Hydro turbine system

[mbryner]

Hello everyone,

I haven't signed in here in a while.   My Listeroid is working great.   I need to adjust the starter to stop some grinding but we're up to 1300 hours (?) on the meter now.   Here is my latest project:

Here's what I worked on with my tractor on Friday afternoon:  (you guys know some of this stuff but I just posted this to another forum and I just copied & pasted)

1st some background:  We live off-grid -- not connected to utility power at all.  In summer there is plenty of power from solar panels.   In fall and winter, things are not so nice.   Lots of rain and overcast.   We have to charge batteries with a Lister diesel generator when the sun's not shining.   (Some of the time I burn old waste engine oil in the generator which offsets diesel cost.)   There is a steep little seasonal creek around the corner from the house, which just started running again.   Last spring in May, just before the creek dried up, I installed a hydroelectric turbine.  

Over the past week, we had 10 inches of rain.   The culvert at the intake screen got clogged from debris.   The whole intake system then got washed out on Wed. night.   Luckily the expensive stainless steel coanda screen didn't get washed down the creek because of some strategically placed cables I had installed last year.   Time to redesign.  



After getting the culvert unplugged, but just a few hours before getting completely washed out:

On Friday afternoon, with a lot of tire spinning in 4wd I finally got my Kioti w/ backhoe up to the intake area.   First, I dug a new settling pool to about 3 ft deep and used the spoils to make a new mini-dam.  Tried to use as many boulders as possible.  Then, instead of placing the coanda intake screen under a culvert, I placed it at the lowest point along the dam.   Now, when the water rises hopefully it will just flow deeper over the screen like a normal spillway.     The mistake was using a culvert for this application.









Youtube clip of the turbine:

Have a great day everyone!

Marcus

[mike90045]

Wow.  Be glad you did not loose your turbine.

  The creek where I was going to site my install, flooded it's banks, and washed out the site where I "was" going to site a turbine.   Now if I relocate the turbine, I'll have less than 20' of head, and even with a 5" pipe, it may not be worth it.  I'll have to re-do the calcs again.

[BruceM]

Awesome, Marcus.  I was just wondering how do you cope with freezing in the exposed pipe, or is the water flow all winter sufficient to avoid that?

Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Tom Reed]

Looks like you're having fun! How's the wife and kids adapting to the off-grid life style?

[mbryner]

Ahh, the kids are mostly too young to notice that we don't turn on as many lights as everyone else.   But I guess we're training them well because we've heard one of them cide the other that he/she forgot to turn of the bathroom light, or that they don't need lights in the daytime.   

Haven't had to worry about the pipe freezing (yet).   The penstock is mostly poly pipe so it shouldn't be the same as pvc when frozen.  The lower section (last 200') is PVC, but that section has no significant dips to collect standing water.   Also, like you mention, as long as it's flowing it won't freeze, and I plan on keeping the water flowing 24/7!

[sailawayrb]

Glad to see that you are still alive and kicking Marcus!  The hydro looks great and your actuals appear close to forecast.  How did your barn project turn out?

Bob B.

[sailawayrb]

PS - Here's what Evans Creek looked like on 12/2...

[Tom Reed]

Our kids were in their late teens when we moved into our off-grid house. My son, an avid gamer, had a PC that would heat the room noticeably warmer than the rest of the house. It was a major bummer for him to have to use his laptop. You've got almost as many hours on your listeroid as mine, which is now at 1550 hours. It's not needed as much since the kids moved out.

Our domestic water system has 1200' of 3/4" poly in the woods between the spring and lower water tank. One year it froze and a coupling separated. When the other side of the coupling was cut out of the pipe, a nice big pile of frozen water came out of the pipe in 3/4" dia by 6" long pieces.

Glad to hear from you and that you are doing well.

[mbryner]

sailawayrb, that's a *lot* of water!

Tom, did you tell your son he had to pay for the fuel to keep the generator running when he wanted to run his PC?   

[mbryner]

BTW, the hydro has been broken for several days now.  If you look at the pics above, you'll notice there's water flowing to the right of the intake screen, through the rocks and under some of the boulders.   It was fine when there was a lot of flow, but the water has tapered a bit over the past week without rain.   Now all the water is flowing to the side instead of over the intake.   Today, I diverted most of the inflow via a 6" flexible pipe.   After the water level decreased, I was able to line the sides with some concrete.   Carrying 60 lb bags of concrete 1/4 mile up 200' vertical was quite a chore.  (Too muddy for the tractor.)   I'll try bringing the water level back up tomorrow and see what the output wattage is.

Marcus

[sailawayrb]

Sounds like another project.  Probably need a proper capture pond (for low water conditions) and a bypass (for flood conditions). BTW, if your PO is 490W @ 184 feet (i.e., 80 PSI static converted to head) and 20 GPM, your actual overall efficiency is 70% and very good.

http://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Hydroelectric_Capacity_Calculator.html

20
184
100
70

Bob B.

[BruceM]

It must be a bear to make a water containment/control structure in ground so wet.  I hope you can work it out successfully, Marcus.
Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Tom Reed]

I tried on the fuel costs, but SWMBO nixed the idea. 

For your pond, though it's a bit lat now, some EDPM pond liner is the ticket behind your dam. It can be found at some ag stores.

[mbryner]

It wouldn't be so bad if it only leaked a little, but when I cleaned out the pond with the backhoe it was mostly big rocks and small gravelly stuff.   Like a sieve.

Bob, I just pulled the 50% efficiency out of the hat to get to the 20-25 gpm figure.   I don't have a great way of actually measuring gpm at the turbine.   70% would be awesome.

Tom, I've used EPDM for other ponds.  Worked good for a while, but then got a slow leak.

[mobile_bob]

Marcus

good to see your latest report!

i am green with envy my friend, what i would give for that hydro resource.

i do have a question,  what voltage does your plant produce?

480watts continuous is a very useful powerplant in my opinion, and something many would trade a first born child for!  (ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit)

very cool indeed.

bob g