Chinese low speed alternators suitable for waterwheels.

[felin dwr]

Hello I tried to post this earlier but it didn't appear.
I live on a small estate with a watermill. We have a 20ft overshot waterwheel which is used to saw logs and generate 6kw of 120 volt DC electricity. Dangerous form of electricity only used for resistive loads like an immersion heater and incandescent lights.

For years I have been looking for a low speed alternator suitable to run from my water wheel. There must be many micro hydro sites still using or intending to use water wheels, and suitable alternators just were not available.
I had started to look into designing my own alternator, using the latest high tech permanent magnets, but the time and money involved seemed uneconomic. Better perhaps to abandon the water wheel and install a cross-flow turbine.

Then I came across this Chinese company on a wind power website. Their range of PM low speed alternators seems tailor made for updating old water wheel installations and newer micro hydro sites.

I hope this will be of interest to others here.

http://www.ginlong.com/wind-turbine-pmg-pma-permanent-magnet-generator-alternator.htm

[bob g]

dangerous form of electricity "DC"? 

are  you wanting to generate AC instead?

if so how high a voltage, and how well can you regulate for a fixed 60hz (or 50hz if appicable)

what is the intended purpose or goal?  power generation for direct use or battery charging?

bob g

[12AX7]

Lots of power and low speeds,  didn't see a price list. 

[felin dwr]

Dangerous because high current high voltage DC is like wiring up your house to an arc welder!  Many burnt out mill sites would confirm. My 1880 installation still works OK to heat water for my shower and run a few light bulbs, but it is useless for anything else.

Heat is what we need, so a 1500 litre AKVATERM heat store with two immersion heaters, and woodstove boiler is the current plan. If the hydro setup is correctly sized the winter flows should average 6kw of nominally 240 volts AC electricity. Both the frequency and voltage variations are not important since the power is used only for heating.  Summer flow can drop to below 2kw, and really cold winters without rain (like last year) can reduce our river flow to summer levels. So two or possibly three immersion heaters can be swopped around to provide a suitable load for whatever power the water wheel is producing.
I guess some regulation is needed and my near neighbour has a load control setup on his 8kw cross-flow turbine. The turbine always runs at near full power, and the power is switched to various loads throughout his house. Not being an expert on electronic controllers the black box that does this is magic to me, but it certainly works well.

[wolfie]

http://www.nac.fi/tuotteet-generaattorit.htm

here is prices in euros...not cheap

[12AX7]

Did you see this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InZ9XtiKpXo&feature=related

[Joseph Turrisi]

Dangerous because high current high voltage DC is like wiring up your house to an arc welder!  Many burnt out mill sites would confirm. My 1880 installation still works OK to heat water for my shower and run a few light bulbs, but it is useless for anything else.

Heat is what we need, so a 1500 litre AKVATERM heat store with two immersion heaters, and woodstove boiler is the current plan. If the hydro setup is correctly sized the winter flows should average 6kw of nominally 240 volts AC electricity. Both the frequency and voltage variations are not important since the power is used only for heating.  Summer flow can drop to below 2kw, and really cold winters without rain (like last year) can reduce our river flow to summer levels. So two or possibly three immersion heaters can be swopped around to provide a suitable load for whatever power the water wheel is producing.
I guess some regulation is needed and my near neighbour has a load control setup on his 8kw cross-flow turbine. The turbine always runs at near full power, and the power is switched to various loads throughout his house. Not being an expert on electronic controllers the black box that does this is magic to me, but it certainly works well.

Have you looked into an inverter to convert your 120v DC to 120 AC

[RobNute]

Hello there, I have just joined this forum and don't know if you have made any more progress with this but I have been involved in a similar setup where we used a 16 ft waterwheel to heat water using a 3 phase pmg from a wind turbine. Here is a link to the story, pics and a video at the end. Hope this may be of use to you. Best wishes.

Rob

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12399.0.html