Generating Electricity from Swift Flowing Stream
Small Water Wheel in Motion
Generating Electricity from Swift Flowing Stream
If you’re lucky enough to have access to a stream that runs all year round then you can generate a surprising amount of energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!
To make it work you also need to be able to create a head of water, it works best if where the stream runs down a gentle decline.
It’s normal to divert part of the stream away from the main body using a sluice gate mechanism. This is an important feature that allows you to isolate your water turbine if the stream floods or for maintenance.
You should limit the amount of water you divert into your system to a maximum of 20% of the volume of the stream. This will minimise the impact of your project on the environment.
Use A Traditional Water Wheel System
As you can see in the image above it’s easy to derive a significant amount of energy by using your diverted stream to turn a wheel. The outer edge is fitted with paddles, cups or buckets so that the passing water can drive it round.
The mass of the wheel and the velocity of the water are converted into a massive amount of high torque rotational energy. This energy can easily be transmitted using a set of gears or drive belts to drive an electric generator at relatively high speed to create a significant amount of electrical power.
As with solar panels and wind turbines this power can be used to provide a direct supply of electricity to your home or office and also charge a bank of deep cycle batteries for times when additional power is required.
The great thing about this traditional method is that it is fairly immune to blockage by debris in the flowing water, although it’s very wise to have a grill in place in the diverted stream to filter out large waterborne detritis!
On the downside it is much larger than a modern water turbine system and requires some fairly heavy construction to get it up and working.
Use a Modern Water Turbine System
An alternative method is to send your diverted stream into a pipe and fit a small water turbine to the bottom of the pipe. A water turbine is like the screw propeller from an marine outboard motor which turns a drive shaft in line with the flow of the water. The drive shaft is used to drive an electric generator.
Modern water turbines are up to 90% efficient and extremely compact. Again the output can be significant and could easily power a home or small office.
On the downside, a water turbine requires a completely clean supply of water. Any debris in the flowing water will jam the turbine and may also cause damage to the blades and bearings.
Generating Electricity from Swift Flowing Stream
If you are blessed with a fast flowing stream on your property then a huge amount of energy is there at your disposal. Is it time you made the most of it? If you have a photo of your own water turbine then please post a comment and attach your picture!
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