Watermills for people with streams/rivers on their land

the_syco

Was reading through the "What did you do to prepare today?" thread, and saw a lot of people buying land with streams on them, and thought I'd throw my idea out here, rather than derail the other thread. Hope I'm not breaking any rules.

Fries-With-That wrote: »

to charge a few batteries for light.

I'd recommend you look into the stream, and if it's on your land, put a watermill in the stream.



A) would be the current stream

Would be a bricked area, forcing water to go through a specific area. "1" would be where the watermill would be.

C) shows a raised platform to the right of the bricked area. This forces water to go through the watermill when there's only a trickle coming down with

D) showing what happens when there's a huge flow of water; the water goes over the raised platform.

The "middle" part is to the left. This is so that most of the heavy flow bypasses the watermill completely, and thus doesn't damage the watermill.

Although you can buy the wooden part of the watermill online, I'd advise you to learn how to make a basic one yourself, so that you can make one yourself should the watermill "disappear" during a heavy rainfall.

=-=

Although the current generated may not be that great (if the stream is only small), I'd say it'd be enough to keep a lightbulb on at night time.

Of course, keep the windmill for times of drought.

I'm not sure how much electricity you'd need to keep the lightbulb on, but someone here may be able to say? At the very least, it would mean an option to continuously charge your batteries.

Finally, for those next to a river in a rural setting, if you go the watermill route, check what you can use the watermill to generate (such as grain to flour, etc, for bread).

The Glass Key

Nice idea but not one that would work for me. Floods, lack of head and planning concerns would make that a non starter.

Easier for me to dig out about 100 yards up stream to make a small off stream pond then pipe that water down in 4 or 6 inch pipe work to a lower point to get a bit of head (still won't be huge) then put in an enclosed pelton wheel with a small discharge back into the stream.

Couple of pelton wheels with generators on ebay http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Micro-Home-Power-Water-PMA-Generator-and-Pelton-Wheel-1000-3000-Watts-12-36-VDC-/190951300487 and http://www.ebay.ie/itm/PMA-Generator-with-Pelton-Wheel-for-Water-Power-0-240-VAC-4000-Watt-Micro-Hydro-/190951299430.

A nice complete solution here http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Pico-Micro-Hydro-Power-Complete-120-VAC-60-Hz-300-Watt-PMA-Generator-Turgo-Wheel-/190751963495 if only I could get a bit more head

The Glass Key

I'll just add one more link that should keep anyone interested in water power going for a good while http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm .

aaakev

Nice thread!

A neighbor in Sweden had a fast flowing stream on his land which they used to power their shed/stables during the times of year it wasn't frozen and it worked great

Fries-With-That

the_syco wrote: »

Was reading through the "What did you do to prepare today?" thread, and saw a lot of people buying land with streams on them, and thought I'd throw my idea out here, rather than derail the other thread. Hope I'm not breaking any rules.

I've done a lot of research into this and in my situation it would be a combination of water turbine and wind turbine to generate power.

Both options can be built by someone competent in DIY ( I have already built a micro wind turbine and successfully used it to charge batteries linked to garden lights).

I am presently gathering together salvaged parts to build a DIY pelton turbine to use in the stream.

The ideal system for anyone off grid is 12v (14v approx for charging)because its safer to deal with and 12v appliances are readily available.

I have also looked into solar but the cost factor is prohibitive, even small trickle charge solar panels are expensive or their output is so low as to not make them worthwhile.

I agree with other posters as regards off the shelf turbines, they are good but may not be suitable for the locations available.

the_syco

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Both options can be built by someone competent in DIY ( I have already built a micro wind turbine and successfully used it to charge batteries linked to garden lights).

I am presently gathering together salvaged parts to build a DIY pelton turbine to use in the stream.

For anyone not good at DIY, I'd advise using an overshoot watermill, with a pipe going from the stream to the top of the turbine. The width of pipe also helps regulate the amount of water, so even if there is heavy rainfall, if positioned correctly, the excess water shouldn't cause problems.

=-=

I find solar panels are only really good in countries with a lot of sun. On top of houses (in Ireland) to help another source of energy can be great to heat the water tank in the mornings, but small scale in Ireland I find that they're not really worth it.

