Engineering help/ waterwheel

[sailawayrb]

As others have said, using a water wheel to generate electric is far from optimal.  You would be far better off using a turbine.  Multiply the head in feet by the flow rate in gallons you will use and then divide by 10 for a quick estimate of the watts you will be able to produce.  Then take a look at this site for more details:

http://nooutage.com/hydroele.htm

Bob B.

[wagspe208]

Using a water wheel may not be optimal. But, it may be fun. I will grid tie, so fun has to be a part of it. A turbine is boring even if efficient. I may try a turbine. I have to do way more research, but I have a year or 2.
I have 26' of head.
GPM... whatever an 8" pipe will flow I guess. The questions is how long will I have that flow. I don't want to drop the lake level more than 2'. So, 15 acres x 2' is...  lets see 1 acre is 43,560sq ft. so 15 acres is 653400 sq. ft. x 2' depth=1,306,800 cubic ft. = 9,774,864 gallons (I think) (1 cu ft=7.48 gal? that does not seem right)
Then I get lost in the calculations.
Wags