Off Grid Micro Hydro X-STREAM Engine Upgrade 

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40 years ago, we dug a trench from the middle of the stream behind my dad's place in White Pass, WA two feet deep in the bottom of an existing hole above bedrock and paralleling the flow to a penstock with a 50 foot elevation difference, inlaying a 3" PVC pipe to run a turbine. It's worked flawlessly year round ever since. Turbine was an under-shot Pelton wheel. Inlet was an inverted stainless steel drum with 1/16" holes punched in its cylindrical sides to let in maximum flow and minimum debris.

The gravel and sand will still cause problems in wearing the turbine runner and nozzles quickly, if you don't improve the intake. Ideally, a coanda effect screen intake designed with an accelerator plate leading onto the screen, making sure the water is doing at least 1m/s across the screen, keeps any solids suspended higher in the flow and only clean water is sliced through the screen. When designed well, with enough bypass flow, coanda screens should be self-cleaning. While the wedge-wire in the screen is not cheap, the overall cost can be reduced by making the screen housing yourself. Never hear anyone complaining about the cost after they are installed, as they are so low maintenance.

Great neighbours makes life easier and happier.

Wish I had a nice stream like that near my land. That's really valuable, in more ways than one.

Amazing for these folks to get that much power from you and your family Jeff, Rose and family!! Love it!!

It looks so natural in that nature. Like an octopus on desert. Nature friendly. Imagine if every house in the valley have one..... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

It would be an honor! Definitely on the bucket list to visit

Your Hydro Power project looks like the villian in the Spiderman Movie...😁😁😁 Another nice additional power added to your off-grid.

Can't wait to do Hydro eventually at our new place! Already planning a giant conduit run in our foundation for it too. Also can't wait to see the GasifierGaserator Part 3!

It's SO beautiful there

Brilliant to be off-grid what a dream. And now your daughters are pipefitters, what can't your family do.😊

Perfect upgrade! 👍that high power stream is good to drive the generator. Julia is also good on mechanic tools😊👍

Thanks for sharing!! ❣❤❣

thats some crazy water pressure there awasome

We love watching your videos , you are brilliant , your daughters likewise !!

Loved this one

I'LL BE UP IN MICHIGAN IN ABOUT 3 WEEKS ! GOING TO HANG OUT WITH THE C.E.O. OFF FORD PERFORMANCE !!! LOL 😂 !!! LOVE YOU GUYS !!!! KEEP DIGGING BRO AND FAMILY !!!!

I'M BACK !!!! BEEN WATCHING THE WHOLE TIME !!! KEEP DIGGING BRO AND FAMILY !!!!

"I am like in like the eye of the storm", everyone knows Jeff IS the storm...

Very cool. I'd be constantly worried about a spring thaw, an especially fast one, turning that water, which is very fast moving now, into a raging river which ends up trashing the hydro system. I'd probably invest the time to build up a rock wall around the turbine, so basically build a little harbor for it.

Powerful.

Remember that every sag in the penstock will hold some gravel ready to jam a nozzle or obstruct the turbine whenever the gravel is disturbed.

I have been thinking about sand batteries lately. For systems like hydro, wind and solar, when they have maxed out their battery charge, they need to expel their power somewhere, which is often in big resistors, that turns power into heat. That is perfect for a sand battery, which is a very large mass of sand, that uses a resistive heater, it turn power into heat, that a sand battery is very good at taking in and hold over long periods of time. Seems like if you dig out a really big hole, dropped a large diameter culver pipe to the bottom, maybe 5, 8 or even 10 foot in diameter, then filled up around it with the dirt from the hole and fill it with whatever special sand is required, (obviously including whatever electronics are required, which I understand are pretty simple), you got yourself a good long term store of extra power or heat. Whatever is most valuable to you in the moment.

Good job 👏 👍 👌

Great video and good end results 🇳🇿❤️

With that nozzle setup you could sluice the banks.

That extreme close up face was really extreme Jeff!

Nice! Cool video!

Love it been a electrician for a long time and this is truly amazing 😊 could a small debrse neet help also 😊 appropriate y'all sharing such a wonderful story 🙏

Lookin good , never underestimate a few watts thats consistent. Time flies and battery's are easily over charged . 5 6 7 hundred watts consistent is way better than 2 to 3 k of solar in a day plus draining batteries every night , I would like to point out that keeping the 3 phase run up to the house is more efficient. Easily rectified before the charge controller. Not knocking what you got , Iv done the same . It works , you know the numbers you adjust . Theres living and living well Awesome setup, and cool video.

32,000 views should be 32,000+ likes too.

