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  • From: "PINC" <pinc@svn.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: water electic
  • Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:30:56 -0800

If you want to produce more power, I would suggest a larger than 1" pipe to increase your volume.

 

Pelton wheels work on a ratio of pressure (head or elevation) and volume (cubic feet per second or gallons per minute) The size of the pipe will also limit that due to friction loss of the pipe so the larger the pipe the more potential volume. Your volume is also obviously limited by the total volume you have available at your source.

 

If you have more volume you can have less head  and vise versa.

 

A good resource for this are renewable energy catalogs, like Real Goods, Jade Mountain, Alternative Energy Engineering. You make have a local company that sells these products. They can help you size your system.

 

What you need to figure out is how much energy do you need at any one time.

 

Penny Livingston

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vint Lawrence [mailto:vlawrence@nets.com]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 11:06 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: water electic

 

 

Yaya Balinci wrote:

Theory or truth?:
100' of dropping water through a 1" pipe creates enough electricity for
several people.
Water hits a disc of wood/metal/plastic and spins it to generate the
electicity?
Has anyone heard of this skill/technique?

Michael Hollihn,
Sustainable Forest-Farm-Garden Design
Ecosystem Mapping For Sustainable Production of foods and building
materials,
 

Michael,
Truth, you are probably referring to a Pelton Wheel generator.
Water is forced through a small nozzle where, upon exiting the nozzle it strikes  small cups (usually 4) that are mounted on arms on an axle that is connected to a small generator. If you imagine a wind anemometer, you'll get the picture.
I am away from my references sources, but I believe that you do not need 100' of head to run a pelton wheel.
Check the Real Goods catalog.
Vint Lawrence
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