7 foot water wheel pics

[komatsu200]

I have been working on this a while and finally got it set up and working. Its a 7' diameter wooden wheel with a small 1/5 hp induction motor conversion. The wheel is turning at 22 rpm and I have a gear ratio of 4:1 so my motor conversion is turning about 88 rpm.



After running through my bridge rectifier I am getting 14 to 15 volts dc. I am not sure of the charging amperage but it is charging my battery.



I think I read somewhere that you check the charging amperage by hooking one lead from your rectifier to a dead battery and hooking the other lead  to your multimeter then  the other lead of your multimeter to the battery. Is this correct and if so then do you put your multimeter on the negative or positive side of the battery? I am not completely done with it I still have to straighten up a few wires ,build a cover over my gears and alternator, and do some more cosmetic work   including painting but im getting there.    

[PowerBox]

You can connect either side, rectifier +VDC output side to Battery positive, or Battery negative to Rectifier -VDC output side. Current meter will always be in series with the circuit that you want to measure the current. Before doing that you must make sure that your multimeter have the high current capability, or you will end up with a burned meter, since battery (specially discharge batteries) can get all the current that your generator can give, which may be much higher that your meter current carrying capability. I will send you schematics of the circuit, including simple series pass charging regulator.

[Nando]

You may double the power and increase the RPM if you raise the pipe to the top of the wheel.

the meter may have a current setting, can you describe what type of meter you have, to be able to tell what to do for such measurement.

Nando

[komatsu200]

I dont have enough available head to get the water much higher on the wheel. The meter I have is a digital from northern tool and equipment model [mas830l] it has a 10 amp setting on the dial.

[Nando]

Set the meter and the probes to measure the 10 amps, the place the red probe to the positive terminal of the generator and the negative to the battery.

The current will read positive if the generator is producing higher voltage ( power ) than the battery voltage.

it seems that you do not have an induction motor but a brushless 3 phase motor.

Nando

[electrondady1]

congratulations !

thats a nice looking machine.

[DanG]

Lower the wheel : )

[pepa]

moving the wheel down next to the creek will give you enough head to go to top of wheel. if you use the creek for undershot and the pipe for head you win both ways. pepa

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Make that:

[Disconnect the positive terminal of the generator from the positive terminal of the battery and] Set the meter and the probes to measure the 10 amps, the place the red [positive] probe to the positive terminal of the generator and the negative [probe] to the [positive terminal of the] battery.

The original could be misread to hook the meter from the positive terminal of the generator to the negaive terminal of the battery.  That would measure the short-circuit current of the generator if the battery and generator were disconnceted on the positive side, the short circuit current of the BATTERY if they were left connected.  Either could blow the shunt fuse and perhaps let the magic smoke out of the meter.  B-(

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

moving the wheel down next to the creek will give you enough head to go to top of wheel. if you use the creek for undershot and the pipe for head you win both ways.

Or just dig the ditch from the wheel deeper and lower it where it sits.  You don't get anything from the undershot effect but you do get more head at the wheel.

Whether switching from breast-shot (midpoint-feed) to overshot or pitch-back will help much will depend on the shape of the buckets/cells in the wheel.

I notice the water is entering your wheel horizontally.  You might try putting a less-than-90-degree elbow or some other smooth deflector on the end of the headstock to turn the momentum to your advantage, rather than just the weight.  (This will be more important if you raise the feed above midpoint.  Otherwise the momentum will fight the motion of the wheel and waste power.)

If you do direct the water along with the wheel's motion, widening the jet to try to match the motion roughly to that of the wheel will also help put the kinetic energy to use rather than waste it sloshing the water around in the buckets/cells.

[Nando]

Thanks for the clarification.

Nando

[komatsu200]

Thanks for all the comments. I chose to put the wheel away from the creek because of flooding concerns if we get a couple days of good steady rain the creek swells significantly. I suppose that I could lower it in place but I really dont want a big 4' dip in my field. I still might do it though.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I suppose that I could lower it in place but I really dont want a big 4' dip in my field. I still might do it though.

Use a buried drain pipe.  B-)

[Speo]

Hi,

It looks really nice.

Can you post or email the plans for building the wheel (or point me to the right location for downloading or buying the plans) ?

Thanks,

Speo

[DBuller]

Greetings,

   I have many links on my "contact" page which may help you develop the wheel. instead of creating electricity, you may find using a spiral pump for Grey-water, irrigation or to run a compressor for cooling may be a more efficient use of the power your wheel is generating.

-Dennis

 http://www.wildwaterpower.com/contactus.html