- #1
drewk79
- 16
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Over the past few years I have like many of you become interested in renewable energy.
Over the past few months we have gotten a lot of rain.
We also have a small creek in our pasture and it begins with 2-12 inch field tiles. The end (beginning i guess) has been filling with silt over the past 20 years and has now reached the top of the retaining wall so we need to build a new one a few feet taller.
I am thinking why we are down there working it may be a perfect opportunity to set up a small hydro generator.
I can weld and build basically anything ( I am a home builder) and my brother is a commercial electrician so I think we have the know how. I am just looking for some engineering and design help/suggestions.
OK so while I was down there the other day the 2-12 inch tile were running at what seemed to be full capacity. Maybe 60% full I would think that would be about 1 gal per sec per tile. If anyone has any opinions on that I am guestimating.
It is probably running 20%-30% higher than avg right now. Water weighs about 8 lbs per gallon. So ... I think i can reasonably get to 10 lbs a second avg. And it falls about 1 ft initially out of the tile. We have nice concrete walls on 3 sides and a concrete floor for about 10 ft. I will be adding a illustration soon.
OK I have done some more research and found I have 2-12 inch tile and they can flow 2 cubic ft per sec each. I think avg is probably 1/4 of that. appx 60 lbs per cubic ft. So avg work done is 30lbs drops 1 ft per sec on avg.
30 x 60sec = 1800 lbs 1 ft per minute
550 ft lbs a min = 1 hp
So i have a little over 3 hp
750 watts per hp x 3 = 2250 watts
2250 x 24 hrs a day= 54kWh
Any comments on these assumptions would be great.
Thanks
Over the past few months we have gotten a lot of rain.
We also have a small creek in our pasture and it begins with 2-12 inch field tiles. The end (beginning i guess) has been filling with silt over the past 20 years and has now reached the top of the retaining wall so we need to build a new one a few feet taller.
I am thinking why we are down there working it may be a perfect opportunity to set up a small hydro generator.
I can weld and build basically anything ( I am a home builder) and my brother is a commercial electrician so I think we have the know how. I am just looking for some engineering and design help/suggestions.
OK so while I was down there the other day the 2-12 inch tile were running at what seemed to be full capacity. Maybe 60% full I would think that would be about 1 gal per sec per tile. If anyone has any opinions on that I am guestimating.
It is probably running 20%-30% higher than avg right now. Water weighs about 8 lbs per gallon. So ... I think i can reasonably get to 10 lbs a second avg. And it falls about 1 ft initially out of the tile. We have nice concrete walls on 3 sides and a concrete floor for about 10 ft. I will be adding a illustration soon.
OK I have done some more research and found I have 2-12 inch tile and they can flow 2 cubic ft per sec each. I think avg is probably 1/4 of that. appx 60 lbs per cubic ft. So avg work done is 30lbs drops 1 ft per sec on avg.
30 x 60sec = 1800 lbs 1 ft per minute
550 ft lbs a min = 1 hp
So i have a little over 3 hp
750 watts per hp x 3 = 2250 watts
2250 x 24 hrs a day= 54kWh
Any comments on these assumptions would be great.
Thanks
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