Hydro Electric Trouble Shooting And Maintenance
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- Опубліковано 29 жов 2020
- For the last week the Hydro was down on power by about 50w. I set about trying to work out why. There was also a few mods i wanted to do so i decided to do them at the same time. It was hard to say what exactly the problem was but we did a complete clean out and moved the stand pipe back to its old location and it fixed the problem. In the coming days we had alot of rain and the system settled in and all the air bled out and we are now at 488w. about an 8w increase from before.
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If you listen very closely, when Kris is cleaning the pipes, you can hear a distant Canadian voice saying "release the schmoo!"
Ave
Thank you for taking the time to explain all of the dynamics and walking through the trouble shooting and obtaining the 480 watts!I hope it works all the way through the winter without too many hiccups! Pretty near!😀👍
My kitties always come to help me with my garden jobs too lol, they make fine supervisors 😉
Hi Kris, we find your videos very inspirational. We have recently moved to rural France into an old farmhouse, and are learning to do things in a very old fashioned way. As an ex coach-builder, your woodworking videos have helped me to find my long lost skills. Keep up the good work. Alex & Sally
That was really interesting to watch all the process for the checks you did. Thanks for sharing and I am glad the power went back up :)
Always good to service before the winter. Fab video Kris. Always good to see maintenance.
Thanks for my favorite Friday unwind activity! I don't have any useful suggestions (what's new, right? :D) but I can sympathize with troubleshooting a whole system, not finding a smoking gun, gaining some improvement by taking everything apart and putting it back together, but not knowing exactly why. Maddening!
Even more maddening is when it instantly returns to normal as soon as you start checking and then the problem comes back after you find nothing.
Thanks for another interesting video, even when you're not making something beautiful, your work is still impressive. It looked like a ton of mud came out of those pipes!
I always loved messing about in water unfortunately I am too old for it now so enjoy watching you 👍🏻
Always fascinating to see the infrastructure you have managed to set up.
I remember when I only watched the hydro videos. After watching thema all, I'm glad I followed along this awesome journey. Great content, editing and all. Only I wished Kris would wear a microphone from time to time, but he said he wouldn't like that. And that ist ok as well.
That is amazing. Never thought the system looks like that. Thank you for sharing!
Stay safe, stay healthy and keep up the good work.
Lovely seeing your brain chipping away at theory and practical ways learning, thanks for sharing
Thanks for showing the whole journey of it I really learned a lot!
Dear Kris Harbour.
👍👍👏 Well maintained. Maybe it was only a dirt problem (like it often is on/in any kind of technical and even biological things?!
Thanks a lot for making teaching recording editing uploading and sharing.
Best regards luck and health to all of you (including all animals of course)
Good work on showing the silver play button Kris, All hard work pays off
Another great video and amazing to see that you never give up and try all avenues
Kris you are one smart cookie! I'm glad you got the power back up to where you wanted it... sometimes these things are a bit of trial and error - there are so many variables to consider - and of course this is not some tidy little experiment in a lab - this is your power system and you don't have the luxury of calling in "experts". I do know that throughout life one of my frustrations is when something is fixed and the professionals can never tell me exactly what the problem was. Love your cat BTW and the way it follows you everywhere - our cat does that with my wife. Love your Video's and many thanks for the time and trouble you put into taking us on the journey with you.
Love your energy videos at most! Very nice
Enough power to make jam! Good stuff Kris.
I love it come home from work and there's a video uploaded Happy day 😊
Good work Kris. For some reason I missed the notification when you posted this video. When you were looking for the fault I was thinking the pick up, but that looked OK when you got to it. Anyway good to see you back up to full production. I am still working on mine and today I am thrilled to have just cracked the 250w mark. I am running 3 of my 4 jets, In autumn I hope to have enough water to open the last jet, and find out what my maximum production will be.
If you have a slight increase in efficiency over a period of time, say a week or so, consider that you may have air bubbles in your penstock and they are being slowly absorbed into the flowing water.
