Home  5  Books  5  GBEzine  5  News  5  HelpDesk  5  Register  5  GreenBuilding.co.uk
Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories



Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.
Buy individually or both books together. Delivery is free!


powered by Surfing Waves




Vanilla 1.0.3 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome to new Forum Visitors
 Join the forum now and benefit from discussions with thousands of other green building fans and discounts on Green Building Press publications: Apply now.




Renewable Energy: hydro

Bottom of Page

1 to 6 of 6

  1.  
  1.  
    Freeflow installed a weir,and penstock, 2 years ago, but never got round to installing the turbine, so I got a local company to build me a small pelton turbine, which they promised would generate 1-2kw. After a few months and trying everything they could, it still only produced 300w, so they took it back and gave me a full refund.

    I am left with the penstock, running past my house, with no turbine at the bottom, what a waste.

    Is there anyone out there that would be interested in supplying a turbine

    I have 12m head, 180mm penstock running 130m to turbine house, with a few bends. It is capable of supplying 40l/sec, when the burn is at average flow.The company that built my last one measured the pressure at the bottom of the pipe, it was 1 bar. They thought a small crossflow was what I needed.
    •  
      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2012
     
    Is it not possible to have a water wheel like Dick strawbridge did in "Its not easy being green" on the BBC? This is something I would really like to do. His drives all his low voltage lighting in his house.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2012 edited
     
    Sounds like a good site, as with that flow rate and head you have about 4.7 kW available in the water flow. A reasonable small turgo or similar should be able to get around 70% of that out as useful work, and a generator will be around 80 to 85% efficient, so with luck you should be good for 2.6 to 2.8 kW, a bit more than the estimate you were given.

    The Stream engine is a pretty good unit that I know of, but it' may not give full output with a head of 12 m, might be an idea to check with the manufacturer: http://www.microhydropower.com/our-products/stream-engine

    I believe that the 240 V Stream engine can be grid tied, but I'm not sure whether anyone in the UK has done this.

    They also do a low head unit, that might be better suited to your needs, but it may be too small for you. You may be able to use two of them in parallel, though: http://www.microhydropower.com/our-products/low-head-stream-engine/

    There are other, Chinese made, units around, too, but I've heard mixed reports about them from the friend of mine who has a Stream engine. He bought a Chinese unit, only to have the bearings fail pretty quickly.
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2012
     
    Try chatting to Paul at the end of the road:

    http://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/commissioning-the-powerspout/

    He runs a handful of turbines of various sorts for his own use and his neighbour's. Mostly lower flow/higher head than what you want, I think.

    Huge Piggott's mostly into wind but not completely ignorant about water power and may well be worth contacting. He supplied at least one of Paul's turbines - the Powerspout I think.

    http://scoraigwind.com/
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2012
     
    Hugh has just posted today again on fieldlines.com, and there's a fair amount of hydro expertise there too.

    Rgds

    Damon
  6.  
    Thanks for that, I will have a look

1 to 6 of 6

  1.  
Add your comments

    Username Password
  • Format comments as
 
Back to Discussions Top of Page
   
The Ecobuilding Buzz
Site Map    |   Home    |   View Cart    |   Pressroom   |   Business   |   Links   
Logout    

© Green Building Press