I enjoyed your video. I have no system set up and my power bill last summer was $21 per month. $8 of that was the account fee. So 13$ 🤔 I was a little surprised at how little power was produced by your hydro system. 🤷 Although that is quite the impressive solar array you have there. 👍 Anyhow you have a good day and Live long and prosper 🖖
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By replacing the reservoir at the top with something way bigger (aka a pond), you may modulate the flow of water depending of the need of the battery charger. To say it another way, instead of storing energy into the battery, witch is costly, better to store it by retaining the water on top. Regulation of the produced power can be done by automation of your 4 valves inside the PVC box, using servo motors,.
There's a vein of awareness for the environment the entire video. A pond would change the local ecosystem a lot more than a drum. Perhaps this was his goal?
Battery can respond much faster than the pond to drops in power. Like an Uninterruptable power supply for your computer. But you could have an electrical feedback system going back to your 'pond' to engage (or kill) the flow of water to your hydro generator when the battery drops too much . Personally, I like the idea of a man made pond, but at the source point, not part way down.
@@gjscomputerstuff Yes battery's are faster and they also form a kind of pond, a pond of electrical energy. But batteries are expensive and a pond might cost less per kWh once that potential energy is converted into electrical. Would be like a generator you run when the solarpanels are not charging the batteries enough.
@@wazza33racer That is absolutely true. So in the end it is a choice that each has to make for one self. Likely if there is a pond, use it, but if not, just buy more batteries :-)
Pro tip: do not just discard the material that ends up at the bottom of your wooden box without first panning it to check for gold content. Just put a removable plastic box at the bottom of what you already have and then lift it out, dump it in a tailings bag and when you have collected enough, go pan it out. Who knows, your stream might run past a gold bearing source that wears down into the water over time.
@@Escape.Idiocracy I thought the same thing. Next video... "How I ditched my Awesome Mountain Hydroelectric Power and installed a self-panning gold farm!"
A small tip : if your area doesn't freeze in winter, please plant some mint around the turbine. Rats won't go near the mint. They hate that smell. Also mint is more like a wild plant so no maintenance needed and you can plant the store bought ones and they will grow from stems.
For someone who is not an electrician you've done a pretty darn good job. Im not only talking about the electrical workmanship, but, putting up the whole install. Its the whole bells and whistles from source, electrical generation (Solar,Hydro,Grid) down to distribution. Its practically a mini power Plant.. Salute to you sir. Coming from an electrical engineer.
@@jeffcossaboon5012 It would depend on the tolerance requirements, which typically would be +/-3%. It also depends on how much current you want available. As you draw more current, the voltage will drop proportionally, which could be managed by increasing the size of the wire.
@joeabad5908 I am very interested in learning electrical engineering. My degree is in Political science, so I have no electrical engineering experience, nor do I know anyone (still alive) who does who could advise me. I have learned basic electrical skills, like adding circuits in my home for lights, outlets, a new oven, etc. around my home, but that’s it so far. Are there any books that u would recommend where I should start learning? My interest is personal, not professional- I want to learn for my own sake. I am especially interested for the purpose of eventually building my own home and living “off the grid”. I’d truly appreciate any recommendations or advice you r willing to share! Thank you!
In the late 1960's I lived off the grid in British Columbia with a small diesel installed by a retired American engineer. He had a beautiful small hydro plant that produced about 5 kW. He used the electric power to provide heat and power to both his home and his well-equipped machine shop. He placed pipe for the system's two heat pumps in a lower pond he had made in close to his home. While I was envious of his system we never spent more than about $300.per year on our diesel. Every two weeks we shut it down for an oil change.
There's a guy in New Zealand that uses a an old washing machine and has power with it for close to 20 years by now. One of his videos is called 16 years of free power. This is another great video. Must show it to my brother. 👍🇮🇪🙏🏼
To me, the problem was not so much the wire mess than the exposed connections. Just because it's in the basement doesn't mean something isn't going to end on those contacts. You even had the experience of the mouse ! Also, i hope those exposed wirenuts are supposed to be in that tee box, otherwise they might corrode away, especially if always under tension. Also, an idea to prevent problems with expansions/contractions would be to have a sloped loop held on a platform of some kind that would allow for expansion/contraction movement while still plugged in. Great video, all in one !
in winter it would help to let the water circulate in the pipes even if you're not using the turbine, flowing water does not freeze ! i've never encountered such an amount of expansion/contraction yet i've done installs in high altitude cold climates
I just came across this via the RUclips algorithm. I'm building an offgrid home and now I have another option after seeing this. Thank you so much for doing this!
1:34 😯 You should sift and pan the silt, sediment and rocks from that box. Never know what kind of interesting things might turn up! 🙂 Great setup and thanks for the in depth walk through of your system.👍
Have you considered a float switch in the barrel and PID controller to adjust dynamically the turbine valves? It's a fair bit more complexity but it would allow you to get the most power out of your system without losing it to the overflow
In a manner similar to a toilet flush controlled by a float mechanism, one can regulate the flow: when the float is at its highest point, it fully opens a valve; as the water level decreases in the tank, it closes, and adjustment can be made using threaded rods. No need for electrickery.
My system has been in operation 17 years, a Harris hydro fed by 1/4 mile of 3" line, with 147' of head, producint about 840 watts, grid tied. This year though, on spring startup, it appears my line is partially blocked. I have a slow flow, but no leaks, visual inspection shows no kinks in the line, and the Coanada screen has always been in place so large debris has ever gotten into it. I have tried letting it run unobstructed, hoping to slush it out, no luck. Luckily I have plenty of PV power, but it's driving me crazy seeing all the spring runoff go by without making more than 100 watts!
Electrician here, you've done a pretty impressive job! Couple of things for your safety, firstly, enclose your rectifier.. secondly, the cables you are using to connect to your domestic socket are known in the trade as a 'suicide lead' as the male plug is the source... you really should wire both of these through a permanent isolator as both the plug and socket could be considered 'live' (hot??) or a source.
Thank you. Yes the rectifier does need to be enclosed inside of a well vented Box. It can get rather warm. The grid tie limiter inverter plugs are excited by grid power. When you remove them from the grid the entire inverter shuts off immediately. Just this afternoon I pulled those plugs to install a lithium iron phosphate battery And the inverters shut off within a 1/2 second.
@Land to House Nice choice of batteries! When I've used rectfiers like you are (in my case powering the DC bus of VFDs), I've mounted them in a vented box but on a heat sink protruding through the back for better cooling. Looking forward to the update!
One more thing to consider is that you are essentially breaking the stream like this. It would be better if you had a small weep hole in the reservoir so that it can relieve excess pressure as needed, but will create back pressure to the water feed, causing it to not redirect to the reservoir barrel but instead continue along its natural path.
Thanks for the informative video. Two comments. -- First, you obviously don't have bears in your area. Decades ago I visited friends in the Salmon Mountains of northern California. They had a similar sort if black pipe for water from a spring to their home and then a small reservoir for the local small town usage (gardens and such). Theirs was buried, and it ran about three miles (if I recall) down the mountain from the spring, but bears still occasionally found it and pulled it up. Apparently they liked to play with it, and chewed up a section, requiring a repair piece to be spliced in. -- Second, you might want to look at the Gridlessness channel to see their microhydro install. I just looked at it again recently, and they seemed to have less or about the same pressure, but their output power (wattage) was higher, and it had been running for 15 years. Again, congratulations on all the work you put in on that system and sharing it with us. It gives any number of great "lessons learned" for would be hydroelectric builders.
