Finally ready to start building

[Harold in CR]

 Over the past 2 years, I have wanted to get my mini hydro system going. For a refresher, I will list what I have. Lack of LOTS of water IS my biggest liability.

 I will have a total head of 26'
 I will have a varying water supply of 20 -60 GPM and 60-150 GPM, ++ in heavy rains/runoff. THIS requires planning. There will be a bypass for what water I can't utilize.

 At the weir, I will make a dustpan shaped inlet that sits in a cutout of the top of the weir. This is so I can screen off debris with the water running over the top and have a "Roof Peak/tent shaped" type screening system. AS water runs over the pan/inlet, it will push debris on over the screening, where it will drop off on both sloping sides down into the stream bed. This is all inside a jungle type setting, but, MOST debris is limbs, leaves and mud/sand.
Biggest problem will be screening out sand. The Coanda Screen Website is not functional and is for sale.  Need to design something.

 There will be 2--4" PVC pipes fastened to the water inlet, side X side. There will be "Drop outs" in the pipes, to purge sand mud, etc., that gets past the screening. The 2 pipes will run 140' at a 24" down slope, to where they pass through a cut in a hill, and start the 20%(24') drop, 100' to the turbine area.  Near the bottom of the drop, probably a few feet from the turbine, I will run both the 4" pipes into a "Y" fitting, and then a single  4"into a bell reducer setup to get to the nozzle of 3/8" - 7/16" opening. Then, water strikes the Pelton Wheel.

 There is no chance of obtaining a larger dia pipe, so, I go with what I can get. This should get me decent water supply/force at the nozzle.

 I bought an Italian "Plastic-resin fibre reinforced Pelton Wheel off Ebay. It is 4¼" Dia, and has 14 spoons. I will build the adapter for the alt.
 I have a 20A Denso Automotive alternator that I will build a magnet rotor for. This will be done within the next 2 weeks, as I go to Fl and use my sons Metal Lathe. I can also rewind the stator if needed. I have plenty of winding copper, and time is not important, but, money is tight. I'm doing this a piece at a time.

 I will run 3 phase direct to the battery area, from the Alt, then install the rectifier, and Ghurd Controller at the battery area.

 The set up will be similar to a Harris physical design. They are just to expensive for me, at this time. Once the system is set up, it will give me plenty of info about what I can expect, IF I were to buy a Harris, in the future.

 If anyone has any suggestions,or requires additional info, please advise now. I know this is an iffy project, but, this year, we have had VERY decent rains, and, LOTS of water has passed us by. My battery supply is meager, but, once I have things set up, I can start gathering batteries. I have 3--12V car-truck batteries to play with, and, our Aquaponics green house will be run off batteries. So far, that draws 5A at 12V, 24 hrs a day. The whole system is 12V pumps, LED Lighting.  Better batteries will be obtained as money permits.

 OK,shoot me down.   
 

[hydrosun]

Coanda screens are available from hydroscreens.com  I've used them in many systems. Not cheap but they work well. Your intake setup may work fine. Since you are using larger nozzles you can use larger(coarse screen) openings because the small stuff will pass right through the system. Sand will wear the pelton but you are at low pressure so the effect may be low enough to ignore. I've parralelled pipes for lower friction without problems. If you can find a 70 amp motorcraft alternator it may be more efficient than the smaller denso. Harris switched to the larger one for his alternator hydros. If you can get a stator with thinner plates that also can gain efficiency. You may want to try the setup with a stock alternator to see how it works. That would allow you to vary the field strength to match the power available at different flows.  The permanent magnet us one fixed strength and may slow down the pelton too much and will be at optimum at only one flow. Biggest problem I see is the amount of water for a 3/8 nozzle at 26 feet is 14 gallons. For 7/16th it is 18, and 1/2 inch is 25 gallons. So even if you used 4 nozzles the most you could use is 100 gallons on your 4 inch pelton. A turgo at that size could handle (2) one inch nozzles for close to 100 gallons each. For your low head site the model you may want to look at is the esd hydro stream engine. It also runs at a higher rpm at the same head because the nozzle is aimed closer to the center.  So you wouldn't have to rewind. With a pelton the rpm is under 1000 rpm and you may need to rewind. I think you can get turgo buckets from hhydro.com
Bottom line is to set it up as is and see what it will do. Then change one thing at a time to see if you can get more power.
Chris

[Harold in CR]

 Perfect response, Chris. So, I can realistically use more than 1 nozzle and do OK, considering what I have to work with ??

 By the way, hydroscreens site IS for sale and there is no website. I just verified it, again.

