Will a 12 volt auto altinater and charging system work on a water wheel, to power a small house?

Question

I have a water fall with a 10' drop and the water flow is 2" deep x 40" wide. I could pipe longer and have more drop.

Answer 1

The only way to make the concept work well would be to somehow create a gearing scheme to allow the alternator to get enough RPM's for current output. You would be limited to 14Vdc, at about 40 amps. As long as you appliances are about 12 volts you re good to go.

A large wheel that is midway up the waterfall could gather 3800 cubic inches of water at about every 1 sec. This could, on a good day get 16 gallons or 128 lbs of water of force on the edge of the water wheel.

Experimentally, this wheel would have to turn at about 2 revolutions per sec or 120 RPM, at 32 ft-lbs. Also, it would need to be 9 feet in diameter, and very light.

A smaller sprocket, 6" diameter, geared to the larger waterwheel, with a bicycle chain could in theory, get your rpms to at least 700 RPMs, and 5 ft-lbs, enough for 40 amps. You would need to make sure that the alternator can do this beforehand, though, just use a torque wrench and see when the rotor turns at what force. I made some accounting for losses here.

What could you do with all this energy?. A bunch of light bulbs. Maybe the smallest of RV camping style refrigerators. No hairdryers, air compressors, large appliances.

Answer 2

Yes! Perhaps a small house on a 12 volt miniature village model layout or model railroad set.
You may be able to generate a useful electric current with the correctly sized equipment. I believe that an auto alternator will not do it. Judging by your question, I suggest some basic study in electrical theory. Public library is a good place to start. Also, longer pipe will not increase the drop if the total available drop is no more than 10', as you stated. Have fun! Don't get zapped!

Answer 3

yes and no it could under these circuimstances 1. you would not be able to use more than 1 thing at a time 2. nothing you ran could take more than 12 volts. If i were you i would go find some place that sells generators for water wheels and windmills put that on the wheel and have power coming from the wheel and from the power company and use the wheel as your primary source and when you want to run something to big have the power from the power company kick in

Answer 4

Might be better to get an old auto generator. These generate at lower speeds but the voltage will be based on the speed too. You will have to get an alternator spinning quite fast. There are micro turbine water generators on the market directly for your purpose. Charge a battery and use an appropiately sized inverter and run your normal appliances of it. Forget the fridge and other high load items though.

If you do go with the alternator remember that they are actually 24VAC 3 phase prior to the regulator/rectifier and could be stepped up but your hertz and quality would be suspect.

Answer 5

Yes... you'll need to spin it about 1500 to 2000 rpm's it will need to be a high output one (about 200 amps or so). Get one from an F450 with an ambulance package. Use it to charge two or three BCI group size 8D batteries wired to a 12volt DC to 120 volt AC converter. That should give you enough power for a small cabin especillally if you use 12 volt LED lighting and high efficency appliances. Check out the electrical system on the RV's built by EARTHROAMER.COM.

Answer 6

it would have to be a very small house

and it would have to have tiny 12V appliances (or you would have to step up the voltage with some kind of transformer

the maximum theoretical amount of energy available from your water drop can be easily calculated (the actual will be considerably smaller than max theoretical, but it will give you a ball park feel)

the energy is equal to the mass of the water times elevation squared times the accelleration of gravity (mgh)

you didn't provide the flow rate you had but suppose you had 100 gal/min of water, and the 10 ft drop

100gal/min(min/60 sec)*(8.34 lbm/gal)*10ft * 32.2 ft/sec^2=

now, divide by the constant gc 32.2 lbm-ft/lbf-sec^2

=139 ft-lbf/sec

since 1 ft-lbf = 1.36 watt-sec

= 190 watts

so, if I have done this right (and I very well may have messed something up trying to type my arithmetic) it looks like 100 gal/min of flow, with a 10 foot drop, could generate 190 watts

or, not quite enough to power two 100 watt bulbs

the actual energy you might get would be considerably less than that, depending on the quality of your turbine-generator

you probably would get less than half of theoretical

you should check my math, but the principle is sound

the amount of energy available is the energy lost by the water which is the mass of the water times the change in altitude that you are harnessing

good luck

Answer 7

YES! As long as your waterfall could turn your alternator in such rpm needed to charge the battery. You could use an inverter for electrical appliances (12Vdc to 220 VAC) and electronic 12 V balast for the lighting system (less than 2 dol).

Answer 8

Sounds like it could work. Just be aware that you will have to use 12 volt lamps and special low-voltage appliances. I understand that they do make them that way. If you can, use all LED lamps in the house (which will use only a tiny fraction of the juice that incandescent lamps would) and you will conserve your stored power.

Answer 9

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