Air bubbles are restrictive even though not solid. Every time you open it to atmosphere the air will reenter and need to be purged or absorbed.
Efficiency loss near maximum flow would manifest because of this reduction in cross section.
I have experienced this added resistance in my hydraulic ram system delivery pipe and it is measurable as a flow rate increases over time.
It is difficult to get all the air out of a slightly undulating penstock other than letting the air absorb slowly into the water.
thanks Kris. good to give things a check over now and then....
I just love your videos. You are so unique and creative
Cheers for the content Kris it's always appreciated even if it takes me 2 hours to watch with the baby it's one of the things I really look forward to each week. Can we have a Jam episode?
Awesome!
Great content mate 👍🏼
Keep it coming 💯❗👌🏼
I still think a airlock remover would work in this scenario Kris, one that could be put in the main water tank before it goes into the jets, perched onto a upright pipe, any air would find its way there and be ejected by the airlock remover
Hello matey. This was in my feed today and I wondered if you had seen it.... the rotating screen was what got my attention ! Hope all is well. = )
Found that kinda sweet when you called Dot "My Dear" @ 14:16. Anyway, hope you get any more issues with the hyrdo system worked out.
Keep that great work up!
Whatever you did l’m just glad it’s going again Kris! 👍👍👍👍💯💯💯💯
Intermittent faults are the most frustrating to deal with.
I do love your cat. She’s gorgeous 🥰
She is the most adorable creature 🐯
same
@@KrisHarbour Legendary cat, legendary owner, you're the inspiration for the future nation, Rastafari! All the best from filthy London
Hey Kris, England in a fookin lockdown now too.... hope the madness ends soon.
👍 learning on every video kris, thanks”
This is great. Thanks
GREAT VID
Life goals: Have as good a relationship with a cat as Kris.
The key is good communication with them and to all ways do as you are told. 😁
That cat has a dog personality.
@@KrisHarbour Hi Kris, wondering if you might have any ideas for these folks.ua-cam.com/video/VFQQI96CMK8/v-deo.html
@@mscoots7902 Just commented a bit of into for him. Thanks for that.
Hey Kris love your videos and am a current subscriber, just a suggestion mate a wireless mic would help the audio a lot
Great that you fixed it but not knowing what you did is still a head scratcher...the doors cuz the doors...stay safe...
I might be a bit late but I would suspect vortexing, easy way to sort it out is to shut off at the bottom and let the main stagnate for a while then try it on again, we used to think about stagnating for at least a couple of hours but our main was 10 inch cast iron about 6 miles long and fitted with automatic vent valves.
I look forward to seeing the new manifold project. I do think you're getting some losses from the bit in front of the manifold: not so much from the change in diameter, but from the turbulence of the size change and fittings. Though I agree it's only worth it for the UA-cam content and experimentation and not so much the additional watts it may yield.
Kris having watched your channel from the beginning. I've noticed that whenever you have problems with the hydro it seems to be working fine on the standard three valves, and as soon as you incorporate the spear valve it starts again with problems not necessarily straight away but within a short time. You reach about 400 / 430 Watts on the three nozzles my question is why not replace the spear valve with a fourth nozzle of the same spec as the other three. Wouldn't this help push the power up by another 100 plus watts? Or is the brain of the operating system only able to work at about 480 / 500 watts? Before cancelling out? I was glad to see you run the piggy down the whole tubing it definitely looked to clear away some buildup of sludge etc.
It’s nothing to do with the spear valve, it is just that the spear is the last valve I use as it is the least efficient. (This is normal for a spear as there is a trade off for the adjustability)
The reason problem shows when I turn on the last nozzle is because that is when the pipe friction starts to really increase so any friction related problem will show at that point. Before then the friction is to low to really show any problem.
This is also the reason I don’t bother making my nozzles bigger and run more flow as after this point the friction goes up so much that it’s not worth it due to the friction loss.
