New Form of Hydro

[Dennis]

Gentlemen,

   After five years of hard work, I have finally come up with a really good, new, form of hydroelectric power. I am only four years and six months behind scheduleJ.

   The problem with Hydropower as we know it is:

    -To use small affordable turbines you need fairly high head

-There really is no cheap way to get power out of a river with hi flow but no head, without resorting to a dam.

    I think I have solved both of these problems. Now I know most of you are turbine guys, and a few of you are waterwheel guys. Well now we can all be part of the same happy family!

After creating two new forms of hydro, and having them both have "issues" (one was to complex, the other to big) I was cruising the internet looking for something that would make it all work. I found it at http://aquamor.tripod.com/Wheel.htm

         I had seen spiral wheels before, but they were all very small. I had never thought about what they actually do. They change slow mechanical movement into water pressure.  

    Now the basic principles of good technology have to meet these criteria:

        -Economy- the cost has to fit the application/market

        -Simplicity- the less wearable/movable parts the better the design

        -Labor- the less skill intensive; specialty machine intensive the product is                 the better it is.

    I feel my design meets all of these standards very well. The Overshot/Breast/Undershot wheel that this system is attached to can be made entirely of PVC pipe (except the axle). To build it you will need:

    1. A saw (yes, even a hand one)

    2. A drill

    3. A local welder for the axle

    The wheel harnesses the power of the high volume river. The plastic tubing spiral pump, changes this movement into pressure. The pressure is dependant on:

    -The inside diameter of the spiral pump tubing

    -The number of spirals/height of the spirals

    -The restriction

       The pressure that is generated by the spiral pump is then run into a turbine, which changes the pressure into electricity. A Water Motor could also be used to change the pressure into mechanical work.  

    The water is then put back into the spiral pump by way of an independent scoop. This makes the whole system enclosed, allowing for salt water to be used for all of us that live in the cold areas.

    If you have read this and still do not know what I am rambling on about, please visit my web site and see a small, proof of concept model I have built. A picture is worth a thousand words. Probably two thousand of mineJ.

http://WildWaterPower@msn.com

So where am I at in this project? Well I have made the small proof of concept model, but with it I still have yet to make electricity, just pressure.

The next step is to build a large version, on a river. I am retrofitting my overshot wheel to have this system, but few people have the head and volume of water for an overshot. The undershot in the river is the future of this technology.

The problem I do not have enough money to build it. I am looking for someone who has a river, who would like to partner up with me to build it. I live in Connecticut, so it must be somewhere I could drive to on Friday and then work Saturday and Sunday. The whole project would cost about six thousand dollars, I have three.

That includes: Floating wheel, Turbine (Harris or Turgo), and inverter.

    Even if you have a river with a turbine, we can still make power off that river below the dam.

    So who wants to help me start the revolution?

You can contact me at WildWaterPower@msn.com

[whatsnext]

Dennis, None of the pictures are showing up at that site so it's hard to figure out what you have in mind. One question though. How do you keep the water from flowing around your device if you're putting it into and area with little head?

John..........

[Nando]

Dennis:

Good for you, the idea is very old, I think about 200 hundred years at least, when a kid and youngster, I saw in in my country with wheels from 2 to 6 or 8 meters in diameter.

The water is sent or pumped in pulses, the pulse is dependent on the diameter and the wheel RPM, as well as, the number of intakes and for sure one way valves at the exit of each intake.

I do not remember the maximum height that the water can be raised which at the same time indicates the maximum PSI that can be generated for a turbine to operate and, as well, the water volume one can use to generate power.

The power available is based on the river velocity, the wheel radius and the wheel buckets size

I would think that the wheel is best for water pumping and not very good for electric power generation,

Regards

Nando

[Nando]

I went to open the site you suggested and I saw the project that gave you the idea.

The water wheels I saw in my native country were made by an European in the early 1940's as I understand it, he may have brought the idea from Europe or even other areas, my father met him and once told me that he spoke several languages and extremely intelligent.

I could not open your site at all.

It has some possibility but I see that the energy available for electricity generation will suffer double conversion. ONE the wheel efficiency and SECOND the turbine efficiency.

One can use the wheel with a RPM multiplier and get better efficiency power transfer and not use the the second conversion for much higher efficiency.

Regards

Nando