Velocity is not necessary for hydro. Its volume of water and elevation change. You'd be surprised by how much water and elevation change you need. Last time I remember doing the calcs, you'd need at least a 40' elevation drop with at least an 8" pipe to run a small house.
There are small turbines that only require a 5 foot drop and can put out 15kW.
Sure. Kaplan's etc. Mostly a function of water flow but 15kw turbines need a min drop of 3meter.
Not my area of expertise, but the calculations I saw showed it could be done with a 1.5m drop at 2m³/sec.
So scale up the pipe diameter and it scales down the drop, let's be honest here, there are pipes and impellers bigger than 8"
Plus you could setup multiple
multiple is the way to go
Nature is your limit! Not pipe size. I figured 8" would flow enough, easy enough to handle in remote locations, etc.... You'd be hard pressed to find a piece of property with that elevation change with that flow of water. You'd basically be buying a large waterfall, which would be costly...
My weir at 2m drop max theoretically generates 2-3kw varying with seasonal flow
what if you had ten of them?
That's gonna give you at least 10,000W continuous. That's a hell of a load for a small house unless you're trying to cook, heat, and heat water with electricity.
Ever lose power in Florida for weeks on end? 10kw is not enough!! Haha
A 5-ton central A/C takes about half that to run. Unless you're trying to use your mig welder in the air-conditioning I don't know how 10 kW is possible in a "small home."
(post is archived)