Normally on those barbed couplings it is recommended to double-clamp. Offset the clamp heads. Doing this can handle a lot of pressure and mechanical stress. The plastic coupling or the pipe itself will then be the weak point.
This may be more sophisticated or expensive than anything you would want to try, but if you could add a couple IBC totes at your buffer/filter tanks you could hypothetically be using them as batteries. If you knew you were going to be doing a chore that's electricity intensive you could open up your reservoir for a boost when you need it. I didn't catch what your flow rates are but a couple thousand gallons of storage may figure out to a kw or two and may prove to be almost as cost effective as batteries.
Love your set up, I can definitely tell that you have put a lot of thought into it and I admire that it has very little impact on the surrounding environment. Definitely something to brag about even though it may need a little bit of touching up, it’s still working and that’s great, thanks so much for posting!!!!
I see you already have a thousand suggestions to improve the setup, but here is what came to mind right away. 18:52 the turbine ramps up quite a bit when closing the lid. My rational thinking says it is because the air in the chamber also begins to spin, which results in less drag on the turbine. The only thing that makes it a tad bit less efficient is the 90-degree corners of the box. Maybe air resistance becomes even smaller if the corners are rounded, resulting in less turbulence. Keep up the great work!
There is around a 2 foot loss from the intake and barrel. This means around 6w of loss. Not much worth fighting over. The silt catchment and air removal is much more important
I agree,you are venting the head to the intake at the barrel. Plug the outlet pipe and seal the barrel very well, and you have the head right to the intake height. This will give more pressure at the turbine, so you can use a smaller nozzle, giving the same flow as before, but with a higher velocity, hence more power output.
It's good that you also include previous years design iterations that had failed as well and for what reason for the lessons learned aspect. Economical and reliable and acceptable performance are the 3 requirements of succesful commercialization. This is like indirect solar power.
I agree with Joe, the electrical engineer who gave you kudos on your installtion. I have worked in the electrical distribution industry. And I took note of the incident where a mouse are through one of the phase wire coming from the turbine. The mouse met its demise by providing a ground path for the compromised phase. A ground fault detector can be constructed from a small torodial transformer through which all three phase wires will run. Normally the net magnetic field will be zero and the transformer output will be zero. The loss of a phase will result in an output from the toroidal transformer. Some experimentation may be required.
With new server rack batteries and a few more solar panels I would think you would be able to build the capacity to be off grid completely, I guess it depends how many batteries you buy at $1,750 a pop. Even 4 of the 5.12 kWh would double your 8 AGM batteries now and last 15 plus years..
5:30 In an enclosed hydraulic system, such as the pipes you use, all that matters is the the output is lower than the input. You only need a "gradual slope" when using an aqueduct.
Nice setup. Well made video, very informative and well explained. I've never worked with hydro power, and it was interesting to see it installed and functional. I've installed solar power systems, not my own yet but plan on doing so. As I live in SW Florida the solar would be more than enough thankfully, as there are no creeks near me. Or mountains. I will also compliment you on your "powerhouse" build, it's not bad and actually looks pretty clean for an amateur install. I am an Electrician with 35 years in the trade, and would offer a couple suggestions though, fairly simple ones that would be well worth doing. One would be to cover all exposed terminal connections. As you've already experienced, mice will get into things and love chewing on wires. I've been told that the current flow attracts them, whether from the magnetic field or because they like the taste of insulation, I don't know. For a while companies were using a vegetable oil based plastic as wire skin and there were multiple fires caused by rodents eating through the insulation. I don't believe that's used anymore, but they still chew through wires regularly. Placing traps would be a good idea. The bare terminal connections are an issue with rodents as they produce heat and they will build nests close to them. If they complete a circuit or ground out your system you'll have an issue. Second suggestion would be placing "Caution- Live Electrical Equipment" signs on your shed. From a liability standpoint it will offer protection to anyone who could possibly enter there, but more importantly it will protect you from any legal issues if someone were to get hurt. I know it's stupid, however there are plenty of stupid people in the world today. Even if someone were to go in your shed, on your property, to attempt to steal your batteries or inverter, if they were injured they could attempt to sue you. And possibly even win. It's ridiculous, but it has happened. Here in Florida there were at least 2 cases that I know of where some crackhead went into a Florida Power and Light switching station to steal copper wire. While it was energized. Did not end well for them as they were killed, however their families sued. And were given money. I'm not sure if it was a judgement to pay them or if the company settled out of court to avoid bad publicity, but the bottom line is that the placement of Caution signs was increased, as well as the number of signs required for any areas that contain energized equipment. Better safe than sorry. Good luck on your planned upgrades, I'll look for the videos.
I built one in Arizona the best I've ever seen,, I got the idea from an old gold mine, Wish I was there to help you out it could run all Winter. With reasonable temperatures. Plus we have hot and cold running Is water in the house.
Very nice review of what you've accomplished so far, thank you. That wasn't a mouse that ruined the previous PMA, it was loose wiring shifting around allowing one of the coil wires to touch, abrade, and then arc to the impeller housing. That short but deep notch missing from the wire is a tell-tale of arc-ablation, rodent chews are long and shallow. It's actually a design issue for Langston to work on: tie down the coil leads to the stator core after winding the coils but before potting the stator, anchoring the pigtail leads to the housing so that movement of the pigtail doesn't impart any movement to the stator wiring, and an insulating layer between the stator wiring and the housing such as 3-5 layers of resin impregnated paper.
It's always better to place a rectifier as close as possible to the generator as dc has less parasitic losses, specially with higher frequencies. Also you might want to look into active rectifier to improve efficiency
Great set up, there's one 1 problem I see - is the power box with that unistrut bar. I know it a very small chance of happening, but what if it failed while you working on power supply and knocked you into it ? There looked like there a fair bit of weight behind it. I know hinged doors wouldn't cover you if raining, but allot safer.
Thank you for putting this together, both the system and the detailed video, so important to explain the "why" and lessoned learned. Two questions: given your experience with mice and the other woodland creatures that will admire your green-energy why did you not further protect the vulnerable wiring and I absolutely hate with a vengeance the use of "Wire-nuts" to connect your generator with the to-house wiring connection, terrible. Thank you in any case. 👍 (Edit: The outdoor electrical box, this is a better idea. However for fire safety - it's a bit close to your house, fire spreads with ease. It would be wise to install an "Automatic Fire Suppression System" with a primed burn-through-pipe running above each electronic system within that cupboard. There are many to choose from online, personally I would use TWO medium priced independent systems covering the same area, as this allows for one to fail while still protecting your property. Also install smoke detectors etc.)
At around 9:00-- I doubt those are "several springs" 9in the spring bed, but just parts of the creek where the water is so low all you see is the stuff that's flowing through the ground... same source, just under the spring bed until less porous soil is encountered and forces the water to emerge. He is no doubt affecting the habitat for that short length of creek where the flow has been diverted.
