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Gadzooks! I've had an idea.
By GeeMac, Section Water Posted on Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:02:03 AM MST
This is just a little electricity generating idea

I'm throwing this into the group for discussion or maybe someone will give it a try.
Most homes have water under pressure delivered right to the tap. Somewhere down the pipe other pipes are met and at some point there is a constant flow of water, so why not use the pressurized water flow to turn a generator before the water is delivered to it's destination? Even small generators that only run when a tap is on might be useful for battery charging. That's it.
Never stop having fun.

Gadzooks! I've had an idea. | 11 comments (11 topical)

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by DamonHD on Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:45:57 AM MST

Because it would be stealing energy from the water supplier put into pumping the water to the house. Which means energy lost over all, not gained.

Rgds

Damon
"Once you have licked the windows of freedom your tongue gets stuck."

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by richhagen on Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:51:58 AM MST

Well, the water supplier in your area had to put energy into the system in order to get that pressure and move that water to your house. If you add a turbine to capture energy from the water movement in the supply system, then your water supplier will have to put in even more energy than you get from that turbine in order to maintain the pressure in the system. There is no free lunch there. I suspect that turning excess pressure at the tap electrical energy is not worth the effort also because of the tiny amount of energy if you look at the overall average flow rate of water into just one home. I don't know what typical usage is, but if you used a hundred gallons in a day, that would only be .07 gallons per minute on average and that would be spread over a number of taps. Rich
'A Joule saved is a Joule made'

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by joe4324 on Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 02:40:09 PM MST

Keep the ideas coming! Once I actually built a tiny LED night lite that I ran off the landline phone service. It didn't give much useful power but enough for a small lite. I thought this was a good idea until I realized that while it seemed like i was getting a free source of energy it really wasn't good in the big picture.

Also, if you un-pressurization your water you have to re-pressurize it again to get back up to pressure, Due to inefficiency I'm sure this would cost a little more power than you could gain.

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by bob g on Sun Jan 03, 2010 at 02:14:04 AM MST

there used to be a company that advertised such a unit in popular mechanics or science
about 20 odd years ago, it connect inline with your lawn sprinkler and charged rechargable AA and AAA batteries.

there was a writeup on it and they had a nice photoglossy advertisement for some time
in the magazine.

seemed more of a trinket than something of real value, but who knows.

btw, taking the power of the city water costs the city nothing, they already pay to get the water elevated into water towers, and gravity is what delivers it to you anyway. so if you turn on a tap you are paying for the water used and by extension your share per gallon what it took to get it elevated into that tower.

the turbine generator presents no more load to their system than does the fawcet if you turn it down a bit to slow the flow to the sprinkler.

bob g

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Opera House on Sun Jan 03, 2010 at 04:53:42 AM MST

This idea comes up every couple of months. I's not improving any with age.

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by thirteen on Sun Jan 03, 2010 at 06:10:04 AM MST

if someone could improve on an inline generator then it might be able to be used in an gravity flow system. Yes it is an old idea but what is used on an ondemand water heater for spark to light it. The cost would out wieght the gain but it might give you enough the light an indicator bulb to tell you you have water flowing. Just an idea to ponder.

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Norm on Sun Jan 03, 2010 at 06:32:33 AM MST

By some standards we use a lot of water....
about 200 gallons a day but even at that I figure
the payback would be about 100 years if I
used the hydra system.
I pedal a generator and charge up 16 AA
batteries in 15 minutes and it was far easier
and cheaper than buying a positive displacement
gear pump and hooking it up to a very special
little stepper motor.
The pedal generator had already paid for itself
health wise in a month.

( :>) Norm

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Stonebrain on Sun Jan 03, 2010 at 07:02:52 AM MST

I think it might be a good I dea if you FIRST yield the energie from the tap AND THEN use that energie to put it under pression again.Becaust taps in generally leak somewhat,there is LESS WATER to put under pressure and so you have an overall gain in energie.
Thight might be very little but if you repeat the process enough times it might be worth it.

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by gagnerargent on Tue Jan 12, 2010 at 11:40:31 AM MST

Ok, but is this ethical?

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by m8e on Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 07:16:58 AM MST

Yes, you don't steal any energy. You are losing water pressure/flow on your own "side".

It's just as ethical as breaking the flow with a valve. :P

[ Parent ]

Re: Gadzooks! I've had an idea. (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by sbotsford on Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 09:40:09 AM MST

Yes, you could extract energy, but then your water in the house would have little umph to it. It also only produces energy when you are using water.

Energy has units of Force x distance.

Pressure is force/distance squared.

Pressure times volume = F/D^2 x D^3 = F x D

60 psi = 400,000 newtons/meter^2

So a cubic meter of water has the potential energy of 400,000 joules.
A kwhr = 3,600,000 joules. So 1/9 of a kilowatt hour.

A cubic meter is 1000 liters.

1000 liters per hour = 4.4 gallons per minute.

So by running at tap full out, you could generate enough power to keep a 100 watt bulb burning -- ignoring losses.

What does your city charge for water and sewer?
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -- Robert A. Heinlein

Gadzooks! I've had an idea. | 11 comments (11 topical)

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