Installing the 4 inch Micro Hydro Unit 

I am glad you do not live by the sea or the ocean. You would empty it in several hours. Your machine is a beast.

I make siphons for a living and all you have to do is run the discharge into the water at the bottom of the dam. You can't let air into the discharge or it will break siphon. You are so lucky to have that pond for starters bud. Good vid. Subbed 👍😎👌

Water is everything for Life!!

Awesome work Seth! Man I totally enjoy your information and can't wait to see how your system works. There are no failures... you just keep working towards the ultimate success

Yes! Very happy to see testing on this style of microhydro. Was planning on testing this over the next couple years as an easier, cheaper, diy low head high flow

I am an electrician, and you are doing great Job. You can use 480 volts 3 phase transformer .

Good work. Looking forward to more videos in this series.

Thanks for the explanation. I have been watching videos on micro hydro units lately that I want to try at my family's property in the mountains and this helped me understand what I need to do to get it to work.

Nice! Looking forward to more.

Like the video - thanks for sharing! Can't wait to see the next episode!

Concerning starting the siphon. You could have filled the pipe all the way to the top of the 90° elbow (and then capped it) before rotating downward. That would have prevented any air entering into the system, then you would need remove the cap underwater to open the system. With all air evacuated from the pipe you would then be primed and ready to remove the lower cap and start the siphon.

Awesome pond and dam setup!

Great looking water turbine :)

I am enjoying your projects

Love these videos

Looking good Seith and thanks for sharing your awesome projects

excellent run - kickin it

Beautiful dam, even prettier than a natural waterfall

Nice to start new series

Love these projects and learning lots in order to set up my hydro project - decision decision- siphon or peloton wheel -lol

4 in ball valve to stop the flow. I love these videos, Thanks for sharing them. I dont have a pond, but I am looking at alternative options for a steady water source combining the ram pump from water tanks.

I DO LIKE AND ADMIRE YOUR GREAT INNOVATIVE MIND AND EFFORTS! PLEASE KEEP IT UP! I AM SURE YOU ARE GONNA GET THE DESIRED RESULTS/GOAL SOON THAN LATER. I WISH AND HOPE YOU EXCEL IN THE MICROHYDRO AS YOU YOU DID IN THE RAM HYDRAULIC PUMP. WISH YOU ALL THE BEST! I AM CALLED EMMA (KAMPALA-UGANDA-EAST AFRICA)!

You can get plenty of ideas for starting siphons from aquariums. Many aquarium designs utilize siphons and this is a common problem of removing the air to get them started. You can definitely do this by removing air from the top pipe as well, You don't have to do it from the bottom only.

looks awesome

Very good

Nice playground you have for hydro-electric experiments. Looking forward to see your next tests! Probably it would be more easy to temporary block the outflow of the pond by a wooden board. The board just needs to be high enough to pass your 4" pipe through. Would also save you from always going down to Snakeland! My prediction is: The longer the down-pipe is, the more power you can draw from the system.

You are my new hero I am city bound but I just love this whole dealio You are rockin it

Awesome video. If you increase the diameter of your pipe on the down side to an 8 or ten inch and increase the length of that pipe all the way down you will increase the flow rate exponentially and get max wattage from your generator. Although the flow might be more than your pond can handle. Looking forward to to next video.

supere idea Nice

Awesome video, there are a few videos out already doing this, You should watch them and continue testing beyond what they are doing.. There is so much potential in these various types of micro hydro systems, what I would love to see is a combination of them working together in tandem, like one of those 4 inch or 6 inch feeding an ram pump system or one that has a 4/6 inch running into a turbine one, you would generate power from both ends, that would be awesome to see done.. There are literally dozens of viable combinations to test, that could help so many become "electrically" self sufficient.. My mind is going in so many directions now just thinking on how this could all work with combinations of all these many types of micro hydro systems.. Sorry to babble on, I often go with what I am thinking as I type... LOL Loved the video, it gave me lots to think about and lots to consider it testing & trying myself... Can't wait to see what is coming next..