I really enjoy your videos on your micro hydro. I think you have a lot more to optimize. However, most of them are more nice to have than need to have, since the win per option is very low. E.g. you could optimize the laminar flow into the turbine or you could make a more complex regulation of your water usage. The last will be saving water at the top and you could build in a container for storage. Also you could turn the water off when not needed. I have more ideas, just from watching your videos... Keep them coming, plz :D
Sir. 2 points, 1 , the 3 pipes from your catchment setup do not require a CONSTANT FALL, laying on the ground going uphill slightly will not stop the water flow, the key is to always to have the pipe lower than the catchment setup,the syphon action will suck any air that collects. 2 , your 55 gallon drum is an excellent device, to prevent the connections disconnecting, either use a tank connector fitting with a solvent weld, or dig a hole in the ground,bury the tank and the outlet pipe to just below ground level, the cleaning pipe will also be buried and extended for access to the cap,i would recommend the cleaning pipe to be 2 inch minimum,
I love this project and am about to do basically the same setup. Any chance you could put together a schematic so I can have better guide to design my system? Also, which batteries are you planning to upgrade to? Keep up the great work :)
I have a similar setup but I’m using a Harris Pelton from Kansas Wind Power and with one 5/16” nozzle at 58psi I’m getting 350watts. I would get a bit more if I replaced the bronze pelton wheel that’s been running continuously since 2008. The cups are worn smooth so some efficiency is lost. They have a new model with stainless pelton wheel that I would get if I was starting over. The unit in this video seems to be a bit missing some efficiency.
Where can I purchase these stainless pelton wheels? I’ve been running my wilderness Alaskan pelton wheel since 1981 and it would not surprise me to discover that the 3 bronze wheels are becoming worn. Thanks!
I found this very interesting and educational. That said, it seems that the power output is rather meager for the materials used and time invested. I wonder how much energy is embedded in all of that plastic pipe and the other materials? You said that you don't use the system in the winter months, which to me seems to be the time when an alternative to solar power is most helpful. I'm also concerned about the long-term durability and maintainability of the system. A well designed and build solar + battery system should run for years at a time with almost no attention.
We used flex seal to make a custom box for a planter to seal the wooden box so it would hold water. Flex seal will do the trick too I think for sealing your box.
Hey, I've been watching your microhydro vids the last few days, very informative and interesting.! 2 questions. How cold does it have to be before the system freezes up? With running water, that might get it through a frost I presume? Also, I wonder if it would be possible/useful to ad a flywheel to the generator somehow, to store the kinetic energy produced? Has spwncer ever tried it? Hope you see this, thanks again
Thank you for watching. The system can handle a light frost but sometimes our winters drop down to the single digits. Definitely has problems at that point. I'm not sure about the flywheel. The constant water flow from the mountain seems to do just fine At maintaining the spin.
Thanks for the reply.! Can't understand why this system hasn't taken off here in ireland with all the rain and hilly land and streams. Or the hydro pump for that matter.
Oh you're so lucky to be in an area with both solar and hydro available. I would give my left arm to be in a location like yours. Nice job on all the electronics, it looks great.
Wow! I have been following this build since the start; amazing progress and really cool to see the iterations and how you've applied all the lessons learned! Are you at the point of being able to financially justify the build? If you were to start building the system today with your current understanding, how would you start?
Because of youtube the build is 110% worth building. Non youtube I would have gone with lifepo4 batteries and there are other options than the midnite Classics for charge controller.
Did you think of renting a fusing machine and fusing the pipe? Other option would be a Victaulic type 905 coupling. I have used both options hundreds of time at work and they never fail, never leak.
Just a thought the overflow on the header tank if you pipe it to the bottom of the tank inside the barrel say an inch from the bottom it will self clear the silt out of the barrel
This is a really nice set up. Really enjoyed watching the video and is very informative and well explained. I would love to do this myself if I had the opportunity to live near a running water source like you do. The nice thing about this is you can produce power 24/7 unlike Solar. I've been electrical contractor for over 35 years and have been living off grid for the past 30+ years. So I can really appreciate the work you put into your system. One thing I would suggest as I have also experienced in my own set up is that you need to upgrade with time. That being said I would suggest you using lithium batteries or something similar as opposed to lead acid. I understand that they are expensive but the cost is well worth. Plus you won't have to deal with all the maintenance like you have to do with Lead acid type batteries.. One other thing that I would suggest is to make sure your battery cables are sized according to your battery amperage and fused according to your amperage if you haven't done so already. This is one thing that is often overlooked. Looking forward to your next update. Keep up the great work and please stay safe.⚡👍
Where your barrel is situated is the point of your head pressure for calculations, you would have being better to put that alot closer to the inlet to get a higher head pressure
The wires seem to be just fine ,as long as you know what for with them then nothing else matters . You are a good provider for yourself n family so think good of yourself with this electrical system. The power co. would have a conniption fit if every one did this and maybe we should .. A smart tenacious man you are. GREAT VIDEO.
the caulking on the electrics is very concerning lol i love the exposed wiring, fast n lose baby, at least you have acknowledged the risk of fire and somewhat tried to isolate that issue, thats a plus.
In Chino Valley Arizona I ran across some Springs that feather small pond. Put an 8-inch pipe on the other end, and reduces down slowly to an inch and a half. It was amazing till electricity we are running off of that. Plus it was drinkable water. It was like a small Paradise. On 89 hey I think going towards Prescott from Ash Fork Koma there's a road that goes off to the right to the Seneca Ranch. Some of the largest Chinese elm trees you ever seen in your entire life. Water from the Springs come out of this granite rocks right out of the small holes, it's incredible, ice cold.
Gret setup! I have one niggle though. 2:54 If the inlet to the manifold is 50mm then it doesn't matter how many outlets there are from the manifold, it will not increase your flow rate to more than what can pass through the 50mm inlet.
First, I am very happy that you do this successfully. I want to help you a bit. You are losing some energy because of the current arrangement because of the sand/air bubble barrel. The tank has an overflow and open to the atmosphere, which means all the head you had above it from the manifold at the wood box till the barrel is gone. It is better to keep the parrel next to the manifold at the top, then all the water head from the exit to the turbinelocation will be effective. Btw I am a hydraulic engineer. If you like, i can do some calculations to tell you how to optimize the system in the manar of hoses or pipe diameters, etc. I like to help free of charge
At my job they use a hot knife style system that melts the pipe and then its pushed together to weld the pipes together. may could make something similar using a torch and some clamps
I just saw this video. The soil that the box collects at your stream is likely to be incredibly rich soil, very good for home gardens. I would put a basket or reservoir in there to pull the dredge out and add it to your composting (assumes your spring water is potable.)
What surprises me is that you use a Pelton wheel in a horizontal plane. This means that the down half of each cup performs as intended BUT the top half cup causes confused water flow which MAY be inefficient. Is there a good reason why you use a Pelton wheel in an application that better suits a turgo wheel
Thanks for the video. Used to watch all the time and then some priorities and interest changed. Glad I came back to see this recap. I still want land with running water to deploy micro-hydro.
