I am amazed at the simple yet profound "Third World" ingenuity of this man! Usually you have "I have created this special, one-off part made from unobtanium with my 5 dimensional printer." Not so here. The parts he uses, possibly with the exception of the hoverboard wheel, is readily available from almost any hardware store, and probably a lot of junkyards. This truly is an "everyman" project! Keep up the awesome work!
Somebody never did anything worthy in his life, yet wants people to dismiss a legit builder with accomplishments under his belt. Stupid twitter fingers, go away!
This man gives a most honest (no hype, no bullshit) descriptive explanation of his device - Showing the parts, their function and the resulting output... all in under 23 min - (257 dislikes on 06/06/2021) - I guess they haven't got a very long attention span -- Ffs !
I cannot see any reason for anybody to down vote this video. He is producing a low cost, low tech means of generating electricity using water power that will give communities that have no electricity the chance to have it. All fine and well sitting in your nice modern home with all your gadgets powered from the electricity network while other people actually struggle for the basics in life. Gets my thumbs up for the creativeness and the simplicity of it.
I didn't down vote, because what he is doing is not bad, but some things could be really improved. To be honest, I can see that he has no background in hydro, and he is making / saying a lot of statements which are just... in correct. He gives you the feeling he knows, while he doesn't, and his design is not good. I had no time to watch entirely his videos (so my statement are maybe not correct), but: - his 1st turbine was working in depression, which is not good for such design. It is not for nothing that the turbines are AFTER the penstocks, (but before the draft tube) - the turbine itself looks bad for such flowrate & pressure. Here, I am not an expert, but it looks like a Francis design, rearranged to work with flows instead of pressure. The second turbine (black) looks better, but the blades are too closed and the shape seems to be missing a "plane wings" profile. - the cone is too long, and not profiled for low head loss. - where is the efficiency calculations? - the pipes are UV protected? 50$ is great, durability is better. Maybe the orange pipe is made or that. - the water inlet does not force the water to come in, and is not even optimize to reduce the head loss. Can be improved! (but it is maybe a choice to limit the flow rate?) - generator looks good! But we have to see its technical spec. to know if it is optimized or not. - the draft tube after the turbine does not reduce the cavitation. It is 100% not correct. Low flow = less pressure (Bernouilli equations, or Navier Stokes). If it is too big, it will add cavitations. The draft tube reduce the pression = more efficiency on the turbine (up to 30% gain). The design is absolutely un easy, but here, basics rules are not followed. In addition, on the current design, the turbine is working in depression, already too much. Such draft tube diameter increase seems to add more problem than to optimize anything. It would be better to put the turbine down. - the outlet must be underwater, or you will not gain anything from the depression of the draft tube. Outlet in the air = the water is not "sucking" out the water from the turbine! - there is no load controller (?!). Imagine: you are on a gym bike. If you have no resistance, you will be very fast, but not power. On the contrary, if the resistance is too high, you will be so slow that you will not be efficient. There is an in between, to optimize your power output & efficiency. Same for a turbine. And so on. It looks like R&D, it is not a DIY, so, please, take other sources if you are thinking to design an hydro turbine :) I still support such videos, but it gives us the feeling that it is what we should follow... while I don't think we should on many points! Note: I am designing large hydro power plants. Not an expert, but some experience with 70MW kaplans, 300MW pumps and 300MW Francis.
He has generator ZERO power in all the videos I've watched. Spinning a wheel is not usable energy. Gotta light a lamp, or drive a saw to demonstrate generation of power. This guy is a dreamer; certainly doesn't have much training in physical science, mathematics, or engineering.
Dude, my hat of to you for sharing what you have designed, people complain about needing more power but if we looked after our own power we make we won't waste it, you sir deserve a bottle of bells. Thank you.
Looking forward to the construction tutorial! Not only can this be a way for many people to get electricity reliably, perhaps for the first time, it could also be a way to untie people from centralized power grids.
@@alabastardmasterson Thanks for your 2 cents worth. Literally, 2 cents. You, sir, are also an actor; the term bullshit can be equally applied to your masterful contribution. Did you wipe afterward?
I absolutely love this setup. I love the low precision approach while maintaining decent efficiency. The 2 things I thought of from the last video to improve your efficiency you have addressed with the increased diameter of the output pipe into the water below to give better suction. Great work. I look forward to seeing your long term setup.
I’ve been looking for someone who sees the potential of gravity based systems. Thank god I found you as you are doing everything I can only dream of. Made my day 👍✌️🌱 you have already made my mechanical side active with your approach to physical barriers. I want to make this planet cleaner and create an environment where animals and humans can co exist without poisoning future generations. You are making that happen so I do appreciate your input and will keep watching as always. Stay safe
Such a clever solution for connecting the turbine drive to the alternator and so simple and low cost… looking forward to seeing longer term performance to see how the whole assembly works over time… SUBSCRIBED!
Thanks. Longer term data to come, currently in Nepal working with Kathmandu University to finally get some proper efficiency data of the various runner design options.
I love how brilliant this is. You can use these in series from waterway to reservoir "lower" then from reservoir back to waterway "lower". Time to rethink spillways and hydro electric systems to utilize more scalable systems.
You've really done a great job thinking through the attachments of each piece. I appreciate you building low cost, effective bearings and rotating joints.
Mate this is brilliant! The bottle rheostat is especially clever. I understand engineering design naturally goes where the money is, but the need is truly so much greater in the other 80% of the world. Keep it up!
TENIA ESTA IDEA RONDANDO EN MI CABEZA PERO NO LOGRABA CONCRETAR.. DE VERDAD ME SIRVIÓ DE MUCHO. SIGUE TU TRABAJO QUE EN ESTOS TIEMPOS NECESITAREMOS INNOVACIONES PARA SUSTITUIR FORMAS DE ENERGÍAS.. TE DESEO MUCHO EXITO.