Looks good. I've been developing a fairly similar design, coming up against the same considerations. You'll of course get a lot more power with a longer draft tube, but will then be draining your water source a lot faster than it's filling up. But, power is drop x flow x gravity, so if you use thinner pipe, or just a throttle constriction on the inlet, you can then double the drop but maintain the same outflow, and get double the power. Also, as you say, an electrical load will reduce the flow. I used a liquid rheostat (washing soda in water with adjustable stainless electrodes) as a variable load, and was then just a matter of setting that while measuring the voltage and amperage to see where the top of the power curve sits. Another thing I found was that, especially under greater loads, there was a fair bit of cavitation off the runner. This I largely resolved by increasing the diameter of the draft tube immediately after, so that the tho the liters per second of water stays the same, the meters per second reduces, and therefor cavitation. Also means more suction per linear meter, so more flow and power, but that then again threatens your supply. I'll be doing further testing on potential optimisations of the design in the coming months, looking forward to seeing yours.

Looks great Seth, to help the syphon and be able to stop the system I've seen designs where instead of the 90 at the start you have a T the top of which you put your ball valve and connect the vacuum. That way you pull the air out of the horizontal tube close the valve and the system is full of water, the to stop it just open the valve and the horizontal pipe will fill with air.

Really cool videos! My son and I (who happens to be 5 years old, going on 50!) We have really taken a shine to the way you go over your systems. He is very into micro-hydro electric generators, pelton wheels, and AC and DC electric motors. He wants you to show us a video of what is actually inside of your micro-hyrdo electric turbines (like a breakdown of the schematic). Hope all is well on your end, and hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Very simple way to start your hydro unit. In a video you said you could put some sand bags in to hold the unit down. Simply block off the water to the level of higher than the top of the pipe and put your T on the intake with a valve on it. Pipe will fill and start flowing thru the pipe. Close the valve. Turn the pump by hand once the water is flowing as the impeller by design will only allow so much water to flow thru the openings when not rotating. When the impeller rotates, the volume of water flow will increase substantially. You heard the unit spin up once it started turning. Even to the point where it may pull any trapped air out of the horizontal pipe. Where I worked we had pumps where we could syphon water thru or pump. They were a lot larger than what you are using but both ends were under water. To start either operation we drew a vacuum on the pump. Once the pump was full ( bottom of the inside of the curve of the housing was up to 6' out of the water ), the water went from one side of the building to the other. If we had the engine out of gear and the gearbox pre-lube pump on, when the water was about half way filled, the pump would start turning ( our warning to prepare to close the vacuum valve if manually operating). And this with only a 1-2 foot head. By the time the pump was full and the vacuum pump turned off, the input shaft of the gearbox was turning at 1/2 the idle speed of our Diesels. And with enough torque that it could turn over the engine. Now how big were these units? The OD of the pump, 120", the ID of the pump, 108", the prop OD, 96", gear ratio, 18.1 to 1, engine, Detroit Diesel 12V71, idle speed on ours, 1000 RPM, needed speed to start, about 100 RPM, input shaft speed at 1' head, 500 RPM. I just checked the site and with just .3' head, one pump is flowing 116CFS non turning.

Thanks for sharing this, it's amazing that it can pull that much water and shut off the falls. I have an idea for another test if you are interested: at timestamp 4:45 you show the impeller, and it looks like the central hub of the impeller takes up more than half the middle. I'll offer the hypothesis that your 'down pipe' can be a 3in pipe (use a 4in-to-3in reducer) and that you will still get the same performance out of the impeller, but the siphon will be easier to start and will do better at self-purging air.

Great video. Sure takes a lot of water.

Very interesting video. :)

Superb

Time for a weed eater in Snakeland! Great Job!

Two 90° fittings at the bottom outlet that form an upward turned J would create the same effect as the bucket.

Your system is fine... to get most energy fit your turbine downside just before the bucket....

That fitting is a sanitary tee or a “TY” a true Y fitting is in the shape of the letter Y for clarification, love these hydro electric videos though!

Awesome

I was tempted to admire the woodworking skills until I was told to not be tempted and #rememberthehydro :-D

Siphon start … As shown in your 6” hydro video, providing both inlet and discharge are under water, you can install tee, valve and vacuum on the top cross pipe. If you use a section of clear pipe between valve and vacuum pipe, you can minimise the amount of water sucked into shopvac. Method… turn on shopvac and insert into tee. Open valve until water appears in clear tube. Close valve. Sorted. 👍

Put your vacuum valve up top and add a check valve. You can vac the air out then go to open the bottom rubber cap

For a siphon to work both ends must be under water. When your last siphon started and it was running slow you had air in the pipe. the turbulence from the falling water inside the pipe mixed water and air and once this mixture exited the pipe and into the pail the air separated again and could not reenter the pipe. And thus you established a good siphon. I would have gotten a pipe extension and set the pail on the ground or dug a hole in the ground and put the put extension into that. I found it entertaining. and will definitely check out their website. Thanks

Nice

get a one-way valve on the supply side.. then use a T in the middle to fill it up.

