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Smart Drive Oil Barrel Undershot Waterwheel
Harold in CR:
This is so much like what I have planned, only I used motorcycle wheels and 4" PVC halved capped off. I will mount them both on a pair of gold dredge pontoons and gang them together to run 2 vintage piston water pumps that only need 1/4 HP electric motors to push water up a long grade.
I hand dug a 30,000 gallon hole and am about to ship a vinyl liner and pumps and assorted bits down here, next month.
My plan is channel all my 20+ gal minute at low flow under the 2 wheels. As we get many periods of heavy rains, the pontoons will rise up and still allow most debris to pass under the wheels while still turning. Steel cables will hold the device in place.
It's much easier to push water than produce electricity. Also started placing gutters all around my house and shop to channel that down hill into the hole.
Going to place sheet plastic in a trough shape under the rows of plantation trees, and let that rain water drain into the hold.
Will have 100+ feet of head to run a 24V induction motor into a controller for the battery charging.
All water from the generator will dump back into the stream above the wheels for reuse.
Solar would not be much help here in the jungle.
We are about to get hit with a 19% electricity rate increase over the .24 cent rate at this time.
Really looking forward to updates on this system.
Sorry if this hijacks your thread.
Harold
bmannz:
Cheers guys, hope the kiwis didn't get washed away last night, there has been some crazy weather down there - I understand there was a seriously sick kid in Oamaru hospital and they couldn't get a chopper in and the roads were closed so the Mayor of the Waitaki district declared a state of emergency and called in the army to drive him to Dunedin in a unimog convoy thru the night - I love New Zealand.
Harold that project sounds cool and I hope one day to be able use the word Jungle in describing a system! Please do start a thread and chuck up some photos - theres a lot of really clever people on this site who will give you great ideas.
If you want to see the precursor project to this one check out this link: http://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/topic,149310.0.html
Still looking for tips on how to stop my wheel washing away - any ideas please let me know - 6 days and counting till I get back to site.
DanG:
Neat project though I hope your fangs aren't out and punched through the floor to lock you into that first wheel design ::) ??? :o
Looking at the upstream side of the culvert, with the steel vertical guards already there, sure looks like the place to tack in a 'lawn art' micro-waterwheel, floats and a vertical track for it to follow water levels plus easy access to winch it clear for safety & maintenance?
I always wanted to work 55-gallon drums using water as ballast into a tilt-down tower, easy to drain and fill for gradual weight changes, also using 35 or 55-gallon drums filled with stone/concrete as pillars - foundation anchor(s)... and if you do make a see-saw teeter-totter lever lift perhaps a parallelogram frame to keep wheel axis level?
http://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/topic,143898.msg969950.html#msg969950 < --- adding 'ground effects' for the wheel to 'key' into would amplify output, ensuring spent water drops away from wheel... ...would be x10 the cost & varying water levels, oops, next...
http://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/topic,148325.msg1035552.html#msg1035552 < --- pure Art, ongoing project....
Good luck, don't mind me, just an interested spectator ;)
bmannz:
Hey Dan, thanks for that, yes I definitely consider this my "first wheel"
Thanks for the link, I remember seeing the upstream shield on a German crossflow design while researching so will give that a go - it's easy to try it out
Mounting the wheel upstream of the culvert is a no-go as a blockage would pond the area and washing out the bridge that took Alex and I 6 days to build would be divorce material!
Thanks also for the link to skids project - I saw that during my research phase and was very jealous of both his river and his monster wheel, that things going to be awesome - can't wait to see it up and running
bmannz:
Had a chat to another engineer friend over the weekend and his calculations say the water height downstream of the culvert will always be below my axle height as the constriction of the culvert and then widening of the stream at the wheel location means the tide will always be lower there.
Need to do some measurements to confirm but at this stage it looks like I'll be dropping the wheel into the drain in two days time.
If anyone has any tips on rust protection for 10 barrels chopped in half and some freshly welded galv pipe I'm all ears - thinking about a case of dark green rustoleum or "spray on galv" or similar?
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