Raise the arm so that less water overall is impinging on the blades which will lessen friction between the water and the blades, and should speed things up.. Blades are ok, tho flat blades seem better, to me.
My opinion: 1) completely wrong blades profile. The blade to enter into water just it's splashing full area. If you just reverse your wheel, it will work 2-3 times better. 2) If you close the space between blades (to prevent the water goes up) - the wheel will work much better and produce more power.
How much $ ? I can either buy 3 or go partners with you utilizing your water wheel and my technology to make power . I already have contracts available
Belts are slipping , but thats to be expected with not enough contact area on the generator pully. Don't bother with gears or chains, the water will cause more problems than they are worth unless they are completely enclosed and no water what-so-ever can get to them $$$. Just found this and haven't looked at your channel but a quick look shows the system has been running over six years. Good job. It's going to be a bit of work, but a very heavy duty idler on the arm to help wrap the belt on generator would solve most of the issues. More contact area requires less tension resulting in longer belt life. the idler pully would have to be grooved to keep belts from touching each other and riding on each other. The biggest problem is the smooth belt , water get in the contact area of the belt and pully, lubricating it. Grooved belt and/or pully bay aid in the slipping.
The wheel is not in the water very far. Water doesn't appear to be slowed down so no electricity is being produced in this video? The video doesn't report current output. This kind of wheel application produces the least amount of electricity out of all the different types available. A complicated hydrolic wheel lowering device, metal arm, cement base, all adds up to the kind of thing I wouldn't make. I would consider a wider wheel that goes deeper into the water on a double pontoon float and only a rope to a tree is needed to keep it in place.
What a way to harvest electricity? I have two important questions. 1. Do you need a paper from the city councils for installation? 2. How much do you charge if I want to order one?
just as a quick note, all the Lignum Vitae bearings i have seen, are installed with the wood grain parallel to the shaft, not 90 degrees to the grain as you have installed, they have water grooves and are much as twice as long as the shaft diameter to take the weight
lignum vitae bearings have been used in ships for years but they need a really large flow of water. i saw one bearing fail because the water flow was cut off by a rope around the shaft despite it being ten feet under water
replace the belts with a chain and cover them with a metal profile, I suppose it does not generate more than 10kw, a motorcycle chain could do it perfectly and cheaply, you have a good generating wheel
it rotates faster when no load is connected to the motor. It would be better if you use battery system. For example, a used tesla battery of 80 kWh. In this way, the generator will usually try to fill the battery, and will rotate at more stable speeds because it is loaded. also the turbine should not be submerged too much water, this will cause wobbles.
It looks as you are getting slipping in the belts on the two pulleys. You may want to replace the pulleys with gears and a chain drive with an oil bath. There is a company called Renold (UK)that makes heavy transmission/drive chains. Another option would be to have a right angle gear box on the waterwheel shaft and a second right angle gear box at the generator, both gearboxes would be connected by a steel shaft with a universal joint on each end to remedy any miss alignment. The double gearbox system would be nice as lubricant is sealed inside and gears are constantly bathed in oil. The other possible issue is there is some flex in the round steel pipe supporting the waterwheel which may fatigue the steel over time resulting in failure. I would make the wheel 2x-4x wider to produce more electricity, but the entire unit would have to be rebuilt to be more robust to handle the increased load. I remember you have had bearing issues in the past, you may want to investigate Pacific Bearing Co(US) they make large linear bearings that can be used in rotary applications. These bearing have massive weight capacities. The linear bearing are installed in aluminum or steel pillow blocks. Two linear bearings can be installed in each pillow block if you felt like spreading the load over a larger area. If you choose these bearing order them with zerk grease fitting which allows faster rotation speed an slower wear of the bearing material. I will be using these bearings when I build my backshot waterwheel.
Stating how long the drive belts had served before the emergence of the anomaly, might point to a service life expiration. In that case, thier (drive belts) replacement will solve the problem. Could you also indicate whether or not it is fresh water.
Great project. I tried to connect to your website and it looks like it's not functioning. Are you still planning to offer this or the plans for this to regular folks? Thanks again for the time that went into all this