The difference between the 560W calculated and 460W displayed might be due to two effects: 1) If the DC is noisy, then the bandwidth of the measuring device or if the device is measuring average or true RMS (Even of the DC amount) 2) you might have some phase difference between the current and voltage devices, even thoug it's DC the ripple might be causing this. You'd need a proper true RMS power meter to calibrate the MPPT converter's display. If the MPPT likes to O/C the input thinking it's a solar, then you'd need to dump power for a hydro input to keep the turbine loaded, you have the power dumping relays, so you could setup the MPPT to target a voltage above the load shedding devices. All pretty interesting :)

Great machines! Don’t get hung up on free-wheeling with those specs. At 15psi, the nozzle velocity is simply not fast enough to cause high voltage damage. You don’t want constant free-wheeling because of the extra duty on the bearings, but nothing is going to burn up. My system is nearly identical (31’ head, 4x 7/8” nozzles over winter. 600+ watts.)

Would have been the perfect Titanic seen 💕 rose I can't feel my legs but looks at the power 🤧 lol 🤣 really appreciate y'all sharing such a wonderful story 🙏

Awesome good job 🙋😃💖💕👍

2 × I WATCHED THIS VIDEO !!! KEEP DIGGING BRO AND FAMILY !!!

@19:19 we have enough micro plastic in our rivers and oceans already😮‍💨

i really enjoy your videos mr. offgrid jack black :D

Fantastic! And beautiful spot too. Dr Otto Octavias? 😊

❤ watching now ❤ beautiful people ❤ love ❤

15 psi in a 4" pip = 60 pond's per inch . nozzle perisher. good presser = 600 wats . tow turbines = Plus 400-wats Times tow 800 wats between them Less wear.

Yea You are a cavitating With four nozzles, really 2 should be enough you would think, I love the idea I have a Brooke 30 feet from my house and about 60 below micella I wish I could get that flow I will try it at my house I even put a pond up by the house and thought about pumping it up and using the drop 12 inches one in sick1 foot drop equals 1 hp but anyway I love it

LEE AND COOPER CEMETERY ! OLD TOWN FLORIDA !!!!

All those adjustments with the nozzles and magnet levels - I was wishing that you had shown the residual water pressure at each step, because that’s a good representation of how much energy there is left in the water.

Just can't imagine how much money I'm looking at in galvanized pipe.... wow. I'm playing around with damming up my creek to put in a few turbines and water wheels to experiment with. Fun to watch thank you. @18:44 Yeah that is exactly why I wouldn't fully rely on this stuff and just going to use it for supplemental even if I ever get my system big enough to deal with the whole house I'd still keep my reg elec utilities just in case or if I was using something like a welder/plasma cutter. I work from home for a company and I can't miss work over junk inverters, I've heard so many people talk about them dying and I believe that at this point with the tech that most to all will crap out over full 24/7 duty.

Quadruple turbines 🤯

hydropower is perfect if you can use it the problem is that you need a decent drop on your property to create the necessary head pressure to operate any turbine, and even more if you are using a high-head low-flow design(which is often the more compact and powerful, though harder to keep clean, wonder if the first video that brought me to your channel should have included a centrifugal separator partway down instead of that screen in the intake sump...) it might be possible if you can set up a ram pump to get the required head with minimal flow, though the number of them required would be problematic and given mountianous water you could even easily collect some for use in your own domestic water(just make sure to have an adequate filter system(probably an intake UVC then sediment filter(oversize the filter to ~5x what domestic sediment ones would be for longevity, and maybe add in a spin down just before to help) then a carbon(might be part of your sediment if you get dual-mode carbon block filters) then RO then DI(you might bypass the DI or even the RO for non-consumption flow(like showers and toilets)(or just use the waste flow for that)) the fact that you have a clear stream with large flow and drops will be perfect for most water and power needs(plus you can take all that biomass into a bioreactor and use spare electricity to purify and crack the gasses into sellable pure butane/propane to get extra cash

Get em !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone. Very interesting and humorous video. You are all very competent. It would have been an honor to visit you but because of my disability this is unthinkable but you manage to feel very close to you. I live in France but although there are beautiful regions, life and mentality and especially politics there make you gloomy. All the best Henry

I would think sizing the nozzles all the same then use the valves to tune for peak power would be the way to go. This way you could compensate for the hose connection header and different hose lengths / bends, putting the same flow pressure at each nozzle. Then you could eliminate any cavitation, which would increase the turbine RPM giving more power. I must warn you that I'm a retired engineer, so as an engineer, I'm sure we could improve on the design and make it where no one could afford one. I Like your videos; they make realize how much of life I missed out on living a corporate life.

B4 the new assembly install a y screen that will trap large pebbles and sediment and you can install a dump valve

Love the design of your jets! You said that adding the 4th jet reduced your output… may the nozzle jets need to change the angle of delivery? Instead of 90 degree angle try some 30 degree angles? Just a suggestion, I don’t know anything but GREAT VIDEO and thank you!😊 “you can flow or crash like water” ~Bruce lee

Come visit the Philippines ❤

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ You Guys are Awesome 😊 ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

สวยงาม

A smooth manifold would be nice, but just some wyes would help. When measuring resistance, with a good meter you can short the leads and tell it to zero out. So then it just shows the extra resistance. Surprised you're using DC over a long distance though.

Bei dem Druck, könnt ihr es ja gleich als Feuerwehrschlauch nutzen. Wow!

