How to make my own power plant. The story about the rabbit hole

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21

I’ll be interested in how you come along with this. Not sure if you know the TPAI on YouTube, but he has great stuff about electronics and salvage stuff.

Of course there is the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind book and movie.

Great Scott just came out with a new video on how induction motors don’t work as generators. He has had several videos about power generation with DC motors.

Getting the right driver for that is a trick, but these are amazing motors. I used one to power my apple grinder for my cider press.

Anyway, I hope you are doing ok. A project like this is always a good thing to get into.

Here is a nice open source project going on that will bring up all kinds of aspects of the project.

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As Jamie said earlier, first thing would be to measure precisely the theoretical power you can expect from your water source.
So, for that, I suggest you to get some kind of pipe, connect it from the top of your source to wherever you plan on installing the generator, and then measure flow and pressure.

You can only choose your motor after knowing this, otherwise you’ll just guess and very likely pick an inappropriate motor. Basically, pressure will determine rpm, while flow will determine max load at given rpm.
Apparently there are some calculators online that can help you do the boring math work:
https://power-calculation.com/hydroelectricity-energy-calculator.php

As for the general layout, I suggest you to have: turbine/alternator --> voltage regulator/charge controller --> batteries --> 12VDC (or more, depending on your motor) - 220V AC inverter.

This way, the controller charges the batteries all day long and you extract the power to charge your bike whenever you need. Batteries also act like a damper this way, protecting your inverter.

Please share some pics if possible, we’d like to see that!

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23

On second thought, never mind

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A lot of good tips in here. I have nothing to add. I’ll just sit back and watch.

:popcorn:

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25

Like wise, I am however started a 5 year plan which will result in a new workshop using what is Sweden called a “Attefalls-house” which basicly is a 25 squaremeter house you don’t need a buildingspermit (which by the way is costing a fortune over here) to build. That one I though plan to incorporate solarpower in the plans.

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Wow. Just wow. Waking up this morning and reading this thread has been like being a kid on birthday morning (except for no cookiecrumbs in bed - which is good).

Thank you so much for all your skilled input! I’m humble and grateful. I have to take my time reading it all, and looking into all the projects the have relevant insights.

Thanks Marion @scrounge79, I’m all right now! Life’s always a hassle (for all of us, I’m quite sure), having a hobby to obsess over is a great way to cope. I actually have started to give this advice to people I meet in crisis, supervision or counceling. I.e.: “Oh - you are having a hard time in your life you say? Why don’t you get a hobby and forget about it all??” :smiley: Not always very considerate and appropriate, but to one extent it’s actually some deep truth to it.

So - the river and the weel. This is the amount of water I was able to feed through a small canal/conduit/aquaduct. I could upscale this, but I think it’s a decent amount to start with. How do I “measure” such a thing? If I had a 100lr container, it would be a quick calculation, but I don’t have many 100l buckets lying around…
https://srv-file22.gofile.io/download/YU4Whv/20190518_190804_002.mp4
Direct link

This is the wooden wheel. It turned out waaay to big. The creek is quite small, and I don’t want the house for the wheel/turbine be too big, because we’re in the middle of a suburbian neighborhood, and I cant have kids climbing on it, and sticking their hands into the wheel and such… That’s why I figured out I would have to make something smaller, and shape it using a CNC. My plan so far has been to make techincal drawing of the wheel, export it to flat pieces, cut them out in plywood, and cover it with glassfiber sheets and polyester resin. I guess I should consider making a turbine instead. Time will show.

Even though the wheel ended up to big, I was mighty impressed with how smooth it turned (I didn’t balance it yet in this vid) - and for how LONG it kept spinning, just from 7-700grams of weight. Imagine having a stream constanlty pushing against such a thing! Unfortunately, I’m giving it away to a friend who lives more secluded with a river in his back yard.

https://srv-file22.gofile.io/download/Lm9LlD/20190607_210405.mp4
Direct link

Bonus pic, a small viking ship replica that some neighboors/friends have built:

20190601_191547
20190601_1915475360×2176 3.24 MB

The same people was involved in building the worlds largest viking ship (Draken Harald Hårfagre). This smaller ship is made from only scrap wood from Draken.

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Wow - is that @dkj4linux in the forground? :wink:

Both the ship and your microhydro project are fascinating. One, as I’m 1/2 Scandinavian (mix of Swedish, Danish & Norwegian), and two, in a prior life I worked with wind and solar resource assessment studies and powering remote weather stations. While I think solar (PV) is neat as it just “sits there” and makes power, if I had the water resource, microhydro would be my first renewable power choice. Not as sexy as a wind turbine, but a lot easier to build & maintain!

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Yeah, I decided to stop by for a few minutes on my way home from the super store. Got my beard trimmed to a goatee and picked up a pair of sunglasses and a new brown cap (makes it look as though I have hair…) I wanted to test out. Also scoping out the ladies who might want to frolic… :crazy_face:

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Seems like a plan!

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Be sure to set ground rules before frolicking. Maybe a safe word. We’re talking Norse ladies with interests in Viking ships. Could get… hearty. :wink:

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We always need extra hands when we are launching! https://youtu.be/QmEPhO_gcLE

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Sorry… bad back. Safe word might be “gentle”… or “how bout a nice back massage?”

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33

If you’re of an artistic bent we may need to have someone design a CNCable crest for the Rabbit Hole Engineering & Whoopie Society. :upside_down_face:

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Society Of Rabbit-hole Engineers… SORE for short…

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I think you need to make it fit i to “So Are”. Like: So, are you going to add a laser engraver? So, Are there any ways to solve this with software? So, Are you going to eat that last rib?

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Hey - it’s all about Tromsø again: Blue-green aurora.

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37

Is there some kind of trick to be able to see the videos?
I click on them but nothing happens, they behave as if they were just images.

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I’ve noticed this too. In multiple threads. Something is amiss…

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They seem to be working now, from my location. I also added a direct link with the videos, in case it doesn’t work with you.

A question that sticks out atm is: how can I measure roughly how much water is running?

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The fall is actually my favourite time for the aurora. Not freezing my fingers off, and still having leaves on the trees and some light in the horizon.