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home powered water pump generator.

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jimmyhackers

Mar 7, 2013
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ive had a thought today.

while adding extra itchy rockwool insulation to my loft i had a thought staring at all the empty space up there where a rather large water tank used to be.

i could store up rain water in my loft. take a long hose from the tank down to my garage.
then because of gravity the water would be under higher pressure and i could run it through a small turbine/generator.

i live in england. i heard it rains on average over 150-200 days a year in my area. so i figure this is very good potential free energy source. my house has a good 35metere squared of roof space and im wondering what kindof usable eletricity i can make from it

i need a good suggestion for a turbine generator. or someting i can retrofit to do the same job. i was thinking maybe a drill powered pump and a gutted power drill turned into a dyno. good idea?

let me know your thought ideas and questions.

jim
 

CocaCola

Apr 7, 2012
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You might be able to light an LED or two for a few hours... Honestly you hare not going to get much usable energy out of this at all...
 

CDRIVE

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i was thinking maybe a drill powered pump and a gutted power drill turned into a dyno. good idea?
jim

If that implies that you'll be pumping the water up to the loft then the reality that CocaCola conveyed will be compounded. You're generator can't recover more than a fraction of the energy required to pump the water up there in the first place.

Chris
 

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I think he was talking about using that to generate power, not to pump the water.

But yeah, there are more efficient ways to do it.
 

jimmyhackers

Mar 7, 2013
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thanks for your replies.

maybe i was a little unclear. i was thinking about storing rain water up high in my loft in a large tank. collecting it by letting it fall by istelf into a large tank through my roof. then when i want power i run it through some hose down 2 storeys into a home made water turbine geneator, to charge batteries and so forth.

i was just wonding on suggestions on what to buy or what to retrofit as a water turbine generator.

another idea for more intermitant power would by almost the same idea except id have to modify my guttering to collect a load more water and id just run my elecric meter backwards slightly when its raining.

to me this seems a reasonable idea. the cost of it would be minimal. i alreay have a tank, some hose, a tap, all i need is a water turbine generator or whatever i can make one from. i need some help on that one

i can get a drill powered pump for a tenner. all this is a pump that you can power with any kind of drill. this seems the best and cheapest closed house impeller i can find.
hopefully if i push water with the sole help of gravity through it. the output shaft will spin.

now seeing as i have 2dc and 3 ac electric drills lying about that i can gut/use. i wondered how easy it would be to turn the motor into a generator?

thanks again for your replies and i hope you can help me out with this
 

CDRIVE

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id have to modify my guttering to collect a load more water and id just run my elecric meter backwards slightly when its raining.

Yup, that would be the operative term.

Chris
 

CocaCola

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Yup, that would be the operative term.

I personally doubt you would even see a noticeable slow down, let alone any revere motion...

Read this page, you will need a raging flow of water for an extended duration to get any usable energy amounts...

One guy post this equation...

1 W = 1 N*m/s = 9.8 * 1 cubic-metre * 1000 / sec

He goes on to suggest

"1 cubic metre per second of water falling a distance of 1 metre would give you 9.8 * 1000 kg * 1 m = 9.8 kw. That's a useful amount of power, even once you subtract efficiency losses. "

Now think about this for a second, second being the time period, and 1 cubic meter of water being the volume... That is 264 gallon a second flow rate!!! What do you suspect you will get with your idea? Maybe 1 liter a second, generating as he suggest a whopping 9.8W on a good day for about 1000 seconds or 16 minutes? How many gallons is your tank, and how long will it flow? Next consider the weight issues, 1 cubic meter is just over a TON of water, that is like parking a small car in your attic for what a few seconds worth of dribbling power amounts? I suspect the load bearing of the roof by design would not be happy with that weight sitting up there...

Now yes the more if falls the more energy you can obtain, but it's still not going to make it viable... As I said you might be able to light an LED for a bit, you would be better off using that water to irrigate a crop of food to eat...
 
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duke37

Jan 9, 2011
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A pump as fitted to an electric drill is unlikely to be an efficient turbo generator.
Cars often use turbo compressors and an old turbo may perhaps be used to drive a generator. You will need a lot of water and may damage the bearings by water ingress.
 

CDRIVE

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I personally doubt you would even see a noticeable slow down, let alone any revere motion...

...

Maybe if he turned absolutely everything off in the house he might see it burp. A generator affixed to a stationary bicycle would be more effective and give him a workout to boot.

Chris
 

Miguel Lopez

Jan 25, 2012
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As the original water tank could not be enough, then you should take into account what is the volume of water you want to collect in your loft. If it is too much, your ceiling could collapse under that weight.
 

CocaCola

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A generator affixed to a stationary bicycle would be more effective and give him a workout to boot.

Very true, as would a small windmill or solar panel...

One of the most effective IMO ways to cheaply exploit roof space for energy with low out of pocket cost is to simply coil black garden hoses all over the roof, presto daily warm or hot water for showers and cleaning during most of the summer months... Of course high ambient temps and sunny days work best but it's still a relatively cheap way to harvest energy...
 

CDRIVE

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Very true, as would a small windmill or solar panel...

One of the most effective IMO ways to cheaply exploit roof space for energy with low out of pocket cost is to simply coil black garden hoses all over the roof, presto daily warm or hot water

No truer alternative energy statement was ever made. This is how we made hot water for showers in Vietnam and we use it in South Florida too!. ;)

Chris
 

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We use that technique here for pool heaters.

Makes it look like someone's tried to catch a house in a net that's a bit too small though.
 

CocaCola

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We use that technique here for pool heaters.

Yeah, we do that here too... My old neighbor had a black thin waterbed mattress looking like thing covering his garage roof that was used for heating his pool... Amazing how effective it is, heck it's amazing what the simple bubble wrap pool covers do to boost water temp...
 

jimmyhackers

Mar 7, 2013
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we already have solar electric and solar water heaters on the roof. its full. there is no more space for anymore

i get what your saying about a storage tank being too heavy, so i think that options out of the window.

however in the uk it rains a lot. i have at least a 75m squared roof this seems like a pretty good capture zone. just readjust my guttering to go through the turbine and id be good for a few watts.
 

CDRIVE

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Black is best but I've experienced very hot water from many color garden hoses. We make a point of always draining the hose by opening the nozzle after closing the main valve. If we don't they'll burst. Prior to Hurricanes Francis and Wilma my area had quite a few commercial hot water panels on the roofs. Unfortunately most of us are gun shy about them now because they compromised the integrity of the roofs and caused major water damage when they were torn off. They also became giant Frisbees that damaged other homes and autos. Very few ever replaced them. Pity because they're very effective.

Chris
 
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BobK

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Reality really is annoying, isn't it?

Bob
 

davenn

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Sorry guys
BUT I wont let any idiot abuse our good members like that!!

He's banned

Dave
 

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Why is it that reality brings out the worst in some people?
 
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