Use water wheels to generate electricity
Very early on, people made use of hydropower to make hard work easier or to speed it up. In the Middle Ages, water wheels were the predominant drive for simple technology, not only in mills, but also for manufacturers of all kinds. Hydropower is always suitable for generating electricity. It is continuously available and only incurs low costs.
What you need:
- generator
Water wheels are ideal for generating electricity
- There is a strong focus on renewable energies. Ideas for generating electricity on an ecological basis are in great demand. Unfortunately, hydropower is only available to a limited extent, but there are solutions for modest demands.
- For the do-it-yourselfer, the question of several megawatts does not arise, he can deal with very simple ones Ingredients create an additional power source for appliances and lighting with low power sufficient.
- The cardinal question is always the amount of water available in liters per second. The stronger a stream flows, the larger the water wheels that it drives can be. The bigger the waterwheels, the more powerful the generators can be.
- A rule of thumb for the approximate calculation of the available torque could look like this: Measure the amount of water that z. B. flows in 5 seconds. That's how long it stays in the example water in the bowls of the water wheel.
- Do you have approx. 10 liters and a water wheel diameter of 2 meters with 4 rpm, the torque can be calculated. A picture to illustrate this: The water wheel would excavate a mass of <10 kp on the side opposite the water.
Use the water wheel to generate electricity
A water wheel is set in rotation by the drive of the water, whereby ...
- The task now is to find a generator for generating electricity that is suitable for this output. Of course, the speed must also be taken into account, since a generator (alternator from the car) needs high speeds to current to deliver.
- In our example, 5 seconds stand for 1/3 turn, i.e. 15 seconds for 1 turn. Results in a speed of 4 / min. A gear ratio of 1: 250 would be necessary to achieve the speed of 1000 rpm for the alternator.
- This cannot be achieved with a simple transmission. So you could insert some kind of manual transmission in between to achieve success. This also gives you the opportunity to react to fluctuating conditions in terms of water supply.
- In order to achieve a constant voltage, a battery pays for itself with low voltage. With an adapter, 220V devices can also be operated briefly on this power source.
- All data are only assumed values. Have a project set up by an engineering service if you want to lead the project to economic success.
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