Stick the exhaust end down into the water

That's a great project. Good luck mate. Looking forward to seeing the voltmeter jump up. Btw you look like Sebastian Vettel the F1 driver 👊🏼

You know I recently watched an Engineer775 video where he was at someone’s property showing off the same setup. That gentleman used a vacuum as well I believe and a tennis ball at the suction end to keep a vortex from forming. There was a wire box around the inlet to keep out debris.

Personally I would have just made a nice water wheel. Fits my fav aesthetic, is quiet. What noise it makes is just the same pleasant flow as the water.

“I’m Seth and this is low-head hydro” \*Jackasw Theme Plays\* 😉

After an action turbine, a reaction turbine was needed! Can you show us how much it produces? keep in mind that the faster it turns, the higher the voltage and the more efficient it becomes, but at a certain point the speed slows the flow being a reaction turbine, you need to find the right ratio between speed / voltage and maximum power produced by varying the absorption, sometimes the flow rate is slightly adapted to the needs by varying the absorption, the siphon priming system is ingenious! Nice video ! Ciao

You can to a certain extent control the flow rate based on the voltage of your load (within the amp rating and magnetic power of the alternator). Similar to the mppt voltage sweeps of your pelton. You saw this when the alternator was stationary at startup. Also you will possibly see a peak power flow rate and a peak efficiency flow rate which might not be the same flow rates.

Me again…. Your effective head is water level of dam to top of bucket! You are also inducing an energy loss turning the water in the bucket and forcing upwards. Some mitigation may be had by using a 44 gallon plastic barrel for catching the discharge. The barrel needs, if possible, to stand on the ground, at base of dam, with the discharge pipe inserted no more than halfway into the barrel. I idea is to minimise back pressure whilst providing a large enough volume for starting the siphon. 👍 Cheers.

I think I would have put an S like a toilet or sink catch to keep air from going up the pipe. I would also put a T at the intake with a one way valve so you can use the shop vac to remove the air from the top of the system. That was what I did for my fishtanks to connect them.

So really what you need is a more flexible pipe in the form of a hose that will increase and decrease its size depending on the need. That will keep the air out and allow the flow to start. Another option might be a water trap as you have in your toilet and faucet. Or like I have suggested 3 times now you could try a bell syphon. I am sure you can place that in a way so it pulls a vacuum at the bottom instead of the top. Might be hard to make though.

Cool

If your neighbor wants to do the same, he can't cauz you took all the river for you. We clearly see one side of the wall is full and the other almost empty. Thank you to find a system to share the river properly 😉

You should fit a debris screen to the suction end. You should also factor the turbine's best speed efficiency (be careful not to induce low vapour pressure) then fit a smaller diameter vertical drop and calculate the required velocity Vs length of drop. The reason you didn't have full syphonic flow early is because the velocity was insufficient to prevent shear in the same size vertical pipe plus the turbine's location further promoted turbulence. A 3" vertical drop will be self priming on your set up.

I think the drop pipe was sucking air into the unsecured connection. A turbine will rip air out of the water while under load. I learned this from owning numerous jet skis and a jet boat. If there is any air in the feed, it will cavitate like crazy and the result will be high pressure air bubbles acting like a sand blaster. The length of the down spout will determine the amount of suction from the siphon. The cleanest flow would be right at the inlet and the "dirtiest flow" would be 90 degree turn to the down sprout where you have it installed now. Therefore, an impeller will be most efficient where the flow is cleanest and that would be right at the inlet.

Use 3 inch pipe and jet blade system to increase the power of the shaft

Well if you extend the other end of the outlet pipe to the water below you wont need the bucket, but also with the vacuum point in reverse you have the beginings of a trompe, the means to compress air without moving parts or heating it up

This how million of people can get electrical power to supply there homes. A single phase 120/208 150 ampere is good supply for homes.