Thanks for sharing this work, I enjoyed watching it. As mentioned in previous comments, the siphon configuration does not help avoid cavitation. Moreover at the place where the turbine is, the pressure is surely lower than the atmospheric pressure, and you might have air coming in since the sealing and joints are not perfect. And let's not forget that is a fan and its design is not optimised to have low NPSH performances. I believe that all these issues will be solved when you will have the classical installation with the the turbine placed closer to the outlet, as you said when it will be installed in a river or whatever. But in the meantime, you have to consider that cavitation has a great effect on the power absorbed by the turbine. If you solve the cavitation problems, your power will be greater. About the hydraulics, I believe that the turbine could absorbed more pressure and generate more power. Be careful in axial propellers as this one, more flow might not mean more power. Here I think the turbine is working very far from its BEP and the power could be greater than what you currently have (i do not know if since that you have more improvements). It would be good to have pressure measures before and after the turbine to better understand if you could improve a bit from the hydraulic point of view. Another thing is the tip between the fan (120mm) and the pipe (125mm), it s large and you might be losing some watts there. Anyway I hope those comments could help. Can't wait to see the following testing and improvement of the turbine. Ah congratulations for the interesting and clever solutions for making bush bearings, couplings, etc. for almost no money. Brilliant ideas.
Thanks. I'll experiment with different placings of the turbine with the in field build. There an easy way to measure pressure in the system without disrupting the flow too much? I tried two other impeller variations, one with steeper pitched blades and one with a larger central hub, both did about 20% worse. Also two fans back to back, which didn't seem to make any difference at all. 192W is at or near the top of the power curve by variable load. If further efficiency can be extracted that would obviously be great. The edge clearance is about 1-2mm, which isn't ideal but I'd rather that than chance of rubbing.
@@OpenSourceLowTech I read a bit about the turbine placings in a siphon installation. Here you will find more information: www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Commentary-on-the-Efficiency-of-Selected-Structural-Parygin-Volkov/6cda09ce6db36a0a7d47a9c6782a721655353bc1 I did not know a lot about siphons... but it seems that the better placing would be at the inlet with the propeller below the water level. I think it could help to have a better working of the turbine. For the two fans, it s tricky because your flow is rotating after the first and ideally it would be good to have a stator in between. I think it s too complex. It s nice that you experimented with other fans, did you have similar rpm? About the pressure, you could use a simple pressure gauge, it is not expensive. There are "rudamentary methods" too, you can search on internet, but not sure that it will work as you might have local lower pressure than the atmospheric pressure...
I'm worry about rusting of galvanized parts over time. Very nice video and practical application of basic science. Thank you for sharing. Alex from Montreal, Canada
we all have the power to change lives! Not making small of this video at all mind you and my bet is he will be most pleased if his idea matters to people in need of cheep power. Think, do, love!
Love the idea. I have been working on a system for off grid. I have some solar panels and a wind turbine. Have been wanting to get some hydro going and this is easy to make and maintain.
This bloke really needs to be picked up for his own TV show. Along the lines of The Great Egg Race meets Scrapheap Challenge. Science based but with a practical engineering component aimed at creating products like these for off-grid and developing markets. Absolutely amazing guy.
35 liters per second is lot of water (you empty your 1000 liter tank in only 28 seconds)....in a small river, is hard to get 2.5meters of gap if it dont have a waterfall/dam in somewhere.. I wait for the field test with this system in a small brook You have given good ideas, simple and easy to implement, I also had been thinking about also making a turbine with computer fans inside pvc tubes and I hadn’t yet thought of an idea on how to avoid water in the generator, how to transfer the movement in water out of it and how to prevent air from entering the continuous flow of water. Just yesterday I found your project and after all it can be simpler and easier than I was thinking. I am waiting for more news, good work!
A smallish stream should be able to supply it, the drop doesn't need to be pure vertical, if there's a bit of a cascade in the waterway where the drop is over up to say ten meters horizontal or so then it'd still largely function. I'm imagining this in actual use will be more something that's plugged into an incline rather than having to be dropped over a weir/dam/etc, and won't be a full up-over-and-down style siphon as in these test rigs, which I think is costing me some power.
What you are doing is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your details. Bought a hover board motor and I want to produce one that works of the current while being towed behind a sailboat.
Great series Daniel! I watched it from last to first tho. It was good to see all your processes and thinking behind all this experimenting, etc. thanks for this great info, your a champion!
I'm a big fan of less dependent (as opposed to hardcore independent) living, and even for the most first world setting, this is just plane smart. Even if it doesn't take you fully off grid, every little bit is worthwhile.
Thank you for the update. I have a waterfall with 60 to 70 gpm and 8 foot of head pressure. Seems about right for this. Looking forward to the tutorial.
@@OpenSourceLowTech awesome. I think I'm also going to try out Spencer Langston's turbine although it is much larger and requires more water than I can sustained for a long period.
@@LandtoHouse I hadn't seen Spencer Langston's, thanks for pointing that out. Looks fairly similar to mine but I can't find what kind of impeller he's using... Custom made alternator apparently, super high amperage... Been watching your ram pump vids btw, nice work.
@@OpenSourceLowTech Spencer is currently working with Joe Malkovich on a custom 3D impeller. Spencer is the sponsor for my summer Micro Hydro project. Thanks for watching the ram pump videos. They're a lot less complicated than your turbines
Great design. In use the voltage and power output will fall off a cliff when/if you add load past your ~192 watt figure unless you interpose a MPPT regulator after the bridge rectifier but, at 3 amps 65 volts, it need not be expensive and can typically be used to charge and maintain a small battery bank to allow occasional/intermittent loads >> 200 watts.
That was an excellent And mind opening video. Can't wait tell you without video so I could build my own and tell you how I did with my. Thank you so much God-bless and be safe in these trying times
That’s so much for this vid. I’m building a near identical version right now. I have worked out that the version Langston’s Alternative Power sell uses an impeller from a jet-ski to drive it. I’ve made a prototype using 40mm pipe and I’ve 3D printed an impeller - it’ll spin up to 1400rpm but not much torque. The ‘proper’ version will be in 110mm pipe with roughly 2m drop. I’m very optimistic about it. Thanks for your great tips - especially keeping the pipe exit under water.
