Large Pond Hydro Attempt(UPDATE)

[Pond Scum]

We posted last winter about our Pond here. Weve got the  6 inch PVC as the penstock and need to add a 30 degree angle piece to where you see the water shooting out and then a 28 foot section of more 6 inch pipe down to the proposed turbine location.

Thats about 300 gallons per minute that you see coming out now. And its got 12 feet of head  300*12/10=360 watts,  360*50% effeciency= 180 watts continuous. That I should be able to expect i hope. I have a Ametek 99 im gonna test it out with and use until I get a fisher and paykel smartdrive motor to use.

 We shoulda worked more on it this summer but we had a bad draught and the water dropped below the penstock. but we added plenty more bags to the dam.

After a few good rains were back in buisiness now.

Thanks for everybodys comments on our last post we dont let the water go over the top of the bags at all now as we lost the center in a bad flood last winter. it all goes thru the penstock now and I can vary the pond level at will now by adding or subtracting extensions to the penstock, this is hard to explain but ill try to add a diagram later that shows how my hybrid penstock works. Its working beautifully now though and its awesome being able to control the level of such a big pond.

[ghurd]

No idea if this is correct...

Might be cheaper and more efficient to connect 2, 3, or 4 of 1-HP ECMs on one drive?

Be easier to let a couple beavers loose in the pond.  Buggers can build and fix a dam faster than you can tear it down.  ;-)

Extra-Nice to hear back about something too.

G-

[thirteen]

Do you have a plug that can be put into the pipe to stop the flow for maintence. Wish I had that much water volume. Could you stop the flow of water and have some of the water drain fromm below the pipe . If so you could pour cement or push a cement base in the area of the pipe where you could mount the turbine or work on the turbine. If it is to deep you could build a pontoon platform to mount the pump on. Just some ideas

[Pond Scum]

I hadnt heard about the ECMs till reading it in your reply Ghurd , so I searched on it and found a lot of posts about it so i been learning up on it.

WE have beavers , but the problem is getting them to do what you want.. And of course them stopping up your penstock.  Ive been testing a mini "beaver deceiver" on my penstock and they havent touched it yet,   it seems to be working,   sure saved me a lot of work of building a big one. Ill post details of that later along with my penstock info.  

I cant really tell what the beavers are up to now, they  work a lot . and are doing a lot of good things like cutting down trees in the area we are flooding and keeping a low leak in the center of the earth dam filled. But i cant figure out what there doing with all that wood there cutting down.

  Yes Thirteen, i can stop up the penstock but theres about 12 gpm at least seeping thru the bottem of our sandbag dam so its nearly impossible to fill that sump hole at the bottem in, its very deep too,   However back where im gonna put the turbine, its on a good slabe of granite and the creek runs around it.  and i can anchor to some good trees.   I do like the idea of a floating pontoon style thing like you  mentioned . Im gonna think on that one,  seems like a good way to save the turbine in a flood.  but working out a flexible section on 6 inch pipe might be a problem that would take the dif in hights of the floating unit and fixed top penstock location.

Were suppose to have unusually warm weather monday and tue (high 60s) so i hope to get the rest of the pipe run down then, cause ill surely get very wet tinkering with it.

[ghurd]

They will take wood below the ice line sometimes, for use later.

They try to plug-up the sound of running water. Might try letting some go over the top in a loud / splashing fashion?

G-

[thirteen]

they make a pipe that swivels or even an elbow that swivels you might be able to use one of them for your pontoon floating turbine. that would let you have high and low water flows.

[Pond Scum]

WE got the pipe in yesterday.

It went better then I thought. We need to add a few more braces though.

Its holding up good now though,  when we first opened up the flow it made a little creaking sound for a sec , but havent heard it since.

  I took the multitester and a few dif size ameteks plus a blower impellor i got for 8 dollars to try as a makeshift wheel.  Holding it under the flow by hand i was able to only get 8 volts(no load) on the ametek 40 and 6 on the ametek 50. OF course i wasnt channeling the flow thru a nozzle at all and it was concentrating on the small wheel. but i think its gonna have to be geared up if i use a ametek on it.  

  It was fun to play with though.

It was in the 60s today and a good day to get a little wet.

[Ganderwings]

The way it looks in your pictures, I would say that your pipe's DIA is to large compared to the water volume. Penstock must be without air thus the further down from the surface of the pond you go, pressures and flow not just by head but by suction will increase, unless you control flow with a valve at the turbine entry, which will cause pressure loss.

I would use your size pipe with a valve controlling the pond level and take a separate line of correct size for full flow over the top of the dam for steady pressure and free flow. You'll have to prime it.

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