Micro Hydro PMG in Cameroon whole story

[windcruiser]

Mbouda Cameroon at the ACREST Site

       

March 2007
          our Technician Mr Jared Momanyi visited The Cameroon ACREST site for
          three months where he constructed a Craftskills hydro-turbine. The turbine
          is a 15 Kilowatts 3 phase 380AC per phase and 220 on each phase with
          neutral point. This turbine was a big success of affordable technology
          and lighting several homes while running workshop equipment.

       

ACREST Workshop

       

       

The water

       

       

The water
          wheel

       

       

Tunnel

       

       

Slide gate
          controlling the flow of water

       

       

The 4feet
          diameter giant water turbine rotor

       

       

Rotor fitted
          with magnets

       

       

Stator
          coils

       

       

Resin work
          on the stator

       

       

Jared Momanyi
          explaining to the team the proper mixture of resin and pigment

       

       

Casting
          work

       

       

Complete
          stator being examined by Jared Momanyi and Boris the resident engineer
          at ACREST.

       

       

Momanyi
          testing 6 x 100watts bulbs on the 220VAC line

       

       

Jared Momanyi
          took time to train the team in assembling florescent lights, LED lights,
          Transformers, Chargers and Charge controllers

For more please visit Craftskills Enterprises, Nairobi

[TomW]

windcruiser;

Very nice, now I will ask the questions others will have:

Magnet size?

wire size, coil dimensions and # of wraps?

head and flow of the hydro source?

Type of resin?

Why only a single magnet rotor?

And a few more I cannot come up with off the top of my head before coffee.

Cheers.

TomW

[vawtman]

Very nice Simon

 So it is a dual rotor thats what i was wondering.

 Holly magnets.

[TomW]

Simon;

Had my coffee now so I can post a sensible comment.

#1 is that it is this type project that makes all the efforts to keep this site viable as a source of information worth every second.

Those of us in the more developed areas of the world generally do not understand the hardship of no lights, no refrigeration or no power tools. Very easy to forget how much it impacts your quality of life when the outlet is only a few paces away at most.

Simon; to you I say "bravo" and you have my respect for giving your time and knowledge to this endeavor. More of us need to do things to help those less fortunate. Not only did you provide a means of providing electric power but you taught them how to do it themselves. They know how the machine works so they can keep it running and improve as needed. The old adage about "give a man a fish he eats for a day but teach that man to fish and he eats for life" applies here.

Thanks for sharing. As I said, this kind of post makes it all worthwhile to me.

Cheers.

TomW

[DanB]

Incredible!!!

Thank you for sharing that one!

[gotwind2]

Superb.

A real world achievement, probably helped by this site, which makes me happy.

Ben

[richhagen]

That is amazing, great work.  I read the design parameters you posted on your last article on this project.  You guys are inspirational.  Rich Hagen

[Nando]

Congratulating for such great job !!!!

Can you, in detail, describe the water wheel and the buckets and plates the wheel have, I am not familiar with this type of wheel construction.

What is the RPM of the wheel and/ or the generator ?.

Nando

[dastardlydan]

  TomW :

That old saying has been changed

it is now "give a man a fish he eats for

 a day but teach that man to fish and he wants to quit work "

DanM

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[windcruiser]

Thanks guys for the encouragement and congrats -- i could not do it without you. God bless

Its a double rotor machine -- only one rotor is visible at the angle the picture was taken.

I can not give an exact flow of the water but the stream is gave us 20litre buckets in every five seconds. We chanelled the water through a pipe to the wheel hence increasing the pressure of water.

The water wheel we have in the picture has some buckets for future plans of lifting waer to a level like they do in Egypt (shadoof irrigation).

We used Polyester resin and fiberglass -- we used some pigment too.

So guys DO I SAY! Here in africa we are having more fun doing these things and seeing them changing lives

By the way I will be speaking at TEDGlobal conference in Arusha Tanzania on Tuesday 5th June. Check out the Ted.com site http://www.ted.com/programs/TG2007  

[Nando]

20 liter in 5 seconds is 4 liter/second

and to produce 15 KW the head has to be :

The formula is watts = ( water vol in liters) *( head in meters) * 6

6. = gravity * efficiency
   
15000. /(6*4) = 625 meter head .
       
       

So, can you define the parameters for such hydro that was reported as producing 15 KW with a generator designed for low RPM, which implies that the turbine may have a low head and a large water volume. ?

Can you tell us what type of Hydro Turbine is being used.

Nando

[TomW]

windcruiser;

Pretty cool stuff you are doing! Wow, 20 liters in 5 seconds. That seems substantial. Sure hope it leads to a better level of survival for the locals. Food storage, lighting and workshop potentials will really help. Must give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside to be part of it.

Great stuff.

Cheers.

TomW

[ejl7007]

The most incredible success story I have ever seen.  Congratulations.  My word, what a gigantic alternator indeed!  And the application of it.  Brilliant!!!

Keep un inspiring us!!!

EJL

[ejl7007]

Sorry.....I meant...Keep on Inspiring us!!!!

[ejl7007]

Sorry, I meant.....Keep on Inspiring us!!!!