Yeah I saw his ones after I started mine, and we seem to have ended up in more or less the same place, except the sourcing of the materials. I've tried steeper pitched runners, more like the props he's using, but they didn't seem to do as well as the flatter fans I've been using. Which is good news for my build at least, since the more basic PC fans are easier to get than the fancier ones. I'd definitely recommend coming up to about 120mm dia on the runner, you're going to struggle to get any useful power off anything smaller. Let me know how you get on, especially with what shape runners give the best results.
The problem with that is most people don't have a water setup where they can use that. It is great for people who are able to take advantage of it. Thanks for sharing it .
There are more futures for the people who could advance to become scientist Very interestting better than the actors who gets bored without sexual actions
I would change the computer vane axial style fan to a backward or forward incline assembly to eliminate the cavitation issue. if you wanted to keep with robbing the parts from other sources, several bath fan units come to mind. Electric furnace fans are another source, which would increase the size of the housing, but would also allow for a much larger generator source. An old 3 phase pump motor could be used for instance. The power generation (with a regulator) would likely power a small township.
Knowledge of electrical theory isn't really much of a necessity. I've got this FB group going as a discussion group on DIY wind turbines, but the the electrical side of things is pretty much the same: facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/
Sometimes it is when people don't want this topic in their reccomends more so than I HATE THIS WORK. The youtube algorhythm and user feedback system is...something. Also this isn't to be those "Power companies HATE THIS type thing", it is to help areas with nothing else.
@@OpenSourceLowTech About 1000 KwH per month. The rainwater is filtered and channeled into two 32 gallon bucket placed below front and rear roof line and the turbine setup is at the bottom. Got the idea from this research paper www.researchgate.net/figure/Pico-hydro-power-plant-diagram_fig1_303248520
I had a direct drive washing machine motor I was testing, but think it would be way too big and heavy for this little impeller. They would, however, be about perfect for the vertical wind turbine...
@@OpenSourceLowTech Check out angry rams tutorial on making a hydro powered smart drive hydro power system . they put out over 400vs but he also has a video on how to rewire them for lower voltage
@@nwapranga And again a man has left important directions out. Where would you happen to find this Angry Ram tutorials at? You fail to give the valuable information, being where the directions are located. That would help a great deal.
@@inspire734 took 45 seconds to put the name in the search bar and find Angry Ram. Don't be lazy, it would be rather poor form to jump onto your feed and send folks to someone else's, that is doing much the same.
please please please... do not rely on youtube / facebook for storing your precious research and information! it's become not safe being here with all the cencorship, regulations etc. thank you so much for sharing everything open heartedly! blessings ❤
If it's the same flow of water, each fan will pull energy out of the flow and you will get greatly diminished returns. If you place multiple of these in parallel in the same river though, you should be able to produce more power at once.
Great, ive been looking forward to your next video on this, i think it has great potential. If only i could get 34 litres per second out my house tap, i would be sorted and not have to pay for electricity.
@@OpenSourceLowTech If you look at how a jet turbine works, it has a static blade that directs flow in the opposite direction, such that when it hits the next impeller the force is available again at near 100% power (I think). Now, you won't be compressing your fluid, so you won't be reducing your chamber size - but the same overall principle might be useful. If you 3D-print a reverse blade to the internal diameter of your pipe you can then drive your shaft through it, thereby removing a part from the system and you would be exactly on centre. May or may not help with the cavitation. ua-cam.com/video/KjiUUJdPGX0/v-deo.html - animation of my point at 1:30
So, 2.5 meter drop and about 35 liter per second, means the water flow represents roughly 850 joules every second, which also can be described as 850 watts. With sub 200 watts output you have less than 25% efficiency. While almost 200W constant can be incredible valuable, such drop with that flow is not easily accessible everywhere. Don't get me wrong, intent and effort is fantastic, but I think the design should be improved upon. You should be able to get at least that output from half the potential power you are using. I also think the turbine should be in the bottom, of course you are getting unnecessary cavitation when the water pulls water through it and not pushes water. Your turbine is at the wrong side of a 0.25 atm pressure difference. The comparison with solar PV lacks completeness, while a reliable 190W-ish constant output is more superior than a 100 or 120W solar panel than you give it credit for, there's a big difference in actual reliability. A solar panel produces what is supposed to, given the conditions, incredibly reliably. Even after 30 years most solar panels will produce most of their original power if they're just clean. You have to make lot of improvements to make that thing work reasonably reliable with reasonable amount of service/repair.
Considering the design of the turbine, being an air fan, gives you most of your inefficiency. However 25% is pretty good, especially for such a cheap design.
The fan was chosen purely for the sake of global availability, tho it is doing a somewhat better job than I was necessarily anticipating.. I also tried two other fan types, with steeper blade pitch and a larger center hub, but they both did about 20% less power overall than the standard type. I would love to increase the efficiency, and have a design in mind which is closer to a traditional Kaplan turbine, but in general I'm happy enough with the output and the cost of this to go forward with it. The drop doesn't need to be vertical, a gradual incline in a waterway will also work, and 5 kWh/day is a lot of power to play with in the parts of the world this is mainly meant for. The impeller may do a better job lower in the draft tube, but would be a bit trickier for the ergonomics of building and using it in this configuration. In actual use tho, plugged into a stream with drop as opposed to the full U siphon I was testing it with, it would probably be easier to implement. Which I'll find out this year with the field test builds.
I don't get it, he talks like everyone has 300 gallons a minute, dropping like 10 ft in their backyard. Seems like he's one short step away from a free energy nutter
This is excellent! But one minor thing you left out in comparison to a solar panel... A solar panel is effectively zero-maintenance: all you have to do is keep dust off of it and you are good (assuming it is sunny). Assuming a water source like the stream that was shown in the video, regular maintenance will be needed to keep trash out of the inlet. Pretty minor compared to the performance gains, but worth considering. Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing more!