@@KrisHarbour I was just wondering if and when you do the second feed from the other stream does this mean that you will only gain in low water situations not max power? Does this also mean that you would be better off doing a complete second pen stock not a “Y” is this even possible? Maybe in a less expensive narrower pipe?
@@jons6125 The plan for the second intake isnt to run more peak power but to run a 2lps higher average. basically make the turbine run at around 400-450w all the time. It will smooth out the flow alot. so although we wont be running at any higher power we will produce alot more Kwh per year.
Make jam. My philosophy on life. Good vid.
Salut super vidéo magnifique tank you
I'd move up there if I could lol love the thought of getting of this place... ps I do make a good handyman mind
its still close to 500 watts i would be happy with that here at my home all day long when its raining it adds up.. to a massive saving.
Klassy Kris- thanks you once again for respecting your audience. :)
Have to admit, when the wattage went from 480 watts and dropped to 0 watts, my heart skipped a beat.
same
Great video Kris, I'm wondering if the problem has to do with the shape of the top of the generator box. It might be that the rectangular shape is causing some water at the highest volume (all four valves open) to bounce back from the wall and impede the generator blades. Looking at the video you can see that each valve is directly opposite a flat, albeit slightly sloping wall. Perhaps a larger conical top might help...just a thought.
Well done :) you are an inspiration :)
Watch from 10:08 that was definitely the problem
Great to see the hydro still belting out the power! How’s the fencing going?
Not far from 200k now 😎👍🏻
It's good to get an initial problem solved but a mild irritation when you don't know exactly what it was to note it down for future reference to try first the next time it may crop up. A load of gunk did come out tho, so a planned maintenance flush out of the system might be a good idea to ensure it stays running well most of the time.
Ill bet you'd get better results by changing the housing to better fit around the spinning turbine blades and a change in the blades themselves, as it stands now, a lot of water won't even get into the blades as it spins and that means lost power. I might be wrong, I'll admit that, byt it just feel like there is a lot of gains to get in your system and all that water that goes through should be going through a second turbine. Designed right it could even take advantage of the spinning effect the first turbine is adding to the water.
You's system is great as it is, but there will always be tweaks you can do to make it better. Keep up the good work and make these interesting videos. Thanks
residue build up added just enough resistance to make it perform less efficient so now you know when it does this it needs cleaned .... simple thank you
Yes I am inclined to agree with you.
To monitor risk of air in the pipe, you could have a section of clear pipe right after intake and/or after the stem pipe. In theory when going full blast - the long pipe after the stem pipe might suck more water than the intake can supply. But at low power it should not be a problem with air.
Another idea is to replace the stem pipe with a clear pipe, or at least a section of it.
Perhaps a tank at the top of the penstock to act as a settling pond might help keep the dirt from building up.
pretty glad that your investment pays back well
I don't know if you noticed there was water leaking from the pipe you did elongation on. Probably nothing, the set up is really nice.
It was just dripping down from above and making it look like a leak. I thought the same thing at first.
@@KrisHarbour oh that's good the hope you have max power all the time now.
I would be careful taking out the pipe liners. The first thing they do is add a chamfer so you don't tear out O rings with the pipe when assembling and the second thing is that the pipe can deform and leak over time even at low pressures. Counter intuitively, I think higher pressure actually helps the pipe hold its shape.
Perhaps a lexan view port on the hydro "manifold" buffer tank to look for air bubbles, along with a soft-spring check-float valve to auto-bleed air.. Maybe cap off the air stack with a similar "flap" style check valve to vent air off and make sure gravity (when vacuum above it is high) isn't going to pull air in. Only things I can think of right now.
Found that interesting. (Kansas USA)
Thanks a lot CHINA.
Don't forget that the Wires have a Power-loss aswell. The Resistence of the Wire together with the Current make up a Power-loss.
In my system it is less than 2%
I don’t know why but I dig all of the hydro vids. I was wondering would the system generate more power with two turbines and splitting the feeds? My bet is you’ve already figured this out and sorry if I missed it on one of the vids. I like the dialing in of the system.