So is the water on your land or can anyone use the water that way? What will keep it from freezing the water flow force? U guys...are so smart!!!❤

"Damn it feels good to be a gangster!" Hey Jeff, could two of the new turbines be wired together?

I was just thinking to myself about covering that system up somehow, to protect it from falling debris and such. Great system though, continuous flow no matter the wattage. Love ya'll ❤️

Laminar flow is probably important to prevent cavatation.

Quick tip, if you want to zero out, your test leads put them together and push the “REL”button on your meter. I use it all the time it works great. Also, something else you might want to be aware of. Is that your DC amp clamp on might not be accurate. I don’t know about the brand that you have, but I have a fluke DC clamp on at work and our Calibration Tech can never get it to calibrate correctly. He says DC clamp ons in general are only good for quantitative measurements not qualitative which is just another way of saying they are inaccurate.

Thanks a Stack ... I actually just 'Stumbled Upom' this Great vidclip ... An 'Observation' .... Shouldn't your 'Clean-Out' by at the Bottom of that 'Manifold' ... ????? One would want to be able to drop any 'Pebbles / Dirt' out from the lowest Point .... Also maybe have a bit of 'Dirt Chambers' .... An Large Extention to the 'Manifold' where the 'Debris' can collect without going into the 'Nossle Lines' .... Best to ALL from ChCh, NZ

3:05 Apollo Valves.

Ola 🇧🇷amo vcs.

I always said to the wife i regret not doing something like you have done But now at 62 and body shot it's to late now well done to you and family for what you all have accomplished over the year's I've noticed the chick have turned to hens and are leaving one by one on there own adventurers ps build a good sturdy steps for getting up and down the Embankment why you are still young burn the logs so they last years

Go Gettem Team

I would call the tech support for that MPPT. I have a feeling that it is just not configured properly. Give their support line a call and see if they can get it working correctly.

Wow… where did you guys steal the creek from?? I dont remember there being a stream round yer place with that much flow?

Are you installing a dump bin for future gravel and mud?

OK Kris Haber designed a nosily in stales & bras that are adjustable. check him out from small to larger. ,

you have gold in them gavils good size nugget too

That looks amazing but I want to know if you’ve ever looked for gold in that creek/stream? It looks beautiful 🤗 Texas

i think i saw gold with thoses pebbles ! You should go take another look ;)

If solids got into your old turbine, then they will get into your new turbine. With the new Turgo wheel you have, the solids should not cause blockages, but there will be significant turbine cup and jet erosion. I suggest you add a solids removal system up at the water intake.

👍👍👍👏👏👏

at 8:22 . its really cool to see how high the water shoots up. I bet its pretty close to the head height. Can you confirm?

It's not gravel, it's gold - but it's not that important... 🖖

With that hydro pressure you could set up your own gold strip mining. Probably shouldn't have said that as gold crazy as you are jeff.

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I’m curious why Paul didn’t wire the machine for high voltage 3-phase given the existing wire run and the distance. We run 12ga wire ~650’ with about 1% - 2% line loss at 600w.

😎👍👍

Looks like they need a wedgewire hydro sceen at the intake. Mine screens down to 1mm

👍🏻

A lot of rocks and boulders on that hill , in heavy rain or with heavy snow and ice these can get lose and destroy the pipe and turbine . Maybe building some sort of heavy duty retaining wall that reflect the incoming .

Did you check for gold in the material that came out of the pipe?.....

2425 when measurements are made at the alternator, a Loaded condition must be simulated somehow. if it is not, the output amps will measure falsely higher.

Sorry, I was doing some vet work on our cat when you were talking about having 4 nozzles of 3 different sizes. Did you ever modify them so all 4 were of equivalent size? What does the manufacturer say about having different forces on different points of the turbine? - - (intuitively, my little pea-brain wants to keeps all the external forces on a rotating turbine roughly equal, to minimize wear and tear on that turbine's bearings. But I'm not a hydro scientist, not even a mech engrineer... now, EE, that's where I used to work) Anyway, looks like got a good start on the upgrade... Did you look into better filtration at the upstream intake? Even tho a big jet-sled's pump may be designed to pass through rocks and debris, the more you can limit that debris, the longer it will last. - I imagine the same principle applies to a small hydro system.

14:40 I think he means Spiderman, and Otto Octavius

You need a “de-sander” to drop out your sand and gravel just like the large hydro plants do in turbid water bodies.

Build a teaching retreat area and sell time blocks

Could you have more than one to get more power

excellent work, vsi on my video at minute 2 you see the flow rate table of my injectors

BE SAFE IN MY HOMETOWN ! SANDY BEACHES , SUN AND FUN !!! FISHING 🎣 GUIDED !! JUST BE SAFE BROTHER !!!

I think you'd be better off with an inverter at the generator. It sounds like you also need a load which is easy enough just throw Barn heater on it

seninle çalışmak isterdim, çokeglencelisin TÜRKİYE

That stream never floods?

I like to watch hunting with your kids...sir,

Doesn't Red Green live close by ?