 Thank You.  Harold

[hydrosun]

Hydroscreen.com with no s at the end is still there. I just checked again. I talked to Bob this last summer and bought a screen from him. I'm now using them at a more shallow angle (30 degrees) if not too much water is needed and that avoids some problems and lessens the loss of drop at the intake.  My own two intakes use 15 gallon barrels with 8 inch slots spaced one inch apart in rows spaced around the barrel. I cut the slots with a regular  blade on a circular saw. I have the barrelin a hole dug next to the stream so it won't be pushed by the flow of water. I only have to clean it afew times when heavy flows bring down lots of leaves. My nozzles are big enough to pass anything that goes through the slots. So you can see that the water doesn't need to be screened too fine, depending on the system.
Yes you can use more than one nozzle. I had a set up wth four nozzles aim
ed at a pelton mounted on the lid of a four sided plastic bucket. That way the waste water dropped down and didn't interfere so much with the other jets. Harris units have a curve on top to guide the water coming off the pelton's upper side. I used some curved plastic to try to mimic that. May have helped, but my metering was too crude at that time to see small improvements.

[Harold in CR]

 Thanks again, Chris 

 The Turgo system is way too much money.  Let me 'splain. I have a crazy neighbor that lives right UP hill from me, that has the spring on HIS side of the fence. For nearly 3 years, they ran ALL their dairy poop right into the stream, spring.    Finally, I put the law onto them. They now have moved the cows somewhere else and just milk a few for personal family use.

 He could never see how to put in a holding pond, to allow the water to filter out, inexpensively, even after I showed him photos of systems I helped install in the states. He KNOWS I want to use the water that comes across my lace, but, he doesn't want that to happen. He is trying to "use it up", on his side of the fence.  (they just pushed-rolled the pickup past my place, trying to JUMP start it,downhill). Anyway, my wife just heard him bragging to another guy, that he was "going to put a concrete lined pond in to raise Tilapia, fish". He couldn't put in a dirt holding pond, though ?  AND, if he starts dozing to get below the flow of water, to use the spring, there is a VERY good chance he will lose the spring, and that includes ME.

 By scrounging and buying on the cheap, I have gathered wire for the run uphill, have several pieces of 4" Pipe, and the alternator was off our sawmill we built, then needed more output, so, we swapped it out. It kept blowing the external regulator. I have a new one, but, never used it, so, I CAN do the non-magnet idea to see what I can get. I have block magnets and just ordered special magnets to build a rotor, AND, can probably buy a junk alt and use the mag rotor in it, once I get running and experimenting.

 I still have 3 solar panels to build, and, reroof the house, to include a built in solar water heater system, getting ready to start thinning out the tree arm, cutting lots of weed grasses, and getting the aquaponics system working to max efficiency. All this + paying electric and phone on $800.00/month pension.  I need a couple of clones 

 Everything you write,reminds me of stuff we did in the late '70's in our Alt Energy Business. We put in digesters, sold and installed wind turbines and solar panels, and build wood furnaces and solar water bread boxes. That was all a century ago. 

Once I get ready, I will try to document this project, so others might learn from it, good or bad. 
 Any other ideas-info, I certainly appreciate it.  Thanks, again,  Harold

[hydrosun]

I was talking about the esd as a turgo model. The turgo spoons would go on your existing alternator. So if you find you want to use a lot more water. Instead of gettong a second pelton and alternator you could switch to a turgo wheel from hhydro.com
Chris

[thirteen]

I am not sure of the cost but have you looked into filing water rights on the spring/water supply? You might even have them attached to your property from previous owners. It would take some looking into in the county records. Just a thought.    13

[CraigM]

I've seen ranchers in Arizona drive well points horizontally into the side of a hill to access springs. From your property boundary drive a well point in the direction towards the spring and you just might hit the spring source. Not sure what your neighbor would say but seems one turn deserves another.

[Harold in CR]

 Chris, That is a good idea, BUT, what happens when the water drops to 20 or so GPM? Will the Turgo still produce from that small amount of water?

 To the 2 guys that posted about water rights and driving well points. Have either of you been in a real jungle, with all the trees and roots and stumps ?   That is where I live, in Costa Rica. The spring is 250' from the fence boundary line. The law here reads that water running across another's property can NOT be diverted, so it does not cross at another place.  It doesn't say anything about using it as much as can be done.

  When I put the Authorities onto the neighbor, he just stopped drawing from the spring, to fill his elevated tank which is used for washing the barn floor.  Now, the water runs clear, but, I haven't had it tested for bacteria and other  solids.

 It would take a big machine to do any work, before it started sinking into the mud and sand/clay mix dirt.