Domestic water supply running a turbine

[GPowers]

Would it be possible to have the domestic water supply, that feed a home, run a turbine? You could generate electricity when you water the lawn or when taking a shower, any time someone uses the water in the home. This could supplement a existing PV system.

[XeonPony]

they all ready do this, its called the water meter! It costs you pressure, do some searching as this has been covered to death here.

[MIgardener]

  If you have your own well, than your pump would have to work harder to overcome it.

 If you live in the city, than I guess you would be stealing power from the city. It wouldn't be much and would decrease your water pressure.

 There is no such thing as free energy.

[GPowers]

I realize you would lose water pressure, but most city water homes have a pressure regulator to reduce the water pressure before it enters the home.  So with a hydro system you could do the same thing and lower  the pressure.

I do not see how this is stealing power for the city. are we stealing power when we run our water through a "pressure regulator"?

[keithturtle]

I do not see how this is stealing power for the city. are we stealing power when we run our water through a "pressure regulator"?

You're right.  The city will never notice pressure drops past the meter; you "pay the price" in reduced water pressure for your home.

And yes, since it will only produce power whilst water is passing thru the system of your home, the capture and storage system is important.  But how much is really there to harvest?  Let's see, draw water for a pot of coffee, get 250 milliamps for (?).

Take a shower and charge your cell phone, maybe?  I'm not sure there's a whole lot there; a wind turbine might be time and money better spent, IDK

Turtle

[MIgardener]

I do not see how this is stealing power for the city. are we stealing power when we run our water through a "pressure regulator"?

You're right.  The city will never notice pressure drops past the meter; you "pay the price" in reduced water pressure for your home.

And yes, since it will only produce power whilst water is passing thru the system of your home, the capture and storage system is important.  But how much is really there to harvest?  Let's see, draw water for a pot of coffee, get 250 milliamps for (?).

Take a shower and charge your cell phone, maybe?  I'm not sure there's a whole lot there; a wind turbine might be time and money better spent, IDK

Turtle

  Exactally

[XeonPony]

Can we did one of the bigger versions of these threads up and make it a sticky?

[DamonHD]

Suggest one to me or Bruce, maybe in PMs, and we can take a look.

Rgds

Damon

[Bruce S]

I agree, might be a good idea to tag one into the FAQ area.
I'll see what I can dig up too, during lunch / Home opener down time  .

[Mary B]

This belongs in with over unity... there is not enough energy there worth recovering. Be better off using a waste heat recovery system on the drains.

[birdhouse]

This belongs in with over unity...

i don't think that's really the case, but yes, there is so little energy to be extracted, that is just plain isn't worth messing with or wasting keystrokes on. 

i do like the idea of a sticky for this idea.  that way, the next time it happens, a mod can just lock the thread and redirect them to the sticky. 

adam

[ChrisOlson]

Kinda fits in with the one idea I saw here once where somebody was going to put in a closed loop hydro setup with a lower pool and upper pool.  Pump the water to the upper pool on off-peak electricity and generate peak rate electricity by running it thru the hydro turbine.  LOL!

[XeonPony]

Kinda fits in with the one idea I saw here once where somebody was going to put in a closed loop hydro setup with a lower pool and upper pool.  Pump the water to the upper pool on off-peak electricity and generate peak rate electricity by running it thru the hydro turbine.  LOL!

called pumped storage, works great, providing his pool is a few hundred thousand gallons! other then that some people need a firm hit upside the head with the reality stick.

[ChrisOlson]

I don't remember all the gory details of that closed loop hydro setup that was going to solve all our energy problems.  But I think the concept came out of like Popular Mechanics or something.  I did a few rudimentary calculations on how much power it takes to move the water from the lower pool to the upper pool and even with no losses in the pump motor and pump, at the efficiency of contemporary hydro turbines and generators you could not even recover the energy expended in lifting the water against the head.

It was good for a laugh that day.

[OperaHouse]

Let's say I don't know a thing about science and just look at my water bill.  Three months is $15.18 for 4300 gal.
That is $3.50 for 1000 gallons. With my 50 gallon daily usage that amounts to 17 cents a day. If all the cost was
for pumping, that is not a lot of energy.  From another mailer they tell me that less than half the water they pump
is ever billed.  They have a lot of leaky pipes under the street and they are working hard on that.  Now the energy
is down to 8 cents a day if you can get it all back. Water isn't complex and I'm sure they just turned on the pump,
turned the lights off, shut the door and went home.  Even so, I wonder how much I would invest in order to get back
8 cents a day.

[ChrisOlson]

Water isn't complex

That's what a plumber told me once.  He said it's real simple - hot is on the left, cold is on the right and s&*t runs downhill.  That's all you need to know to make it work.  It only gets complex when you try to make s&*t run uphill.

[Bruce S]

The Tom Sauk reservoir was a pump back type. BUT they had no delusion of it being anything other than a peak load unit. They very well it took more energy to move the water back up to the top reservoir than it produced.
IT did however work as a peak load as they could very quickly spin up the 2 200MW turbines.
IT's still out of commission last I heard, which is sad as it was an impressive sight to go visit!   

[OperaHouse]

And that is what you thought was funny?  Truth be told, I spent $450 to get 8 cents worth of electricity a day!

I did get some PE signed drawings that had it running up hill.  When I questioned him he said, They figure that
out in the field.  And that is why I had to have PE signed off drawings for the town.

[Mary B]

I could see this working along Buffalo Ridge in Minnesota. Instead of idling wind turbines on low use days pump water up to a large man made lake at the top of the ridge. 500 foot head should be enough to generate useable power on peak demand days.

I don't remember all the gory details of that closed loop hydro setup that was going to solve all our energy problems.  But I think the concept came out of like Popular Mechanics or something.  I did a few rudimentary calculations on how much power it takes to move the water from the lower pool to the upper pool and even with no losses in the pump motor and pump, at the efficiency of contemporary hydro turbines and generators you could not even recover the energy expended in lifting the water against the head.

It was good for a laugh that day.

[hiker]

are city has a ton of water--huge lake...wells here and their...river...
and they still keep on raising the rates....every time elect. goes up-all the other utilities follow suit ! dont see a problem at all running a small gen -24-7- off of city water..that i pay for each month.......just my thoughts !

[john8750]

I like that thought. What will you do with the water after in turns the turbine? Might use all the pressure just to pump it up to a holding tank.
Could the water being used at the time turn the turbine?
How much electricity could be produced?
I see some possibilities.

[DamonHD]

http://what-if.xkcd.com/91/

[Mary B]

  Damon that was good!

[MIgardener]

http://what-if.xkcd.com/91/

   I love that website.

[john8750]

That's good, but if the water was not wasted and still used I see a possible practicality.
Of course the expense would be considerable.