer it checks all the boxes for me. :) That being said, this is really a lot of work and infrastructure for ~24kwh/day average. I live in the overcast northeast USA and I average 18kwh/day annually on a 14yr old 5.7kw solar array.
I thought the same. Why go to all this effort for just 1.5kW, when a giant wheel like this could easily generate more. Seems like a micro hydro system with a bit of piping would have been far more efficient and way less work.
That wheel can produce more power than that, I'm sure of it... Just using a crappy small alternator.. and probably not utilizing the correct voltage..
Kris I have a deep respect for your level of over-engineering!
One of the top ten projects I’ve ever watched on KZhead, absolutely brilliant. The build quality is top notch and any glitches totally understandable on a unique first build. Well done to you and all involved. Just need to find a location for me to commission one 😂
Kris thank you for the great explanations and video. Even a 65 years young Grandmother like me can understand and learn from you.Yet it's obvious that you are brilliant. Good fortune to you and your customers. God bless and stay safe. From Bakersfield California USA.c
This is a very interesting project and I am glad KZhead recommended it to me. I would have loved to design something like this in the lake district, or even in Scotland. It would be my pet project. However, if you haven't done so already, I recommend finding out how the old wooden water mill wheels work in the old days, those are extremely powerful and built to last, plus there is lots of good ideas behind them. This brings to mind a massive waterwheel near Calne in Wiltshire. Made out of wood, it still stands to this day. I always wondered how much power that beast can make if converted. I see some problems with this on such a small scale, all the crap will flow down stream and build up on the inlets, and cause a huge problem, as I guess you guys might have found out, twigs and god knows what will block all that up, having the spillway, and the troff the same size as the river would allow it all to travel through the wheel. It will be a nightmare to clean all the time. Also, perhaps having a over at the end of the troff, like a cloth or sheeting that drapes over the wheel a little to stop the excess splashing. Not necessary but could be helpful. As for the electrics, I personally would not have used conduate, I would have wired a shielded 3 core cable directly to the alternator just to eliminate any leaks, as this is a heavily water environment, hell, I probably would have had pulleys and a shaft back to the isolator switch and had the alternator there. I do wonder what noise that would make at night. If it was made out of wood, it would have been more natural in a way, but as its metal and that alternator in side that metal cover, I hope the owner does not sleep near it. All in all, its unlikely you will see this comment, but this project is highly interesting and I'm glad I get to see it. I will be watching with intense curiosity... Thank you for posting this and making the video. Shane
I’m a creative and resourceful guy; a construction superintendent for a home building company that builds affordable housing for non profits. But mate, YOU are a mastermind, a genius! I’ve loved watching your whole adventure! Cheers!
This is beautiful! Sounds like you could add some supervisory/telemetry wiring to that conduit, with a temperature sensor on the alternator, possibly a temperature sensor on the gearbox too -- they don't last forever, but they heat up before they fail. Recording those values during periodic maintenance checks, or better yet, logging the data continuously, could help with diagnosis in the future.
good idea. A common failure for micro hydro.
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