True, but the corollary is this can be maintained. Once a PV panel breaks in any significant way it pretty much needs to be junked. I'm in the process of building business models around these technologies whereby local people are able to take on the job of producing and maintaining them.
Suggestion: To improve eficiency; before the impeler fixed axel guide, inside the tube. You can instal on the shaft a Spinner, in cone format, to improve watter flow. Also on the impeler itself, instal a cone! Willl acelerate vater Speed a lot
I also wondered about the fan blades breaking. If there was fluctuating pressure on them, it could bend them back and forth, even though ever so slightly, but it would fatigue the plastic and they would break eventually. You may be able to get a handle on predicting it by measuring pressure differential across the fan. The other thing that struck me about using a fan was the question of efficiency. The Pelton wheel is tried and tested, and designed for the job. These blades are designed for a quite different job. There may be other fans out there with a more suited blade. Maybe the propeller from an outboard motor would be worth experimenting with? Brunel fabricated a ship's propeller from flat plate, and if memory serves, it was quite efficient. The PTFE bearing is a nice idea, but just in case you didn't know (though you probably did), marine bearings, from ships' propeller shafts to outboard motors and pleasure yachts, are usually made of rubber. It is water-lubricated.
I'm in the process of installing a couple field tests in order to see how the materials hold up longer term. There's a fair chance the fan won't last, but there are options for strengthening it. Something like a small boat prop would do a better job in terms of longevity and probably efficiency, but it's a matter of cost and availability in other parts of the world. Peltons are great, but generally need at least 20 meters of head to function properly. This is meant as a low head, medium flow momentum turbine for serving the niche of people with only that water resource availability. Other bearings would also do the job, but also a matter of availability.
I'd suggest a neater test load solution - 5x12V 21W car bulbs /less than 1$ each/ in series will give you ~100W load for the given voltage output /~60V/ with a visual feedback of the system performance. 5 bulbs /low beams/ will give 300W,. You may use high/low beam switchable load or use sets of these in parallel. The plastic fan will go quick for sure. It will erode and one of the reasons to use less rpm and high torque to lower the cavitation erosion and to prolong the turbine life. Pipe setup is amazing. Keep up the good work!
First thought on variable load was car headlamps, but they have the issue of changing resistance as they heat up. The liquid rheostat worked surprisingly well, and didn't cost anything. I'm interested to see how the fan holds up over time. Hopefully it'll last long enough to be worth it, as they're way more available and accessible than any other option I've come across so far. Will see with the field installations this year.
@@OpenSourceLowTech I agree that car bulbs are more expensive but it's on the R&D side not on the cost of the final product. The thermal time constant of the bulbs is around 2 sec and after that they are fixed load. This is on cold start. In normal working condition the change of their resistance based on the temp will be negligible. When you create your "voltage, current, power" chart this is not relevant. You are not completely right about the liquid thermostat. There Is heating also going on and the resistance is changed by the heating, also there is complex electrolysis /being water solution/ going on, that change the resistance too. I am not saying it is not good, the change of the load is not vital when you measure both voltage and current. The absolute value is not important as long as it is in a preferable range, close to the real world scenarios. Over the years I used both solutions but the bulbs are less messy :-). On the fan, I guess my expectation is a slow erosion starting from the peripheral part slowly eating towards the center. There is a good reason why all boats and hydroelectric turbines are all made from metal . My guess is that you don't need the material to be though, but as hard as possible to resist the wearing. With that said the only weak point I see so far is the expectation about the system to work long time , created from easily available components. This is hard to achieve. The generator you are using is an example for a part designed to work probably less than 2000 hours /this translates to use hoverboard full 2 hours, every day for around 3 years/ For a car alternator it is probably around 10-15000 hours. 2000 hours lifespan will give you less than 3 months durability. Let this not stoping you! There is always a solution and we just need to find it.
@@plamenmarinov7314 > The thermal time constant of the bulbs is around 2 sec and after that they are fixed load. This may be a good option for a hydro under constant water supply, but in Berlin coming from the tank the first two seconds were the peak output, so if the resistance was changing during that period it may have thrown off my readings. Wind turbines also wouldn't be ideal for this given that they're constantly changing input power. Is there also not an issue with bulbs in terms of voltage? Testing this turbine I had anything up to 115VDC. > There Is heating also going on and the resistance is changed by the heating I didn't notice any of either, but only had it loaded for the 20 seconds or so it took to empty the tank. A litre of water tho does have a fair amount of thermal mass. > also there is complex electrolysis /being water solution/ going on, that change the resistance too. It did off gas a little, but I found I only needed to top it up with more washing soda and water about once a week or so to come back to the original resistance. > the change of the load is not vital when you measure both voltage and current. The absolute value is not important as long as it is in a preferable range Yeah this was basically my approach. The resistance didn't have to be specific, just something that could give me more or less then range of amperages I needed for a useful power curve, and I was measuring the amps and volts from which I calculated the resistance and wattage. > There is a good reason why all boats and hydroelectric turbines are all made from metal. Yeah I'll see how that holds up over time. There are a couple options for strengthening it if necessary, but hopefully the fan remains useful as it's a way more globally accessible option than anything else I can think of. > The generator you are using is an example for a part designed to work probably less than 2000 hours The only likely points of failure there are the bearings, which seem pretty robust, and the wire, which should hold a while long as it's not over amped. They're fairly impressively solid units. > There is always a solution Indeed.
Definitely got the mad scientist vibe. The world needs more like this. Kids should be taught who the real heroes are...not footballers or singers.
It's all about the audience mate.
They choose what's popular and paid well.
Joel Rampersad 1000000% this men needs to be payed the same as Cristiano Ronald and those guys
@@ahmdabdallah5811 And?
