Powering An Old Mill - 1.5 Kw Lake District Overshot Waterwheel Project Part 2 

I have seen that before actually. I might give that a try when I back there next. it will be interesting to see if that would help. thanks for the comment.

Maybe alroper screw driven sluice gate...and an adjudtable spillway lip that will stop side losses and aim at correct angle and depth onf water drop...why not make a curved corner out of ss steel and ckntain overslill ..?

@@KrisHarbour I'm wondering if it is necessary that the spillway they build follows the original flow. What would be the problem if you would make it straight and adjust the wheel to the right angle? Okay, maybe you have to put new footings in the riverbed. But it is also possible with a few beams and glueclamps on the existing structure to straighten the spillway, and with two planks you could support the wheel temporary, after all it is an experimental setup.

I can't help thinking that for longevity it would be better to make the whole thi thing from gal coated steel.

@@KrisHarbour Any idea what the flow rate is in metres / second?

Tag Hubi, hatte auch an dich gedacht beim Video schauen :)

Craftsmanship like in the 50/60's

Same I went full rabbit hole on his channel the other day. Ended up pinching myself at 2am and telling myself off to go to bed. He's the British Andrew Camarata!

@@tbrowniscool so true!!

@@tbrowniscool you've got alot of content to look 4ward 2

oh boy, I wish I were you... then I could binge watch him all over again. :D

Yes. De facto, the most qualified electrician is the one who adjusts the power. The other one will pose the cables.

4 year apprenticeship to become a sparky

I'm sure Kris is 100% qualified, in that he knows how to wire up a safe and effective system already, including attaching to mains. The piece of paper saying he knows all that, on the other hand....

Best get a qualified guy in to make sure everything is up to spec and regs, also if things go wrong it is only Krises work that would need to be check on.

@@axelusul Electricians are perfectly capable of goofing up too.

Where do you work?

Bet ur sick of hearing about the ring piece audio only😅

@@you-know-who. And sitting on his....

3-4kw would cost about 28-35k installed in the US. >.>

I could honestly spend an entire day just watching that wheel

Yeah, I think if this thing would be more popular, they would come up with something without buckets. Similar to the "take in" he has at home. The goal is to catch as many water we can and drop it on the bottom. I don't think the buckets were the best solution.

@@szolanek If you want the most efficient solution for hydropower, you don't build an overshot waterwheel. But waterwheels are great to look at, fairly simple to run and this place looks like it has been setup for one in the past.

@@Finnspin_unicycles Sure, as long you have distances, drops and earplugs :) // This one is nice, and nobody can complain. Fish might swims back for one more round // Btw, do you know about bottom powering, is it inferior to this?

@@szolanek Among water wheels, undershot is the lowest efficiency. A type of wheel called "pitch back" is most efficient since it combines the positive aspects of each other type.

@@AkkerKid Thanks!

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html

Gearing up the alternator speed would make it worthwhile to make a fan to mount onto the alternator shaft. Make a disk of sheet metal then cut some radial flaps to bend. Even if it only moves a little air over the alternator it would keep hot air from stagnating under the cover. A hole in the top, covered by a plate spaced up a bit and larger than the hole, would let heated air out. Would want to put a temperature sensor on the alternator to test if the fan helps any.

@@greggv8 that's what I thought of also. The air inside that large cover must me kept moving. In the dead of winter it will not be much of a need but on the warmest days of summer that will burn out with forced air over the unit. The only other ideal solution is an alternator with a water jacket that can take a small hose from the sluice and feed some water over the alternator and let it be water cooled. That's a different design concept.