Interesting

How about a series of T's on the outlet pipe with smaller ball valves. 4" would be 12.5"sq. 2" ball valves would be 3.14"sq so 4x2" all open would give a similar flow rate. But you could reduce the power by closing some. Starting syphon with the top one then opening bottom one when it starts sucking water.

Put the screws in (only take a second )

Just place the rock near motor. No need of additional pipe near siphon

was just wondering if you have thought of a way to get more water to your pond yet . i think if you can you will have a great system .

The reason it's not starting on its own is because the water isn't angled at the blades to cause the blades to rotate, therefore requiring you to start it by hand....I wonder if you have a sealed water tower, if that would suction water from a well as long as you have check valves which prevents the water from returning to the well, and also prevent any AIR to return from the exit pipe.

Why is the turbine on the top and not on the bottom?

Enjoy the videos. So many easier ways to accomplish this.

A second turbine on the down tube is waiting to be tested. A ram pump at the bottom of the wall where the waste water and drive pipe water is collected in a 55 gallon drum. Once the drum fills to near full capacity, a check valve opens and lets the water rush past another turbine turning ram pump water into electricity.

There is a system I'm curious about, if you look up pvc overflow syphon filter for aquariums on RU-vid. Set up a 4" version of that in this setting so that you never break syphon. Food for thought

Could a t-part in the middle of the concrete not be enough? You stop both ends and fill it with water via the T. Fill it up till brim, close the T and remove caps (inlet and then outlet). Just my 2 cents might be completely wrong but we're here to learn ;)

It's very interesting to see these low head solutions. I wonder if there's an easy way to limit flow with a level sensor. The issue is when you restrict the flow with a throttle, you're losing energy across the throttle because of the pressure difference, so you want to limit flow using the speed of the generator itself. An MPPT always tries to get the most power out of your system, where if you've got a limited amount of water, you want to extract energy at a lower flow rate. I was thinking of ways to slow the flow down, but I don't know how efficient those turbine blades are when heavily loaded. Maybe finding a way to completely shut a valve at the bottom to let the water level rise again would work, but that's a mission. Maybe adding a swirl flap at the top with would slow it down dynamically without too much throttling.

really ypu should have a t pipe in the middle with a valve so you can fill shut off then open the powe side valve or remove endcap

I'm definitely not an engineer, but maybe... Either place a large valve up top or use 3-inch pipe up top to limit pond water loss. Keep the 4-inch pipe down. Move turbine to bottom to leverage gravity. Thoughts?

Interesting video. I am curious about the rock walls and the water fall. Is that part of an old canal system? Is this on your property?

응원합니다

I'm sure you know this. but. if you make that drop pipe longer and reduce the bucket obstruction as much as possible it will be much faster

What would happen making the outlet pipe smaller from taking less water out but still keeping a good power supply just woundering if that's a thing or the inlet

Eu acabei rindo bastante com todo o teste. Parabéns, tirou dúvidas. Onde compro o alternador? Qual a marca do alternador e qual preço nos USA? Obrigado

So cool! I wish I was your neighbor. I would love working on (playing with) that with you. Do they make a 4-inch ball valve you can install on your down pipe? That would make it easier in the future whenever you need to restart it. You could add another one on the intake side to stop it too.

Put a y ..where the 90. Is at put fill pipe there when plenty of water in it cap it

You could use an assistant 😀

And fill the pipe with full of water not just a little

👍Если есть много воды, почему бы её не использовать.

i think i would make a small rock damn at the bottom for the siphon pipe to sit in rather then the bucket should be more siphon then and maybe a simpler setup

from last year... this guy came up with this solution $50 Water Turbine-5 kilowatt hrs/day - Open Source, DIY the channel is OpenSourceLowTech

Would be interesting if you could also add a ram pump to pump water back up into the pond to help keep it topped off. Not sure if it would work just was a thought I would want to test. You could put a 55 gallon barrel at the bottom of the hydro pipe to both help with the syphon for the hydro and pipe at the bottom for the ram pump.

That air pocket at the top when you flipped the 90 was killing you. But I know you, by the end of the vid you’ll have it working.

Puedes generar con ese caudal y ese tubo de 5 KW hasta 10 KW 220V

Tie something that floats to your gopro

Why not install the runner at the very bottom and harness the full potential? Just need a longer shaft (and a bearing)

Would have been easier to run the pipe to the water. Now your going to have to do that bucket/vacuum trick every time you loose your siphon

👍❤

Don't forget E=mc²