I've seen in a few other builds where people have put a baffle up in the air intakes to calm the water before it goes down the pipe I wonder if something like that could minimize any chance of air bubbles getting in the pipe. It doesn't look like there's really any that are getting in there right now but even testing it out with a piece of metal with some feet on it might be something to try
excellent work Kris! what kinda storage bank are u running?
brill vid again kris
Hi Kris, ever considered using ceramic bearings in your turbine? They would increase speed and efficiency giving greater power output, they also bare less friction and last longer than standard bearings.
Kris,
have you considered adding some form of cage around the top of the turbine? Just to make sure nothing (including your hands) gets caught in that.
I think Kris has a very high IQ and his tolerance with the process of making thinks work the "Best" they can is remarkable.
I think the tapering causes a significant loss, but not because of the friction in the taper itself. The sudden widening to the manifold causes a loss of (V1² - V2²)/2g. The taper increases V1
Adding a supercapacitor bank would help shield your batteries from high start currents if your machines do not have soft start. Look for soft start for any new appliances or motor controls. Your batteries always last longer with lower peak cuttrent.
from the looks of all the silt that casme out the pipe i think you may have a slow spot where the silt is building up and slowing the flow
How long are the bearings good for in the turbine? Could there be loss there overtime? You sealed the unit pretty well after the last one got water logged. I'm just curious, I know nearly nothing about hydroelectric.
i would check all power connections for deteration of connection leading intoi more resistence in the cable
The alternator, acting as a transducer of mechanical energy to electrical energy, has certain operating parameters and losses. You should generally see spin rate proportional to roughing AC voltage, and when you see that not having the same proportional delta then you may be coming across an inefficiency of the alternator. There are numerous sources of this, including eddy currents in the stator, thermal losses, etc. Seeing spin rate vs roughing voltage is better than water flow versus wattage to discern flow of energy.
he had designed that even in freespin it does not overcome the maximum input voltage of his charger (in case of full battery). I believe that in freesping there was about 130V so he is definetly not in the region of inefficency with 50 something volts.
why not a bigger generator ? john barry
Hi pal love the set up and videos. How did u manage to get planning permission and live on the land ? Im looking to do the same in Wales .. :)
Ah, I see you have the turbine on it's side:) Nice.
Don't understand why you don't put an inflatable boom around the drop off to prevent debris from sliding down and clogging your inlet, you could even put very mesh over the boom to stop leaves from falling into boom area 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Having watched all of the hydro content i wanted to ask a few things: if you do rebuild the manifold to accept the full sized pipe, can you mount the control valves on the manifold, taking some weight off the nozzles & also making it easier to disconnect the turbine.
With regards to your intake, could you have a sluice gate to control the flow over the screens ? My thinking is that you can regulate flow in the slightly lower water flowing times to hold water back.
A sluice may even help with debris on the screens.
My last thought is about the stand pipe, would a one way valve be of help to only let air out but not allow air to ever be sucked in ?
Kris
Another interesting video which cast my (now failing) mind back 40 years or so when I last played with fluid dynamics but does the enclosure , square in your case, contribute to turbulence within as the 'used' water tries to make it's way out causing back pressure and slowing the turbine or could the profile of the nozzles used be adding to non laminar flow. Cleaning of the pipes is a perennial problem when dealing with a 'natural flow' and should be factored into the cycle. As I said it is a lifetime ago since I used to encounter hydrostatic situations but in my experience it was always the turbulent/laminar flow issue that used to keep me up at nights. Regards from a Melbourne ex pat enjoying slight relaxing after lockdown since March it is an unfortunate situation that the whole world has to come to terms with including the orangutan leading the USA and reminds us that no matter how clever we have become as a species biologically we are all interdependent on everything else inhabiting our planet and we should disrespect that at our peril.
