Demonstration of Waterwheel Maintenance 

Thanks! However I switched to Lignum Vitae wood bearings which are essentially maintenance free. I am aware of the auto greasers too, which would be a good recommendation if I kept the original roller bearings.

The blade design was a bit of a shot in the dark. I now know that they need to be longer and have plans to increase the length by 1 foot.

@@NeringIndustries how much kwh a day does it produce? And if its a low amount , why dont you just use a more powerful alternator ?

@@awokenv7302 The most it has produced is 2KW so over a day it was 24KWh. At higher outputs I am having trouble with belt slippage when they are wet. I am considering adding an idler pulley near the generator to get more contact on the generator pulley where it slips. This is a work in progress!

@@NeringIndustries thats low kw. Have you thought about using water jets like on a microwheel? With a more powerfull alternator?

@@NeringIndustries ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-njNYuEKW-ek.html

Mr Row what no shit when did thay start making those???

Late 90s I'm guessing. I'm a millwight and we have them on heavy automotive stamping presses and other industrial equipment that run 24/7

use long stainless steel tubing and put the niple at the center/ pivot.. then no need to move the wheel for greasing

In its current configuration, the wheel likes to be almost up to its axle in water to make the most power. I can see that on the inverter output.

The generator produces "wild" 3 phase power, up to 600V. At my residence I rectify to DC, then to single phase 240VAC where it feeds the grid or my house. The hydraulic pump is 12VDC fed from the solar charged battery. You are correct that the blade area is the most important thing. The curved blades add more area. There is potential gains as well with decreasing radius blades as you can note that the water pours through the middle of the wheel which is inefficient. I may close that area off as an experiment.

I'm quite curious about real power both kW/hr and peak W. It sounds like you need a PWM controller like midnite solar, where you could match load to best speed for max power (MPPT). Nice job on the fabrication, looks pro.

Why? River flows are fairly constant, maybe summer-winter difference. And why a controller when he has a generator (3-phase) directly being turned by the wheel?

A good question Predrag, I've done a bunch of work in this field, and what is generally true is that turbines have an ideal speed relative to flow, at which they will collect the most Watts. So ideally you load the turbine very precisely In wind turbines this is generally 7x the speed of the wind, in a turbine like this it's probably closer to .33 or 1/3 the speed of the flow around it. In wind turbines using an MPPT controller often nets 30-40% more kWh's per year. If unloaded this turbine will probably turn close to the flow speed of the river, and if overloaded it might turn at 1/10 the speed of the flow or not at all. The rate it's going to turn is controlled by how much resistance the generator provides. If the generator is rectified, and fed to batteries, then the resistance of the generator will be related to battery voltage, and is unlikely to be the ideal resistance to keep the wheel turning at it's ideal speed. A controller will work via PWM (pulse width modulation), and effectively turn on and off the alternator 1000 times per minute, leaving it on longer or shorter, depending on what you've programmed into it. This would only be needed in situations where you experience variable flow. A pelton wheel for example would not likely need this, though it should have it's alternator matched to it's output, it only should need to be set once. Good quality alts designed for this use have a jacking screw to adjust magnet plates.

The river flows can change quite quickly and often due to rain. The only time it is steady is during the spring/early summer during the freshet.

I thought this as well

How does s chicken like you know better?...

A bigger wheel will NOT get more rpm's...the rpms are based on the velocity of the water divided by the circumference of the wheel, a larger wheel will actually turn fewer rpms.

A bigger wheel would provide more torque because you have more surface area exposed to the water but not more RPM. Torque is more important anyway.

@103CiHD that's the same amount of a thunder

@103CiHD bullshit

No, the water wheel generator outputs "wild" 3 phase 90-500VAC power (depending on rpm) which feeds the rectifier/ inverter which then exports 240V single phase to the grid. The battery needs 12 volts DC power.

@@NeringIndustries And 240VAC output can charge the batteries, I suggest. Charging batteries needs just small 'watts' power.

@@NeringIndustries How can I get in touch with you?

@@jean-baptistekoba3287 in regards to???

Tend to agree with you on that one. Also seems to be running little too deep slowing down the wheel . Great design however but a little bit wider paddles would give more torque as well.

@@pieterbezuidenhout2741 yes I believe blades should be longer and not too deep in the water like this one . Making a small replica and test it in the water is the best way to find the best design .

@@sahenwijesinghe8063 and way cheaper as well.

faster but weak. Generator needs more Force to buy more time of pushing

On a dollar basis the return is typical hydro.

So what should I do differently? I'm planning on extending the blades and making them 25% wider.

No worries, everything is permitted by the gov't.

Ветряки тоже шумные и даже звук от них вреден для человеческой психики, и что? Там же рядом никто не ночует