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[–] 9 pts

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.

[–] 1 pt

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.

[–] 0 pt

Not my area of expertise, but the calculations I saw showed it could be done with a 1.5m drop at 2m³/sec.

[–] 1 pt

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

[–] 0 pt

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

[–] 0 pt

what if you had ten of them?

[–] 0 pt

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.

[–] 0 pt

Ever lose power in Florida for weeks on end? 10kw is not enough!! Haha

[–] 0 pt

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."