Orangutan leader? Surely you're thinking of the UK, not the US.
the whole Lock&down thing is really hard for working-class.. all the savings are depleting day by day.
if you do the math, there is no more ppl dying compared to other years. (just slightly more because the population is increasing year over year)
Today I went to barber and... I'm super happy and felt comfortable without any lockdown...
Today I learnt the real meaning of freedom
@Ben T. you're right, but people won't do it so things get completely out of control and they need the lock downs. How can we get people to do hand sanitizer, social distancing and masking and only isolate for fourteen days if there's a positive case or you find out that you've spent time closely with someone that tests positive? The numbers could come right down in fourteen days if people did that. Even when people use masks half of them take them off to talk or don't cover their nose, or don't pull them down under their chin. Might as well not even wear a mask as do that. People can hear you through a mask, and if you have it, talking is when you are really spreading it. Pulling the mask down or off to talk is just designed to spread it.
@@Totial I think you better check again. I can send you links to how the death rate has shifted with covid if you like, or you could just google it yourself. I think someone has pulled a fast one on you and given you some bad information. I've got your back though.
@Ben T. truth like whoa!
Great video. I cannot help but think part of the problem is the multiple pipe connectors that step down the size right before the distro box. I don't understand why you wouldn't bring that full size pipe straight into the box.
its a cost vs power increase trade off. the loss there is small and the cost to go direct in to the box is in the order of £600 as i need a 110mm shut off valve that you can only really get as butterfly valves (big loss) and a 110mm fitting for the box that is nearly £200 in that size. So that why. the loss is small and the cost is big. Everything with hydro is about cost vs efficiency. My system runs at about 50% - 60% efficiency. to get it to 80% would cost about 3x the cost of the entire system.
@@KrisHarbour OH, yes. The shutoff consideration was the piece I was missing. Thanks!
@@KrisHarbour Where do I send £20 to help?
You could leave the manifold and turbine as they are and add another setup that can run on the same pipe? Have one to experiment with and one as backup.
Hey Kris, have you considered making another wind turbine? Your original one seems to do pretty well, so it could be a good idea to have some more of them. Obviously it wouldn't be as consistent as the hydro in winter, or the solar in summer, but it would be a good buffer.
Also how much total storage capacity do you have? Do you think it might be a good idea to increase that as well?
Kris, I'm considering building a cob roundhouse in the future and have some questions:
Can you collect rainwater from a grass roof?
What made you choose to put your cob in those white plastic bags (in your workshop walls)?
Also, have you considered making a biodigester to turn your food waste into cooking gas, and can you please do a video on waste vegetable oil?
Thanks for another interesting video!
It's not a cob build, it's more of a clay stone mix in the bags. They are called earth bag walls
He does use cob between the logs in his roundhouse build though
If my daughter married this man I'd be very proud .. hes a legend
Hi Kris, Dot, Snoop, hope you are all well. Here's a tech question for you. Would it make any difference in water pressure at the turbine if the pipe reduction was spread over a longer length of pipe? As I'm not a tech was just wondering. Thanks for sharing. Stay safe and keep up the good work. 👍🖖😎😺🐔
the best thing you can do to support the channel is hit the thumbs up button.
No hexspert, so only going on what I've seen, when you stuck you hand in at the pipe start, maybe you changed the flow. Maybe there was some eddyat the top that affected the flow all the way to the bottom, & maybe this eddy forms when the flow changes? Scotty on the Enterprise would know.😂👍🍷
Nice
Quite entertaining even if not enlightening;)
gday Kris just a thought but where you have the reducers bringing down the pipe size is it worth getting a single pipe printed to decrease the amount of turbulence so you get a smoother flow in i know you said it doesn’t make much difference but... cheers from Australia 🇦🇺
Kris,have you thought about raising your dam wall and have the intake under the waterline. Might stop the air sucking in.
There was quite a lot of mud and debris came through the pipes when you were cleaning them out, maybe that was the problem?
That's what I'm thinking also
Yeah could well be, defiantly wouldn't have been helping thats for sure.