That barrel with the water outlet that collects sand eliminates all the pressure that has been collected up to that point. Also having some feedback system where the pelton nozzle is adjusted so the pipe never empties and you always have full head would be good. This could be done using a pressure sensor
@@LandtoHouse If it is just 2-3 feed, you could recover that by just making that "overflow" pipe 4ft tall. No water would come out, but the bubbles would.
that poly pipe is usually heated/metled together just butted together. I have a cadman sprinkler that uses poly pipe and runs 135 psi through it. The poly got cut with a tractor disc and the vendor came out and repaired it on site in about 30 min. it has to roll up on its self and so it cant have couplers or hose clamps in it.
Excellent video, yes the battery bank needs to upgrade away from any lead battery system, since right there you loose 30% with lithium based only 5% or less while charging.
On gridlessness they showed a guy who was using a single turbine called stream engine. He dug a good sized holding pond that was lined with timbers and it was a really good system
Can just mount a junction box where the rectifier is and send it through your existing conduit to power shed if there is room. It just seems like a part that could get hot or fail.
I have a healthy crick in the backyard. Thanks for pioneering! Not sure how I would deal with the freezing as I live at the 46th parallel at 6000ft? Any ideas? I’ve got more flow but I haven’t the steepness. I’m going to have to investigate, do some math.
You should consider encasing the the phase coming off the turbine in a waterproof solution. The LB was open and the wires were connected externally. Doesn’t seem like it would stop much water from getting on the connections or from traveling down the conduit.
1) I'm not sure some agency wouldn't frown on this locally. 2) 55gal drum cleanout could be smaller to utilise a ball valve. 3) I learned after a few pipes pushing apart is to heat the poly pipe to soften it and then double clamp the barbs while warm. I lost two 2500 gal tanks of water to barbs popping off before someone with more experience alerted me to softening the pipe.
8:01 if u could get a swimming pool return jet assembly to put on the barrel to connect the pinstock it will never come out. It threads on the inside of the barrel with a 1 1\2" nut and then has a female thread on the outside for the pinstock
I've been thinking of what I could get from a system like you have. Thanks for the information. Now we just need to have a wind turbine for a competition. I suppose in winter you could capture more hydro to supplement the loss of solar. In winter my solar drops to one tenth on many cloudy days. 24 hours of a 400 watt hydro is a constant 10k a day.
07:00 - scouring pipe at bottom, make it as large as possible to use water force of flow to really clear the sediment out when opened. How often does depend on how clear the water flow set up is further upline. 👍
Awesome video, very informative, I watched the 500 watt hydro video before this one and that was great as well. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and not just your success but the failures along the way.
You need sensors and automation on your pinstock to detect water levels / pressure to regulate how much wattage can be created without fear of draining the pipes. Are you looking into that?
Have one or a few small 1/2 pipes for overflow go to bottom of barrel, this will help empty the sand out of barrel. run out top big hole, so three pipes are inside, and allow to flow around if pipes get covered by sentiment.
Very instructive video! I’m planning to do something similar myself. My cottage is quite close to a creak with a lot more flow then you have, but lower height. I’m planning for a 110 mm tube.
Hi Seth, Great video on your journey. Happy to see the channel growth. You are looking well and still standing tall after all life's tribulations. Give the kids a hug and keep on keeping on brother. 😎
hi there interesting . i liked all of it . i have water at around the same rate but only 8 foot of drop . did hook up a ram pump about 25 years ago . if there was enough drop from your turbine to the creek would it be possable to put a water wheel for a 2nd use of the waist water . good show john
First, I want to say I like what I see, you did a great job putting all that together. Have you ever thought about adding a second barrel ahead of the first, this way you can use it as a catchment any debris. By adding this second barrel, it would mean you would only have to flush it once a year, say after the rainy season. Your Micro Hydro Turbine box, if it was me, I would get some PVC boards and plexiglass to make my turbine box with. Those items can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.
I know it’s very expensive initially, but lithium ion would last much longer, handling a lot more cycles and pay for themselves compared to AGM. I’m in the process of switching over to lithium ion from AGM.
For power on demand try a bank of water accumulators in the form of a water pressure tanks that could be charged and discharged as needed. Like what's used in a water well
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If you Enjoyed this hydro install check out this one here:
ruclips.net/video/V82SVeVXKcA/видео.html
put a box over those wire nuts by the turbine box btw
those wire nuts really shouldn't be exposed like that
Should be a simple enough fix.
I enjoyed your video. I have no system set up and my power bill last summer was $21 per month. $8 of that was the account fee. So 13$ 🤔
I was a little surprised at how little power was produced by your hydro system. 🤷
Although that is quite the impressive solar array you have there. 👍
Anyhow you have a good day and Live long and prosper 🖖
Decentralized, home-scale *nuclear fusion* technology confirmed by the Stanford Research Institute to produce commercially significant net positive energy with license to manufacture available today from *Brillouin Energy* .
Would be possible for you to improve turbine-box to prevent intake of outside air even when lid is closed ?
By replacing the reservoir at the top with something way bigger (aka a pond), you may modulate the flow of water depending of the need of the battery charger. To say it another way, instead of storing energy into the battery, witch is costly, better to store it by retaining the water on top. Regulation of the produced power can be done by automation of your 4 valves inside the PVC box, using servo motors,.
There's a vein of awareness for the environment the entire video. A pond would change the local ecosystem a lot more than a drum. Perhaps this was his goal?
Battery can respond much faster than the pond to drops in power. Like an Uninterruptable power supply for your computer.
But you could have an electrical feedback system going back to your 'pond' to engage (or kill) the flow of water to your hydro generator when the battery drops too much . Personally, I like the idea of a man made pond, but at the source point, not part way down.
@@gjscomputerstuff Yes battery's are faster and they also form a kind of pond, a pond of electrical energy.
But batteries are expensive and a pond might cost less per kWh once that potential energy is converted into electrical. Would be like a generator you run when the solarpanels are not charging the batteries enough.
building a storage pond is something of a major undertaking........and they silt up.
@@wazza33racer That is absolutely true. So in the end it is a choice that each has to make for one self. Likely if there is a pond, use it, but if not, just buy more batteries :-)
Pro tip: do not just discard the material that ends up at the bottom of your wooden box without first panning it to check for gold content. Just put a removable plastic box at the bottom of what you already have and then lift it out, dump it in a tailings bag and when you have collected enough, go pan it out. Who knows, your stream might run past a gold bearing source that wears down into the water over time.
Not a bad idea 💡 👍👌
He should set up a box for that with carpet/ripples, plus this looks like N. Cack-a-lacka.
This would likely have a higher ROI than the power….
@@Escape.Idiocracy I thought the same thing. Next video... "How I ditched my Awesome Mountain Hydroelectric Power and installed a self-panning gold farm!"
completely agree. seems like the ideal place for that to be a good source for finding gold
A small tip : if your area doesn't freeze in winter, please plant some mint around the turbine. Rats won't go near the mint. They hate that smell. Also mint is more like a wild plant so no maintenance needed and you can plant the store bought ones and they will grow from stems.