Joels are the best
why not b o t h. (and no heroes, just people who do things you like, but are also just as human as you)
I am amazed at the simple yet profound "Third World" ingenuity of this man! Usually you have "I have created this special, one-off part made from unobtanium with my 5 dimensional printer." Not so here. The parts he uses, possibly with the exception of the hoverboard wheel, is readily available from almost any hardware store, and probably a lot of junkyards. This truly is an "everyman" project! Keep up the awesome work!
This is the kind of content that we all should be looking at not the get rich quick that is everywhere , I admire you so much God bless you man
You give me hope for our species. Too many of the real heroes are never known
Somebody never did anything worthy in his life, yet wants people to dismiss a legit builder with accomplishments under his belt.
Stupid twitter fingers, go away!
100%
This man gives a most honest (no hype, no bullshit) descriptive explanation of his device - Showing the parts, their function and the resulting output...
all in under 23 min - (257 dislikes on 06/06/2021) - I guess they haven't got a very long attention span -- Ffs !
I cannot see any reason for anybody to down vote this video. He is producing a low cost, low tech means of generating electricity using water power that will give communities that have no electricity the chance to have it. All fine and well sitting in your nice modern home with all your gadgets powered from the electricity network while other people actually struggle for the basics in life. Gets my thumbs up for the creativeness and the simplicity of it.
Bro, those with the thumbs down are sick....that's all
monarchists
I didn't down vote, because what he is doing is not bad, but some things could be really improved. To be honest, I can see that he has no background in hydro, and he is making / saying a lot of statements which are just... in correct.
He gives you the feeling he knows, while he doesn't, and his design is not good.
I had no time to watch entirely his videos (so my statement are maybe not correct), but:
- his 1st turbine was working in depression, which is not good for such design. It is not for nothing that the turbines are AFTER the penstocks, (but before the draft tube)
- the turbine itself looks bad for such flowrate & pressure. Here, I am not an expert, but it looks like a Francis design, rearranged to work with flows instead of pressure. The second turbine (black) looks better, but the blades are too closed and the shape seems to be missing a "plane wings" profile.
- the cone is too long, and not profiled for low head loss.
- where is the efficiency calculations?
- the pipes are UV protected? 50$ is great, durability is better. Maybe the orange pipe is made or that.
- the water inlet does not force the water to come in, and is not even optimize to reduce the head loss. Can be improved! (but it is maybe a choice to limit the flow rate?)
- generator looks good! But we have to see its technical spec. to know if it is optimized or not.
- the draft tube after the turbine does not reduce the cavitation. It is 100% not correct. Low flow = less pressure (Bernouilli equations, or Navier Stokes). If it is too big, it will add cavitations. The draft tube reduce the pression = more efficiency on the turbine (up to 30% gain). The design is absolutely un easy, but here, basics rules are not followed.
In addition, on the current design, the turbine is working in depression, already too much. Such draft tube diameter increase seems to add more problem than to optimize anything. It would be better to put the turbine down.
- the outlet must be underwater, or you will not gain anything from the depression of the draft tube. Outlet in the air = the water is not "sucking" out the water from the turbine!
- there is no load controller (?!). Imagine: you are on a gym bike. If you have no resistance, you will be very fast, but not power. On the contrary, if the resistance is too high, you will be so slow that you will not be efficient. There is an in between, to optimize your power output & efficiency. Same for a turbine.
And so on. It looks like R&D, it is not a DIY, so, please, take other sources if you are thinking to design an hydro turbine :)
I still support such videos, but it gives us the feeling that it is what we should follow... while I don't think we should on many points!
Note: I am designing large hydro power plants. Not an expert, but some experience with 70MW kaplans, 300MW pumps and 300MW Francis.
Those people work for the power company .
He has generator ZERO power in all the videos I've watched. Spinning a wheel is not usable energy. Gotta light a lamp, or drive a saw to demonstrate generation of power. This guy is a dreamer; certainly doesn't have much training in physical science, mathematics, or engineering.
whoever mastered this, soon people will be needing you. your colony will appreciate you.
Well, I’ve found my new favorite channel. You’re doing exactly what I’ve been imagining for some time. Thank you for the amazing open source data.
Dude, my hat of to you for sharing what you have designed, people complain about needing more power but if we looked after our own power we make we won't waste it, you sir deserve a bottle of bells. Thank you.
Looking forward to the construction tutorial! Not only can this be a way for many people to get electricity reliably, perhaps for the first time, it could also be a way to untie people from centralized power grids.
@@alabastardmasterson Thanks for your 2 cents worth. Literally, 2 cents. You, sir, are also an actor; the term bullshit can be equally applied to your masterful contribution. Did you wipe afterward?
Simply brilliant!!! That’s what can really be called a great piece of knowledge, thanks a lot for sharing it!
I absolutely love this setup. I love the low precision approach while maintaining decent efficiency. The 2 things I thought of from the last video to improve your efficiency you have addressed with the increased diameter of the output pipe into the water below to give better suction. Great work. I look forward to seeing your long term setup.
Thanks.
This is absolutely brilliant, we need more people thinking like this! So much waste and suffering where this type of thinking is fixing both!
I’ve been looking for someone who sees the potential of gravity based systems. Thank god I found you as you are doing everything I can only dream of. Made my day 👍✌️🌱 you have already made my mechanical side active with your approach to physical barriers. I want to make this planet cleaner and create an environment where animals and humans can co exist without poisoning future generations. You are making that happen so I do appreciate your input and will keep watching as always. Stay safe
Such a clever solution for connecting the turbine drive to the alternator and so simple and low cost… looking forward to seeing longer term performance to see how the whole assembly works over time… SUBSCRIBED!
Thanks. Longer term data to come, currently in Nepal working with Kathmandu University to finally get some proper efficiency data of the various runner design options.
4:18 "Usually im knee deep up a river with things exploding all around me and I'm just trying to hold it together"
lol you just described my life
I love how brilliant this is. You can use these in series from waterway to reservoir "lower" then from reservoir back to waterway "lower". Time to rethink spillways and hydro electric systems to utilize more scalable systems.
