Hydroelectric turbine providing power to our off-grid house

[ultrarunner]

TPR valve is a great idea and they make adjustable ones or you can monkey with the spring.

There must be and art or science to the intake system... I thought one way would be to grossly oversize the screen so maintenance could be scheduled as opposed to unscheduled.

 

[s219]

Very cool!

 

[nate57]

Youtube clip of the turbine:
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhdGDvCqmDY

Is that a stream engine?

 

[schweizer]

You mean the Stream Engine brand? No. It's a custom turbine from APM Hydro in Grants Pass, OR. APM HDRO_Home of the User-Friendly Hydro

 

[sodamo]

Great project, thanks

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[sparc]

ultrarunner: That kind of stuff is so cool! I'd love to see that.



Ron: Yes, but it would have to close slowly because of the waterhammer effect. Even when I shut down the flow with a ball valve I have to do it very slowly. You can clearly watch big spikes in the water pressure on the gauge. I'm always worried about blowing out the black poly-pipe, or one of the joints. 90' vertical would generate about 36 psi, so you would probably be safe.

You could do a couple things here to control flow.

1. A diverter or bypass valve that opens to let some or all flow bypass the penstock.

2. An electric actuator could be used to throttle the valve. A butterfly or ball valve would be good choices for flow control. You could use a normally open valve thatwill go open should you lose control, this way your system is fails to a safe configuration, which will result in a loss of power butsaving the equipment is more important than an interruptionin power I would think.

3. A relief valve would be a good back overpressure control but not a good choice as your primary control. You will need something larger than a normal size water heater T&P valve, I think you'll want a relief valve with a flow rating half as big as your expected system flow. You'd need to do some calcs to know for sure.

 

[Knight9]

Schweizer,

Great project! What are you doing with the water at the end of the pipe after it goes through the turbine? Returning to the creek or using for your local water needs?

 

[schweizer]

Back to the creek via flexible 6" drain pipe. Have to keep the creek full of water below my land.

 

[tnmike]

That is pretty awesome. You have a great resource there. How far is the turbine from the house?

 

[caver]

schweizer,
you might like this set-up. I got a personal tour of his sytem years ago.
mini hydro system