For someone who is not an electrician you've done a pretty darn good job. Im not only talking about the electrical workmanship, but, putting up the whole install. Its the whole bells and whistles from source, electrical generation (Solar,Hydro,Grid) down to distribution. Its practically a mini power Plant.. Salute to you sir.
Coming from an electrical engineer.
Question: he said he is only running a #10 250ft. Is he not getting voltage drop? Should it not be #8?
@@jeffcossaboon5012 more the merrier
@@jeffcossaboon5012 It would depend on the tolerance requirements, which typically would be +/-3%. It also depends on how much current you want available. As you draw more current, the voltage will drop proportionally, which could be managed by increasing the size of the wire.
Agree, from a Structural Engineer.
@joeabad5908 I am very interested in learning electrical engineering. My degree is in Political science, so I have no electrical engineering experience, nor do I know anyone (still alive) who does who could advise me. I have learned basic electrical skills, like adding circuits in my home for lights, outlets, a new oven, etc. around my home, but that’s it so far. Are there any books that u would recommend where I should start learning? My interest is personal, not professional- I want to learn for my own sake. I am especially interested for the purpose of eventually building my own home and living “off the grid”. I’d truly appreciate any recommendations or advice you r willing to share! Thank you!
In the late 1960's I lived off the grid in British Columbia with a small diesel installed by a retired American engineer. He had a beautiful small hydro plant that produced about 5 kW. He used the electric power to provide heat and power to both his home and his well-equipped machine shop. He placed pipe for the system's two heat pumps in a lower pond he had made in close to his home. While I was envious of his system we never spent more than about $300.per year on our diesel. Every two weeks we shut it down for an oil change.
Not a bad idea using both systems.
There's a guy in New Zealand that uses a an old washing machine and has power with it for close to 20 years by now. One of his videos is called 16 years of free power. This is another great video. Must show it to my brother. 👍🇮🇪🙏🏼
To me, the problem was not so much the wire mess than the exposed connections. Just because it's in the basement doesn't mean something isn't going to end on those contacts. You even had the experience of the mouse ! Also, i hope those exposed wirenuts are supposed to be in that tee box, otherwise they might corrode away, especially if always under tension.
Also, an idea to prevent problems with expansions/contractions would be to have a sloped loop held on a platform of some kind that would allow for expansion/contraction movement while still plugged in.
Great video, all in one !
There are still a few exposed connections that need work. The rectifier for example.
in winter it would help to let the water circulate in the pipes even if you're not using the turbine, flowing water does not freeze ! i've never encountered such an amount of expansion/contraction yet i've done installs in high altitude cold climates
I would also consider mounting that rectifier to a proper heat sink if you haven't already
I just came across this via the RUclips algorithm. I'm building an offgrid home and now I have another option after seeing this. Thank you so much for doing this!
1:34 😯
You should sift and pan the silt, sediment and rocks from that box.
Never know what kind of interesting things might turn up! 🙂
Great setup and thanks for the in depth walk through of your system.👍
I like your idea of building the separate electrical shed to reduce the chance of starting a fire in the house. Great video.
When I follow this video and this series, I remember all the steps and the beautiful history of following the series years ago until now
Thank you for watching. This project did have lots of steps to complete!
I like it. Very well thought out and it's nice that some of these companies actually reached out and were willing to work with you.
Have you considered a float switch in the barrel and PID controller to adjust dynamically the turbine valves? It's a fair bit more complexity but it would allow you to get the most power out of your system without losing it to the overflow
I thought the exact same thing.. It make it run and generate more power, when there's a higher water flow all automatically..
In a manner similar to a toilet flush controlled by a float mechanism, one can regulate the flow: when the float is at its highest point, it fully opens a valve; as the water level decreases in the tank, it closes, and adjustment can be made using threaded rods. No need for electrickery.
My system has been in operation 17 years, a Harris hydro fed by 1/4 mile of 3" line, with 147' of head, producint about 840 watts, grid tied. This year though, on spring startup, it appears my line is partially blocked. I have a slow flow, but no leaks, visual inspection shows no kinks in the line, and the Coanada screen has always been in place so large debris has ever gotten into it. I have tried letting it run unobstructed, hoping to slush it out, no luck. Luckily I have plenty of PV power, but it's driving me crazy seeing all the spring runoff go by without making more than 100 watts!
As a electrician I can say I'm impressed! Nice job!
It was a long road to get here. A new video is coming up with a whole house inverter and battery. Wiring was even cleaner.
Electrician here, you've done a pretty impressive job! Couple of things for your safety, firstly, enclose your rectifier.. secondly, the cables you are using to connect to your domestic socket are known in the trade as a 'suicide lead' as the male plug is the source... you really should wire both of these through a permanent isolator as both the plug and socket could be considered 'live' (hot??) or a source.
Thank you. Yes the rectifier does need to be enclosed inside of a well vented Box. It can get rather warm.
The grid tie limiter inverter plugs are excited by grid power. When you remove them from the grid the entire inverter shuts off immediately. Just this afternoon I pulled those plugs to install a lithium iron phosphate battery And the inverters shut off within a 1/2 second.
@Land to House Nice choice of batteries! When I've used rectfiers like you are (in my case powering the DC bus of VFDs), I've mounted them in a vented box but on a heat sink protruding through the back for better cooling. Looking forward to the update!
@@kiwiskiz I will need to make this update before the spring when I turn the hydro back on.
One more thing to consider is that you are essentially breaking the stream like this. It would be better if you had a small weep hole in the reservoir so that it can relieve excess pressure as needed, but will create back pressure to the water feed, causing it to not redirect to the reservoir barrel but instead continue along its natural path.
Thanks for the informative video.
Two comments.
-- First, you obviously don't have bears in your area. Decades ago I visited friends in the Salmon Mountains of northern California. They had a similar sort if black pipe for water from a spring to their home and then a small reservoir for the local small town usage (gardens and such). Theirs was buried, and it ran about three miles (if I recall) down the mountain from the spring, but bears still occasionally found it and pulled it up. Apparently they liked to play with it, and chewed up a section, requiring a repair piece to be spliced in.
-- Second, you might want to look at the Gridlessness channel to see their microhydro install. I just looked at it again recently, and they seemed to have less or about the same pressure, but their output power (wattage) was higher, and it had been running for 15 years.
Again, congratulations on all the work you put in on that system and sharing it with us. It gives any number of great "lessons learned" for would be hydroelectric builders.
Normally on those barbed couplings it is recommended to double-clamp. Offset the clamp heads. Doing this can handle a lot of pressure and mechanical stress. The plastic coupling or the pipe itself will then be the weak point.
Thanks because we're all dummies 😆
Adding the set of fence post along side the pipe in conjunction with clamps on the barb seems to have done the job.
I relate to being a dummy in many aspects of life.
how about butt fusion instead?
buttfusion
Have really enjoyed the journey along with you on RUclips! It has really been a learning experience. Great work Seth!
Thank you. It has been great learning from your solar install. Hydro is a lot more work.
Quite useful information in case of a nuclear war with Russia or China :)
This may be more sophisticated or expensive than anything you would want to try, but if you could add a couple IBC totes at your buffer/filter tanks you could hypothetically be using them as batteries. If you knew you were going to be doing a chore that's electricity intensive you could open up your reservoir for a boost when you need it. I didn't catch what your flow rates are but a couple thousand gallons of storage may figure out to a kw or two and may prove to be almost as cost effective as batteries.