You've really done a great job thinking through the attachments of each piece. I appreciate you building low cost, effective bearings and rotating joints.
Mate this is brilliant! The bottle rheostat is especially clever.
I understand engineering design naturally goes where the money is, but the need is truly so much greater in the other 80% of the world. Keep it up!
You should get the noble prize for this! A truly wonderful contribution to humanity respect!
TENIA ESTA IDEA RONDANDO EN MI CABEZA PERO NO LOGRABA CONCRETAR.. DE VERDAD ME SIRVIÓ DE MUCHO. SIGUE TU TRABAJO QUE EN ESTOS TIEMPOS NECESITAREMOS INNOVACIONES PARA SUSTITUIR FORMAS DE ENERGÍAS.. TE DESEO MUCHO EXITO.
Thanks for sharing this work, I enjoyed watching it. As mentioned in previous comments, the siphon configuration does not help avoid cavitation. Moreover at the place where the turbine is, the pressure is surely lower than the atmospheric pressure, and you might have air coming in since the sealing and joints are not perfect. And let's not forget that is a fan and its design is not optimised to have low NPSH performances. I believe that all these issues will be solved when you will have the classical installation with the the turbine placed closer to the outlet, as you said when it will be installed in a river or whatever. But in the meantime, you have to consider that cavitation has a great effect on the power absorbed by the turbine. If you solve the cavitation problems, your power will be greater.
About the hydraulics, I believe that the turbine could absorbed more pressure and generate more power. Be careful in axial propellers as this one, more flow might not mean more power. Here I think the turbine is working very far from its BEP and the power could be greater than what you currently have (i do not know if since that you have more improvements). It would be good to have pressure measures before and after the turbine to better understand if you could improve a bit from the hydraulic point of view. Another thing is the tip between the fan (120mm) and the pipe (125mm), it s large and you might be losing some watts there. Anyway I hope those comments could help.
Can't wait to see the following testing and improvement of the turbine. Ah congratulations for the interesting and clever solutions for making bush bearings, couplings, etc. for almost no money. Brilliant ideas.
Thanks. I'll experiment with different placings of the turbine with the in field build. There an easy way to measure pressure in the system without disrupting the flow too much?
I tried two other impeller variations, one with steeper pitched blades and one with a larger central hub, both did about 20% worse. Also two fans back to back, which didn't seem to make any difference at all. 192W is at or near the top of the power curve by variable load. If further efficiency can be extracted that would obviously be great.
The edge clearance is about 1-2mm, which isn't ideal but I'd rather that than chance of rubbing.
@@OpenSourceLowTech I read a bit about the turbine placings in a siphon installation. Here you will find more information: www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Commentary-on-the-Efficiency-of-Selected-Structural-Parygin-Volkov/6cda09ce6db36a0a7d47a9c6782a721655353bc1
I did not know a lot about siphons... but it seems that the better placing would be at the inlet with the propeller below the water level. I think it could help to have a better working of the turbine.
For the two fans, it s tricky because your flow is rotating after the first and ideally it would be good to have a stator in between. I think it s too complex. It s nice that you experimented with other fans, did you have similar rpm?
About the pressure, you could use a simple pressure gauge, it is not expensive. There are "rudamentary methods" too, you can search on internet, but not sure that it will work as you might have local lower pressure than the atmospheric pressure...
Thanks!
Well thank you.
Truly awesome idea for a retreat or prepper shelter using nearby water flows.
Wow that's a great H2O power generator. Thanks for sharing.
This is very awesome.. so simple but brilliant.. you also seem like a good person ... The world really needs more people like yourself.. thank you.
Very, very good problem solving and really creative engineering! I love it. I can't believe it google so long to recommend it to me...
Hi, I'm from Brazil. I thought that was incredible. I'll try to do.
Won a super fan
I'm worry about rusting of galvanized parts over time.
Very nice video and practical application of basic science.
Thank you for sharing.
Alex from Montreal, Canada
Yeah we'll see how the metal holds up. Reasonably easy to replace if it does corrode out.
you could change lives, please keep positing and eventually lets do this!
we all have the power to change lives! Not making small of this video at all mind you and my bet is he will be most pleased if his idea matters to people in need of cheep power.
Think, do, love!
Imagine how many homes/communities would benefit from this, especially in an emergency. Even if it was only for lights for a hospital.
Wonderful insight on a way to be independent in a modern world. Or to be self sufficient in an area that is remote.
Love the idea. I have been working on a system for off grid. I have some solar panels and a wind turbine. Have been wanting to get some hydro going and this is easy to make and maintain.
Glad to hear it. Any questions or results let me know.
Really great! Can't wait until you post the tutorial
Great set up. Efficient. Plus its great to hear an Aussie voice in one of these vids.
This bloke really needs to be picked up for his own TV show.
Along the lines of The Great Egg Race meets Scrapheap Challenge. Science based but with a practical engineering component aimed at creating products like these for off-grid and developing markets.
Absolutely amazing guy.
A true inspiration for so many around the world
Low tech: high intelligence!
This is just brilliant.
👏👏👏👏👏
35 liters per second is lot of water (you empty your 1000 liter tank in only 28 seconds)....in a small river, is hard to get 2.5meters of gap if it dont have a waterfall/dam in somewhere.. I wait for the field test with this system in a small brook
You have given good ideas, simple and easy to implement,
I also had been thinking about also making a turbine with computer fans inside pvc tubes and I hadn’t yet thought of an idea on how to avoid water in the generator, how to transfer the movement in water out of it and how to prevent air from entering the continuous flow of water. Just yesterday I found your project and after all it can be simpler and easier than I was thinking.
I am waiting for more news, good work!
A smallish stream should be able to supply it, the drop doesn't need to be pure vertical, if there's a bit of a cascade in the waterway where the drop is over up to say ten meters horizontal or so then it'd still largely function.