This is a run-of-river scheme and all r-o-r installations have changing water availability through the seasons; setting the inverter to work in 'constant voltage' mode was never going to allow the wheel to work in all seasons: when water is scarce, the alternator pulley may not turn sufficiently fast to generate the 100v he set, whilst when water is plentiful, as in the video, and as @old-seadog has said, the current is too high and risks damaging the alternator. Kris's plan, at the end of the video, is to increase the size of the drive pulley in order to get a higher rpm at the alternator (and thus higher voltage) whilst achieving the slow rpm he wants at the wheel. This would provide the combination of higher voltage / lower current which will see the alternator not getting overheated, but it risks the open circuit voltage, - the highest voltage which could ever be produced when the alternator is not under load, - being too high. Grid tied inverters are rated to receive a maximum dc incoming voltage of around 600 v; if changing the ratio of the pulleys makes the open circuit voltage encroach on the maximum permitted for his inverter, then some form of voltage capping will be needed to cover those times when the inverter is going through its self-check before connecting to the grid, and for when there is a grid outage. There are always 'trade-offs' to be made, - a trade-off being "a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property in return for gains in other aspects".

@@KEhydro An excellent explanation sir, I love generator theory (& transmission, transformers, protection, switchgear, etc & yes, I *am* _that_ dull!).

@@KEhydro It needs a two speed drive between the wheel and the alternator. Fix two pulleys on the wheel shaft then have the pulleys on the alternator shaft run on bearings. Fit a clutch between the alternator pulleys to engage one or the other or be in neutral. When one alternator pulley is engaged, the other one spins independently from the shaft. The extra tricky bit would be automating the shifting to accommodate two ranges of higher and lower flow, and shifting to neutral when there's not enough flow. Also useful would be controlling bypass flow for when there's too much water to run through the water wheel.

My university tought me a lot. That’s why I went. I got a job straight after. 10 years later I fancied a change and went to do more education, got a placement from that course and 30 years later I’ve had an amazing career. Formal education isn’t for everyone but I’m rather glad my doctor, dentist, optician, architect, accountant, solicitor, structural engineers had one

​@@HT-io1egI don't think you uni "tought" you spelling though! 😊

Quite the opposite, almost 30 years a mechanical engineer. My degree has taught me how to think and apply due diligence. Creativity is a different matter you either have it or you don't

​@@HT-io1eg Well said.

Yea getting my petroleum engineering degree was a total waste of time and money, I only make 135000 dollars a year.

It’s pretty crazy to see the difference in effort between him lifting it on the dry shop floor versus in a creek, much respect.

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html

Interesting! I was very impressed with the thought, skill, and labour that clearly went into this project. Loved watching the video. But once the wheel started turning and the power was measured, my reaction was quite the opposite of yours: "That's it. . . ?" I thought, "All that effort and the result is about enough power to run a toaster oven?" I know this is just my own ignorance showing, but I thought it was going to power at least a single household!

@@eyesuckle 1 kilowatt is enough power to lift 2,200 pounds 1 meter in the air every second. One hour of running that waterwheel provides enough power to lift a ton about 12,000 feet in the air. "That's it."

Yes, to round off the bend and possibly higher than the existing sides to give the water a "smoother" ride.

I would have used a rubber seal tight tubing from the box to the conduit instead of the galvanized MC cable.

This was my thought.,... I probably would have wired a 3 core shielded cable to the alternator and had less conduate. or have gear and shaft system back to the room where the isolator switch was and had all the alternators and such in there..

So-o-o, be sure to silicone-seal the connector to form a better seal against water, and mist incursion. Could use water tight connectors and outdoor flex cable that has a plastic flex jacket.

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html

Thank you father

Well even if you had a river running through your property i'm not sure if you could "monopolize" the river like in this video because other people might be affected by that . Only if the river started and ended in your property (that would need to be a BIG property :)).

@@TheNAGC I agree I would need a big property 😀. So long as the river flow is the same leaving as entering your property it would be fine though. Which is the beauty of this system. Just a pipe dream though 😃

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html

good idea. A common failure for micro hydro.

Hydroelectric power plants from 5-100 kW and more. efficiency-99%. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EdnCo9rOVao.html