Isn’t it amazing how much time and energy we easily devote to things we have passion for..
Love your set up, I can definitely tell that you have put a lot of thought into it and I admire that it has very little impact on the surrounding environment. Definitely something to brag about even though it may need a little bit of touching up, it’s still working and that’s great, thanks so much for posting!!!!
All the money you need to buy and maintain this thing makes me grateful for the power company lol.
Yes grid power is nice to have. Solar and hydro are a lot to start up and maintain.
Wonderful trip down memory lane, I watched each of the videos as they were released! You've come a long way with this!
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH emory shame you love hair and eat it
I see you already have a thousand suggestions to improve the setup, but here is what came to mind right away. 18:52 the turbine ramps up quite a bit when closing the lid. My rational thinking says it is because the air in the chamber also begins to spin, which results in less drag on the turbine. The only thing that makes it a tad bit less efficient is the 90-degree corners of the box. Maybe air resistance becomes even smaller if the corners are rounded, resulting in less turbulence. Keep up the great work!
Question, wouldn’t your barrel for sediment and overflow act as a breaker box and neutralize the head pressure gained from above?
There is around a 2 foot loss from the intake and barrel. This means around 6w of loss. Not much worth fighting over. The silt catchment and air removal is much more important
I agree,you are venting the head to the intake at the barrel. Plug the outlet pipe and seal the barrel very well, and you have the head right to the intake height. This will give more pressure at the turbine, so you can use a smaller nozzle, giving the same flow as before, but with a higher velocity, hence more power output.
Why not site the sediment barrel at the top collector location too and take advantage of the 6w bleed?
The air seporation and silt filter is worth the 6w loss to me.
It's good that you also include previous years design iterations that had failed as well and for what reason for the lessons learned aspect.
Economical and reliable and acceptable performance are the 3 requirements of succesful commercialization.
This is like indirect solar power.
Great job man - very impressed by your industriousness!
I agree with Joe, the electrical engineer who gave you kudos on your installtion. I have worked in the electrical distribution industry. And I took note of the incident where a mouse are through one of the phase wire coming from the turbine. The mouse met its demise by providing a ground path for the compromised phase. A ground fault detector can be constructed from a small torodial transformer through which all three phase wires will run. Normally the net magnetic field will be zero and the transformer output will be zero. The loss of a phase will result in an output from the toroidal transformer. Some experimentation may be required.
With new server rack batteries and a few more solar panels I would think you would be able to build the capacity to be off grid completely, I guess it depends how many batteries you buy at $1,750 a pop. Even 4 of the 5.12 kWh would double your 8 AGM batteries now and last 15 plus years..
5:30 In an enclosed hydraulic system, such as the pipes you use, all that matters is the the output is lower than the input. You only need a "gradual slope" when using an aqueduct.
Nice setup. Well made video, very informative and well explained. I've never worked with hydro power, and it was interesting to see it installed and functional. I've installed solar power systems, not my own yet but plan on doing so. As I live in SW Florida the solar would be more than enough thankfully, as there are no creeks near me. Or mountains.
I will also compliment you on your "powerhouse" build, it's not bad and actually looks pretty clean for an amateur install. I am an Electrician with 35 years in the trade, and would offer a couple suggestions though, fairly simple ones that would be well worth doing.
One would be to cover all exposed terminal connections. As you've already experienced, mice will get into things and love chewing on wires. I've been told that the current flow attracts them, whether from the magnetic field or because they like the taste of insulation, I don't know. For a while companies were using a vegetable oil based plastic as wire skin and there were multiple fires caused by rodents eating through the insulation. I don't believe that's used anymore, but they still chew through wires regularly. Placing traps would be a good idea. The bare terminal connections are an issue with rodents as they produce heat and they will build nests close to them. If they complete a circuit or ground out your system you'll have an issue.
Second suggestion would be placing "Caution- Live Electrical Equipment" signs on your shed. From a liability standpoint it will offer protection to anyone who could possibly enter there, but more importantly it will protect you from any legal issues if someone were to get hurt.
I know it's stupid, however there are plenty of stupid people in the world today. Even if someone were to go in your shed, on your property, to attempt to steal your batteries or inverter, if they were injured they could attempt to sue you. And possibly even win. It's ridiculous, but it has happened. Here in Florida there were at least 2 cases that I know of where some crackhead went into a Florida Power and Light switching station to steal copper wire. While it was energized. Did not end well for them as they were killed, however their families sued. And were given money. I'm not sure if it was a judgement to pay them or if the company settled out of court to avoid bad publicity, but the bottom line is that the placement of Caution signs was increased, as well as the number of signs required for any areas that contain energized equipment.
Better safe than sorry.
Good luck on your planned upgrades, I'll look for the videos.
I built one in Arizona the best I've ever seen,, I got the idea from an old gold mine, Wish I was there to help you out it could run all Winter. With reasonable temperatures. Plus we have hot and cold running Is water in the house.
A wonderfully detailed and very interesting walkthrough of your hydro system!! 👏 🏆
Thanks! I tried to get a friend of mine to make this video but he was busy. He makes professional quality videos for businesses around town.
Thanks, very helpful. I’m in Florida so hurricane outages require Supplemental power. Your descriptions are very educational.
Very nice review of what you've accomplished so far, thank you.
That wasn't a mouse that ruined the previous PMA, it was loose wiring shifting around allowing one of the coil wires to touch, abrade, and then arc to the impeller housing. That short but deep notch missing from the wire is a tell-tale of arc-ablation, rodent chews are long and shallow. It's actually a design issue for Langston to work on: tie down the coil leads to the stator core after winding the coils but before potting the stator, anchoring the pigtail leads to the housing so that movement of the pigtail doesn't impart any movement to the stator wiring, and an insulating layer between the stator wiring and the housing such as 3-5 layers of resin impregnated paper.
The mouse was lying there blackened at least thats what he implied
This is awesome. Anyone owning property with access to a running stream potentially has the ability to generate free electricity.
It's always better to place a rectifier as close as possible to the generator as dc has less parasitic losses, specially with higher frequencies.
Also you might want to look into active rectifier to improve efficiency
and only 2 wires will be needed :)
Great set up, there's one 1 problem I see - is the power box with that unistrut bar. I know it a very small chance of happening, but what if it failed while you working on power supply and knocked you into it ? There looked like there a fair bit of weight behind it. I know hinged doors wouldn't cover you if raining, but allot safer.
Or even princess auto gas lifting struts to hold it open. Was thinking the same thing tbh but otherwise looks like a very sturdy little power shed
great job...
I wish I could implement this on my own some day.
Thank you for putting this together, both the system and the detailed video, so important to explain the "why" and lessoned learned. Two questions: given your experience with mice and the other woodland creatures that will admire your green-energy why did you not further protect the vulnerable wiring and I absolutely hate with a vengeance the use of "Wire-nuts" to connect your generator with the to-house wiring connection, terrible. Thank you in any case. 👍 (Edit: The outdoor electrical box, this is a better idea. However for fire safety - it's a bit close to your house, fire spreads with ease. It would be wise to install an "Automatic Fire Suppression System" with a primed burn-through-pipe running above each electronic system within that cupboard. There are many to choose from online, personally I would use TWO medium priced independent systems covering the same area, as this allows for one to fail while still protecting your property. Also install smoke detectors etc.)