Regarding the micro wind turbine; is it possible to bolt them to the side of a tree? Yes, crazy idea, but it just came to me. Find a tall tree, chop off the top bit, and stick a wind turbine on it, so you get lots of mind. Maybe annoying to maintain, and you'd need to strap a steel rod to a nearby (taller) tree to act as a lightening rod so lightening doesn't take out your micro wind turbine. As I said; crazy idea, but I do wonder if it'd work?

Actually, a quick Google found that ze crazy Germans have done one

Tabnabs

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Both options can be built by someone competent in DIY ( I have already built a micro wind turbine and successfully used it to charge batteries linked to garden lights).

Don't just dangle that nugget in front of us and say no more, explain in detail (with pics!).

Fries-With-That

Tabnabs wrote: »

Don't just dangle that nugget in front of us and say no more, explain in detail (with pics!).

Haha.......... all in good time.

I have a few pictures of micro wind turbine somewhere.

I have taken this one down as I have sourced (by accident) a fantastic little motor that should be perfect for my off grid cabin project.

I'm in the middle of a complete house renovation so my time for tinkering with my toys is limited.

Fries-With-That

the_syco wrote: »

Actually, a quick Google found that ze crazy Germans have done one

I think they may have found that the turbulence created by the tree canopy had their turbine shifting constantly trying to find a steady wind flow.

The best location is always one unobstructed by trees or buildings.

I'd imagine that having a turbine on top of a tree in the middle of a wooded area would be similar to having a turbine a few feet of the ground.

The reason that house top micro turbines aren't very successful is because of turbulence.

Tabnabs

I came across this article which I thought might be of interest on here:

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/clean-tech/item/35642-the-power-of-dunking-dunk?goback=.gde_1828107_member_5836139797910953984

Fries-With-That

That's interesting looks like they took a 3 VAWTs and joined them together and then installed them into a box horizontally.

I wonder what type of PMA they are using.

I'd imagine once the Chinese get their hands on this design and reverse engineer it, the market will be flooded with copies.

zombieland

Hi guys, first time in the survivalism section. The wind generator idea on top of a tall tree is not a totally bad idea.eg in a SHTF scenario if you have a free standing pine tree, lop off the top and strip the branches. The same goes for the watermill idea. All I did over the last few days was to use the stove in our living room to heat some food for the kids and boiling some water. I know, not real survivalist skills but it helped.

Tabnabs

zombieland wrote: »

All I did over the last few days was to use the stove in our living room to heat some food for the kids and boiling some water. I know, not real survivalist skills but it helped.

Here, you were feeding your family and keeping them warm. That's no more or less than any of us regulars on here would be happy with.

zombieland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmDvENKPig

Came across this, very good vid, this guy does some great off the grid work. After all the power cuts it got me to thinking about setting up a small diy wind turbine for the purpose of powering the central heating for about 20 mins at a time, or running a small series of lights. Unfortunately it looks too pricey for me to set up a battery bank as the batteries required would be deep cell batteries which don't come cheap and would be more suited to setting up a more permanent power source..off the grid

Fries-With-That

A picture I had posted on another site of my wind turbine project.

Fries-With-That

http://www.adverts.ie/power-tools/bargain/5260547

Looks like a good little motor.

theKillerBite

Fries-With-That wrote: »

A picture I had posted on another site of my wind turbine project.

Do you generate much usable power? From the picture the turbine is beside trees and buildings which is far from ideal as the blades would be in turbulent choppy air. My experience is that small turbines are pretty much junk.

Fries-With-That

theKillerBite wrote: »

Do you generate much usable power? From the picture the turbine is beside trees and buildings which is far from ideal as the blades would be in turbulent choppy air. My experience is that small turbines are pretty much junk.

Short answer no . Longer answer that turbine was a micro-micro turbine, while it may look like it was surrounded by buildings and trees it is actually in a wind tunnel and generated enough power to charge a battery to run LEDs in my garden.

Small turbines (home made) are a valuable learning device for people that want to build something bigger.

You are correct the ideal location for a wind turbine is away from buildings and trees.