Homebrewed Electricity > Hydro
My Jungle hydro project- 5kw pelton to power future eco-hostel
junglehydro:
Hi All, after some reccomendations from other users I decided to start a new topic to document the entire construction of my pelton turbine, and to share as many resources as possible, that they might be of use to someone else in the fututure.
A little info:
I live with my girlfriend and our 3 dogs and 3 horses in the Sierra Nevada mountains/rainforest of Colombia, where I am building my dream hostel. A truly sustainable off-grid adventurous neverland for grownups. Think treehouses along a jungle river, waking up with the sound of monkeys and toucans all around and gorgeous waterfalls within short walking distances in all directions.
Our site is on our neigbors property and I have been scouting for the perfect location to place the turbine and I believe I have found it. It will take a few more measurements that I hope to complete in the next few days and then the site preparation can begin.
the creek
Me (on the left) and a volunteer measuring the height of the hill next to the creek.
We use a very crude system of a hose with water on a Y shaped stick as a level, and a stick marked every meter to measure the height. It is crude but works quite well.
The system:
I am planning to build a 4" penstock with about 50 meter head, to power a 250mm pelton wheel connected to a 5000 watt dynamo. Since the power this system will produce will hopefully be near 5000 watts, this will be our peak usage and we are opting to go without any batteries or inverters and use our power directly from the turbine. This means that we will need to create a diversion load controller that will wisk away any power not being used to a water heating element, thus producing warm water for the hostel as a waste product from the turbine.
I have found that reading the book "the micro-hydro pelton turbine manual" by Jeremy Thake has helped me a great deal in understanding the task that lies ahead. And even though the books goes way too deep into the material for my understanding at times, it is very complete and has been a great starting point for me. I also recommend anyone to look at the materials, videos and calculators on the powerspout website.
I found a great 3d model that was made according to the specifications of Jeremy Thake and that was free to download. I 3d printed it ad a workshop and now I am having it cast in aluminum 20 times, and then sandwiched between two stainless steel plates to make the wheel.
And have designed an enclosure for the wheel with two jets. the piping will have threading so we can remove nozzles and experiment for optimization, and both inlets will have a ball valve to seal them of separately.
I am planning to expand this first post in the future to make the info more complete as the project moves along.
junglehydro:
Currently I have no idea on the sizing of the belt-drive wheels, since I don't know how many revolutions I will get with my system.
My dynamo needs 1800 rpm for 5000 watts, so say my pelton wheel does 600 I need a 3:1 ratio.
Anyone know of the formula to calculate my expected RPMs so I know what size wheels to use?
SparWeb:
You need the exit velocity of the water from the nozzle. That depends on nozzle geometry and the head.
Do I recall correctly that the charts I gave you on the previous thread give you some idea of that?
I don't have Thake's book, so I need to ask: Does Thake get into the definition of power? You need both flow and pressure. The nozzle you have diagrammed may have a 1/2" port. Is that enough flow to make the power you want to get? Do you only have 1 nozzle?
SparWeb:
Here's a photo of a pelton with 2 nozzles pointed at it.
I have seen an arrangement with 4 before, perhaps in Home Power magazine.
JW:
https://www.fieldlines.com/index.php?topic=148325.25
This is from FL
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