At around 9:00-- I doubt those are "several springs" 9in the spring bed, but just parts of the creek where the water is so low all you see is the stuff that's flowing through the ground... same source, just under the spring bed until less porous soil is encountered and forces the water to emerge. He is no doubt affecting the habitat for that short length of creek where the flow has been diverted.
I really enjoy your videos on your micro hydro. I think you have a lot more to optimize. However, most of them are more nice to have than need to have, since the win per option is very low. E.g. you could optimize the laminar flow into the turbine or you could make a more complex regulation of your water usage. The last will be saving water at the top and you could build in a container for storage. Also you could turn the water off when not needed.
I have more ideas, just from watching your videos... Keep them coming, plz :D
Sir. 2 points, 1 , the 3 pipes from your catchment setup do not require a CONSTANT FALL, laying on the ground going uphill slightly will not stop the water flow, the key is to always to have the pipe lower than the catchment setup,the syphon action will suck any air that collects. 2 , your 55 gallon drum is an excellent device, to prevent the connections disconnecting, either use a tank connector fitting with a solvent weld, or dig a hole in the ground,bury the tank and the outlet pipe to just below ground level, the cleaning pipe will also be buried and extended for access to the cap,i would recommend the cleaning pipe to be 2 inch minimum,
I love this project and am about to do basically the same setup. Any chance you could put together a schematic so I can have better guide to design my system? Also, which batteries are you planning to upgrade to? Keep up the great work :)
I have a similar setup but I’m using a Harris Pelton from Kansas Wind Power and with one 5/16” nozzle at 58psi I’m getting 350watts. I would get a bit more if I replaced the bronze pelton wheel that’s been running continuously since 2008. The cups are worn smooth so some efficiency is lost. They have a new model with stainless pelton wheel that I would get if I was starting over. The unit in this video seems to be a bit missing some efficiency.
@@Rangband1 How dare you ruin the stream! I am your neighbor and you suck and have ruined my life
Where can I purchase these stainless pelton wheels? I’ve been running my wilderness Alaskan pelton wheel since 1981 and it would not surprise me to discover that the 3 bronze wheels are becoming worn.
Thanks!
I found this very interesting and educational. That said, it seems that the power output is rather meager for the materials used and time invested. I wonder how much energy is embedded in all of that plastic pipe and the other materials?
You said that you don't use the system in the winter months, which to me seems to be the time when an alternative to solar power is most helpful. I'm also concerned about the long-term durability and maintainability of the system. A well designed and build solar + battery system should run for years at a time with almost no attention.
It has been great to see how your system has evolved over time. Is it possible to upgrade somehow for winter operation as well? !:- )
We used flex seal to make a custom box for a planter to seal the wooden box so it would hold water. Flex seal will do the trick too I think for sealing your box.
Hey, I've been watching your microhydro vids the last few days, very informative and interesting.! 2 questions. How cold does it have to be before the system freezes up? With running water, that might get it through a frost I presume?
Also, I wonder if it would be possible/useful to ad a flywheel to the generator somehow, to store the kinetic energy produced? Has spwncer ever tried it? Hope you see this, thanks again
Thank you for watching. The system can handle a light frost but sometimes our winters drop down to the single digits. Definitely has problems at that point. I'm not sure about the flywheel. The constant water flow from the mountain seems to do just fine At maintaining the spin.
Thanks for the reply.! Can't understand why this system hasn't taken off here in ireland with all the rain and hilly land and streams. Or the hydro pump for that matter.
Oh you're so lucky to be in an area with both solar and hydro available. I would give my left arm to be in a location like yours. Nice job on all the electronics, it looks great.
Wow! I have been following this build since the start; amazing progress and really cool to see the iterations and how you've applied all the lessons learned! Are you at the point of being able to financially justify the build? If you were to start building the system today with your current understanding, how would you start?
Because of youtube the build is 110% worth building. Non youtube I would have gone with lifepo4 batteries and there are other options than the midnite Classics for charge controller.
Did you think of renting a fusing machine and fusing the pipe? Other option would be a Victaulic type 905 coupling. I have used both options hundreds of time at work and they never fail, never leak.
A really thorough review of your system. Easy to follow with great detail. Much enjoyed! Thanks.
Just a thought the overflow on the header tank if you pipe it to the bottom of the tank inside the barrel say an inch from the bottom it will self clear the silt out of the barrel
This is a really nice set up. Really enjoyed watching the video and is very informative and well explained. I would love to do this myself if I had the opportunity to live near a running water source like you do. The nice thing about this is you can produce power 24/7 unlike Solar. I've been electrical contractor for over 35 years and have been living off grid for the past 30+ years. So I can really appreciate the work you put into your system. One thing I would suggest as I have also experienced in my own set up is that you need to upgrade with time. That being said I would suggest you using lithium batteries or something similar as opposed to lead acid. I understand that they are expensive but the cost is well worth. Plus you won't have to deal with all the maintenance like you have to do with Lead acid type batteries.. One other thing that I would suggest is to make sure your battery cables are sized according to your battery amperage and fused according to your amperage if you haven't done so already. This is one thing that is often overlooked. Looking forward to your next update. Keep up the great work and please stay safe.⚡👍
Where your barrel is situated is the point of your head pressure for calculations, you would have being better to put that alot closer to the inlet to get a higher head pressure
The 55 gal barrel is actually only 3 feet lower than the intake. Hard to see on video. So 6w loss perhaps.
@@LandtoHouse Ah ok, yea the video didnt show that, nice job though, very clean
The wires seem to be just fine ,as long as you know what for with them then nothing else matters . You are a good provider for yourself n family so think good of yourself with this electrical system. The power co. would have a conniption fit if every one did this and maybe we should .. A smart tenacious man you are. GREAT VIDEO.
the caulking on the electrics is very concerning lol i love the exposed wiring, fast n lose baby, at least you have acknowledged the risk of fire and somewhat tried to isolate that issue, thats a plus.
In Chino Valley Arizona I ran across some Springs that feather small pond. Put an 8-inch pipe on the other end, and reduces down slowly to an inch and a half. It was amazing till electricity we are running off of that. Plus it was drinkable water. It was like a small Paradise. On 89 hey I think going towards Prescott from Ash Fork Koma there's a road that goes off to the right to the Seneca Ranch. Some of the largest Chinese elm trees you ever seen in your entire life. Water from the Springs come out of this granite rocks right out of the small holes, it's incredible, ice cold.
Gret setup! I have one niggle though.
2:54 If the inlet to the manifold is 50mm then it doesn't matter how many outlets there are from the manifold, it will not increase your flow rate to more than what can pass through the 50mm inlet.