I'm imagining this in actual use will be more something that's plugged into an incline rather than having to be dropped over a weir/dam/etc, and won't be a full up-over-and-down style siphon as in these test rigs, which I think is costing me some power.
Excellent to see the update! Thanks for sharing and doing what you're doing. Interesting method and design.
just amazing we should all be looking at this type of way to enhance the world we live in thank you
What you are doing is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your details. Bought a hover board motor and I want to produce one that works of the current while being towed behind a sailboat.
Great idea and will save you a couple thousand bucks!
Great series Daniel! I watched it from last to first tho. It was good to see all your processes and thinking behind all this experimenting, etc. thanks for this great info, your a champion!
I'm a big fan of less dependent (as opposed to hardcore independent) living, and even for the most first world setting, this is just plane smart. Even if it doesn't take you fully off grid, every little bit is worthwhile.
Thank you for the update. I have a waterfall with 60 to 70 gpm and 8 foot of head pressure. Seems about right for this. Looking forward to the tutorial.
That should be about ideal, yes.
@@OpenSourceLowTech awesome. I think I'm also going to try out Spencer Langston's turbine although it is much larger and requires more water than I can sustained for a long period.
@@OpenSourceLowTech Same. Gonna put this under the waterfall.
@@LandtoHouse I hadn't seen Spencer Langston's, thanks for pointing that out. Looks fairly similar to mine but I can't find what kind of impeller he's using...
Custom made alternator apparently, super high amperage...
Been watching your ram pump vids btw, nice work.
@@OpenSourceLowTech Spencer is currently working with Joe Malkovich on a custom 3D impeller. Spencer is the sponsor for my summer Micro Hydro project.
Thanks for watching the ram pump videos. They're a lot less complicated than your turbines
huge respect. keep up the great work. more power to you in every sense!
Man that turbine recovered its cost in less than 150 days
Why 60k view for such nice video? This video deserves more then million views.
I'm going to see to it this gets a million views. Once I replica this prototype
A good positive attitude. Thanks.
Maybe try to add a second computer fan on the same shaft to add more power. Love the project and can't wait for the build video.
Nice work
Brilliant! Love what you're doing!
Great design. In use the voltage and power output will fall off a cliff when/if you add load past your ~192 watt figure unless you interpose a MPPT regulator after the bridge rectifier but, at 3 amps 65 volts, it need not be expensive and can typically be used to charge and maintain a small battery bank to allow occasional/intermittent loads >> 200 watts.
That was an excellent And mind opening video. Can't wait tell you without video so I could build my own and tell you how I did with my. Thank you so much God-bless and be safe in these trying times
That’s so much for this vid. I’m building a near identical version right now. I have worked out that the version Langston’s Alternative Power sell uses an impeller from a jet-ski to drive it. I’ve made a prototype using 40mm pipe and I’ve 3D printed an impeller - it’ll spin up to 1400rpm but not much torque. The ‘proper’ version will be in 110mm pipe with roughly 2m drop. I’m very optimistic about it. Thanks for your great tips - especially keeping the pipe exit under water.
Yeah I saw his ones after I started mine, and we seem to have ended up in more or less the same place, except the sourcing of the materials.
I've tried steeper pitched runners, more like the props he's using, but they didn't seem to do as well as the flatter fans I've been using. Which is good news for my build at least, since the more basic PC fans are easier to get than the fancier ones.
I'd definitely recommend coming up to about 120mm dia on the runner, you're going to struggle to get any useful power off anything smaller.
Let me know how you get on, especially with what shape runners give the best results.
Brilliant!!! Thank you for this open source data
The problem with that is most people don't have a water setup where they can use that. It is great for people who are able to take advantage of it. Thanks for sharing it .
Blessings in your life 🙌
Thank you for sharing! This is amazing stuff and I can see many places in Africa that could benefit from this! Awesome work!!
Can't wait to see the final design!
this channel is like a warm hug!
I was expecting for this video. I work with off grid solar fv systems for people in country side. It colud be great trying with this.
Thank you.
Excellent Sir. Good work
Brilliant The true art of the bodge
There are more futures for the people who could advance to become scientist Very interestting better than the actors who gets bored without sexual actions
I would change the computer vane axial style fan to a backward or forward incline assembly to eliminate the cavitation issue. if you wanted to keep with robbing the parts from other sources, several bath fan units come to mind. Electric furnace fans are another source, which would increase the size of the housing, but would also allow for a much larger generator source. An old 3 phase pump motor could be used for instance. The power generation (with a regulator) would likely power a small township.
Thank you for sharing your hard earned knowledge with us !
this is absolutly awesome
I’m more of a wind power guy but this is a great design. I saw a guy on here do something similar with an old washing machine.
I know what ur talking about I saw the same guy. 😂
Ingenious design!!
One of the best UA-cam channels I’ve seen, I want to be apart of this movement, please let me join!
Looking forward to the tutorial series....this simple system intrigues me.
That is so ingenious. I'm really intrested in doing what you did. I have wind, water. I don't know much about electricity unfortunately. But I'll try.
Knowledge of electrical theory isn't really much of a necessity.
I've got this FB group going as a discussion group on DIY wind turbines, but the the electrical side of things is pretty much the same:
facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/
very sharp young man...kudos... well done and very interesting
117 down votes???
Must be electricity companies?
Only a fool or a crook would downvote this!
That's just human
Sometimes it is when people don't want this topic in their reccomends more so than I HATE THIS WORK. The youtube algorhythm and user feedback system is...something. Also this isn't to be those "Power companies HATE THIS type thing", it is to help areas with nothing else.
Eric Lotze power companies hate this one simple trick
Sometimes your buttcheeks just presses the dislike button for no reason.
@@nehemz432 😂😂😂😂
Brilliant!😂👍👌
I am using rainwater from roof to run mini turbine. This is similar to what I made. Good stuff
How much power were you getting?
@@OpenSourceLowTech About 1000 KwH per month. The rainwater is filtered and channeled into two 32 gallon bucket placed below front and rear roof line and the turbine setup is at the bottom.
