would the fuel cost be to high to run run a pump from the bottom of the hill?

Question

to the top ofthe hill down through a pipe with a generator set in the pipe or should i say generators to run power for the house would you use battery as storage or pump continuasly

Answer 1

If I understand the question correctly, you are asking about pumping water "up the hill" to a storage tank and then letting it flow "down the hill" to spin a generator.

There are some large scale (500+ MW) pumped storage facilities like this in the US. If memory serves, the power they got out of the generator was 2/3 of what they spent pumping the water up the hill. The big savings is that they pumped the water up to the reservoir at night when energy costs are low. They let the water flow down through the generator when the energy costs are much higher.

One of the interesting engineering facts is that actual pump used to pump up the hill is allowed to spin backwards as the turbine. All they do is reverse the polarity on two of the three phases to change rotation of the device.

Answer 2

Because of inefficiencies in the pump, the motor to turn the pump, and in the turbine blades and generator at the other end, you will end up spending more to "generate power" then it would cost you to just use power off the grid. The only possible savings is if you have enough of a difference in off peak power costs that you can overcome the inefficiencies of the system.

Answer 3

U could use a small pump and small line and have a small storage tank up at the house. Plan on the pump ruining no more than 50% of the time.

Answer 4

This is a typical application of solar power. You pump "UP" the hill when the sun is shinning into a resevoir, and then use the stored water for night power.

If you size the solar properly, it will accumulate enough water to power your house during the day (excess solar). during cloudy days and at night. Your "battery" is the water stored at a higher potential energy in the high resevoir.

Again, this is a rather typical application of solar power today...

Ron.

Answer 5

If your're talking of pumping water uphill, then to change its direction to downhill to run a water turbine/generator unit and then power the house and the pump,... forget it, perpetual motion has not yet been achieved; nor has using more power than is produced.