First, I am very happy that you do this successfully. I want to help you a bit. You are losing some energy because of the current arrangement because of the sand/air bubble barrel. The tank has an overflow and open to the atmosphere, which means all the head you had above it from the manifold at the wood box till the barrel is gone. It is better to keep the parrel next to the manifold at the top, then all the water head from the exit to the turbinelocation will be effective. Btw I am a hydraulic engineer. If you like, i can do some calculations to tell you how to optimize the system in the manar of hoses or pipe diameters, etc. I like to help free of charge
I was thinking the same thing, all of that head pressure is just spilling out the side.
my first thought also, 1/2 head lost!!
Man, like you just said the electronic box is not perfect, but in my opinion it is soooo clean and organized.
At my job they use a hot knife style system that melts the pipe and then its pushed together to weld the pipes together. may could make something similar using a torch and some clamps
Love to see what you are doing here, Seth!
I just saw this video. The soil that the box collects at your stream is likely to be incredibly rich soil, very good for home gardens. I would put a basket or reservoir in there to pull the dredge out and add it to your composting (assumes your spring water is potable.)
My neighbor actually has 4 ponds that capture this silt and he dredges with an excavator. I borrow the soil from him whenever he digs it out.
What surprises me is that you use a Pelton wheel in a horizontal plane. This means that the down half of each cup performs as intended BUT the top half cup causes confused water flow which MAY be inefficient. Is there a good reason why you use a Pelton wheel in an application that better suits a turgo wheel
Is it possible to run your entire house on hydro electric (off grid) completely? Or is it not consistent?
I have another video on the channel showing a very similar install with 800w continually. Jay is almost off grid on hydro.
@@williamgarcia1217 800w. In a day he has 19kwh produced from hydro.
Thanks for the video. Used to watch all the time and then some priorities and interest changed. Glad I came back to see this recap. I still want land with running water to deploy micro-hydro.
That barrel with the water outlet that collects sand eliminates all the pressure that has been collected up to that point. Also having some feedback system where the pelton nozzle is adjusted so the pipe never empties and you always have full head would be good. This could be done using a pressure sensor
The lost head pressure between the intake and barrel is 2-3 feet. So 10w to 15w lost. Not bad.
@@LandtoHouse If it is just 2-3 feed, you could recover that by just making that "overflow" pipe 4ft tall. No water would come out, but the bubbles would.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it but you could also put a paddlewheel generator under the barrel overflow for extra charge.
that poly pipe is usually heated/metled together just butted together. I have a cadman sprinkler that uses poly pipe and runs 135 psi through it. The poly got cut with a tractor disc and the vendor came out and repaired it on site in about 30 min. it has to roll up on its self and so it cant have couplers or hose clamps in it.
Suggestion ....What we use in place of the clamps you are using
is car-exhaust clamps. We get better results with exhaust clamps
Excellent video, yes the battery bank needs to upgrade away from any lead battery system, since right there you loose 30% with lithium based only 5% or less while charging.
@@snarkywombat155 ...lose
On gridlessness they showed a guy who was using a single turbine called stream engine. He dug a good sized holding pond that was lined with timbers and it was a really good system
I recommend getting the rectifier out of the house as well.
I would need to add to the wire run from that point out to the power shed.
Can just mount a junction box where the rectifier is and send it through your existing conduit to power shed if there is room. It just seems like a part that could get hot or fail.
Great system I didn’t see any grounding I hope you have that shed protected
I have a healthy crick in the backyard. Thanks for pioneering!
Not sure how I would deal with the freezing as I live at the 46th parallel at 6000ft? Any ideas?
I’ve got more flow but I haven’t the steepness. I’m going to have to investigate, do some math.
You should consider encasing the the phase coming off the turbine in a waterproof solution. The LB was open and the wires were connected externally. Doesn’t seem like it would stop much water from getting on the connections or from traveling down the conduit.
1) I'm not sure some agency wouldn't frown on this locally. 2) 55gal drum cleanout could be smaller to utilise a ball valve. 3) I learned after a few pipes pushing apart is to heat the poly pipe to soften it and then double clamp the barbs while warm. I lost two 2500 gal tanks of water to barbs popping off before someone with more experience alerted me to softening the pipe.
8:01 if u could get a swimming pool return jet assembly to put on the barrel to connect the pinstock it will never come out. It threads on the inside of the barrel with a 1 1\2" nut and then has a female thread on the outside for the pinstock
I've been thinking of what I could get from a system like you have. Thanks for the information. Now we just need to have a wind turbine for a competition. I suppose in winter you could capture more hydro to supplement the loss of solar. In winter my solar drops to one tenth on many cloudy days. 24 hours of a 400 watt hydro is a constant 10k a day.
07:00 - scouring pipe at bottom, make it as large as possible to use water force of flow to really clear the sediment out when opened. How often does depend on how clear the water flow set up is further upline. 👍
Sweet set up! Having the inverter when the grid goes down to run from hydro.
The off grid with hydro and solar is a great thing to have when the grid goes down.
Awesome video, very informative, I watched the 500 watt hydro video before this one and that was great as well. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and not just your success but the failures along the way.
You need sensors and automation on your pinstock to detect water levels / pressure to regulate how much wattage can be created without fear of draining the pipes. Are you looking into that?
Have one or a few small 1/2 pipes for overflow go to bottom of barrel, this will help empty the sand out of barrel. run out top big hole, so three pipes are inside, and allow to flow around if pipes get covered by sentiment.
Very instructive video! I’m planning to do something similar myself. My cottage is quite close to a creak with a lot more flow then you have, but lower height. I’m planning for a 110 mm tube.
what this has done for me over the past year ! "cost me a fortune in time & money " nice set up tho i bet it was fun and interesting to accomplish .
To be honest the youtube rev has payed for the system 5 fold.
Solution for relieving stress on pipe pulling out of boxes in winter. Make a U by bending pipe with heat gun or using 90 degree fittings.
5:18 why is a gradual slope required? Would it not work if the pipes just laid on the ground?
You said you’re not an electrician, I disagree! 👍👏
I've got an electronics degree but small scale is certainly a lot different than full size electrician work.
Hi Seth, Great video on your journey. Happy to see the channel growth. You are looking well and still standing tall after all life's tribulations. Give the kids a hug and keep on keeping on brother. 😎
8:24 why not Put an "S" curve in the pipe path to give the pipe room to expand and shrink? Would that not solve the pulling out problem?
hi there interesting . i liked all of it . i have water at around the same rate but only 8 foot of drop . did hook up a ram pump about 25 years ago . if there was enough drop from your turbine to the creek would it be possable to put a water wheel for a 2nd use of the waist water . good show john
First, I want to say I like what I see, you did a great job putting all that together. Have you ever thought about adding a second barrel ahead of the first, this way you can use it as a catchment any debris. By adding this second barrel, it would mean you would only have to flush it once a year, say after the rainy season. Your Micro Hydro Turbine box, if it was me, I would get some PVC boards and plexiglass to make my turbine box with. Those items can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.
I know it’s very expensive initially, but lithium ion would last much longer, handling a lot more cycles and pay for themselves compared to AGM. I’m in the process of switching over to lithium ion from AGM.
chocking the air from cooling the unit down thats why it spins down opening the lid might want to check temps when running
For power on demand try a bank of water accumulators in the form of a water pressure tanks that could be charged and discharged as needed. Like what's used in a water well