Got the idea from this research paper
www.researchgate.net/figure/Pico-hydro-power-plant-diagram_fig1_303248520
Did you try using a washing machine motor for the alternator? I've seen them used frequently
I had a direct drive washing machine motor I was testing, but think it would be way too big and heavy for this little impeller.
They would, however, be about perfect for the vertical wind turbine...
@@OpenSourceLowTech Check out angry rams tutorial on making a hydro powered smart drive hydro power system . they put out over 400vs but he also has a video on how to rewire them for lower voltage
@@nwapranga And again a man has left important directions out. Where would you happen to find this Angry Ram tutorials at? You fail to give the valuable information, being where the directions are located. That would help a great deal.
@@inspire734 took 45 seconds to put the name in the search bar and find Angry Ram. Don't be lazy, it would be rather poor form to jump onto your feed and send folks to someone else's, that is doing much the same.
please please please... do not rely on youtube / facebook for storing your precious research and information! it's become not safe being here with all the cencorship, regulations etc. thank you so much for sharing everything open heartedly! blessings ❤
Could possibly put more turbines into the same system?
If it's the same flow of water, each fan will pull energy out of the flow and you will get greatly diminished returns. If you place multiple of these in parallel in the same river though, you should be able to produce more power at once.
Yes, see 4:47
Thank you for designing this hydro generator.
Great, ive been looking forward to your next video on this, i think it has great potential. If only i could get 34 litres per second out my house tap, i would be sorted and not have to pay for electricity.
First name last name free in Canada
@First name last name free in scotland too
not to mention but 34 liters a second is over 3 million liters a day... its a complete waste of water unless you somehow get alot more watt out
Dude- you ROCK. SUCH A SIMPLE WAY ....
THANK YOU!
Part Three (with real world field testing) now available here: ua-cam.com/video/lBl4Sdw0dXo/v-deo.html
The Video is set to private. What must one do to watch it?
@@ovrava Sorry, am updating the video, will be available again on Sunday.
Video unavailable Can you put t up again. Tks
Fixed.
congrats for an awesome display of creativity, ingenuity, skill and brains.....
Why not put 2 impeller in it?
Or 10?
Each would take from the others, it wouldn't be much if any extra power overall, but that many times the cost and work.
Look up the Lilly
impeller
@@OpenSourceLowTech If you look at how a jet turbine works, it has a static blade that directs flow in the opposite direction, such that when it hits the next impeller the force is available again at near 100% power (I think). Now, you won't be compressing your fluid, so you won't be reducing your chamber size - but the same overall principle might be useful. If you 3D-print a reverse blade to the internal diameter of your pipe you can then drive your shaft through it, thereby removing a part from the system and you would be exactly on centre. May or may not help with the cavitation. ua-cam.com/video/KjiUUJdPGX0/v-deo.html - animation of my point at 1:30
@@ashtontechhelp I tried a stator turbine but it reduced the overall power by about 10%. I may have just made it badly tho...
Great job and very in-genius work. Looking forward to your next upgrades....Great work!!
So, 2.5 meter drop and about 35 liter per second, means the water flow represents roughly 850 joules every second, which also can be described as 850 watts. With sub 200 watts output you have less than 25% efficiency. While almost 200W constant can be incredible valuable, such drop with that flow is not easily accessible everywhere.
Don't get me wrong, intent and effort is fantastic, but I think the design should be improved upon. You should be able to get at least that output from half the potential power you are using.
I also think the turbine should be in the bottom, of course you are getting unnecessary cavitation when the water pulls water through it and not pushes water. Your turbine is at the wrong side of a 0.25 atm pressure difference.
The comparison with solar PV lacks completeness, while a reliable 190W-ish constant output is more superior than a 100 or 120W solar panel than you give it credit for, there's a big difference in actual reliability. A solar panel produces what is supposed to, given the conditions, incredibly reliably. Even after 30 years most solar panels will produce most of their original power if they're just clean. You have to make lot of improvements to make that thing work reasonably reliable with reasonable amount of service/repair.
Something I think is wrong, the CPU fan... Air fans makes terrible water turbines...
Considering the design of the turbine, being an air fan, gives you most of your inefficiency. However 25% is pretty good, especially for such a cheap design.
The fan was chosen purely for the sake of global availability, tho it is doing a somewhat better job than I was necessarily anticipating.. I also tried two other fan types, with steeper blade pitch and a larger center hub, but they both did about 20% less power overall than the standard type.
I would love to increase the efficiency, and have a design in mind which is closer to a traditional Kaplan turbine, but in general I'm happy enough with the output and the cost of this to go forward with it. The drop doesn't need to be vertical, a gradual incline in a waterway will also work, and 5 kWh/day is a lot of power to play with in the parts of the world this is mainly meant for.
The impeller may do a better job lower in the draft tube, but would be a bit trickier for the ergonomics of building and using it in this configuration. In actual use tho, plugged into a stream with drop as opposed to the full U siphon I was testing it with, it would probably be easier to implement. Which I'll find out this year with the field test builds.
I don't get it, he talks like everyone has 300 gallons a minute, dropping like 10 ft in their backyard. Seems like he's one short step away from a free energy nutter
Sir you have done a great thing there thank for sharing your info to the world may God continue to bless you
this is what happens when you think before you do
great human engineering
This is excellent! But one minor thing you left out in comparison to a solar panel... A solar panel is effectively zero-maintenance: all you have to do is keep dust off of it and you are good (assuming it is sunny). Assuming a water source like the stream that was shown in the video, regular maintenance will be needed to keep trash out of the inlet. Pretty minor compared to the performance gains, but worth considering. Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing more!
True, but the corollary is this can be maintained. Once a PV panel breaks in any significant way it pretty much needs to be junked.
I'm in the process of building business models around these technologies whereby local people are able to take on the job of producing and maintaining them.
Too bad I don’t have your imagination and now how
I really could use one
I’m beside a river with the water just flowing by
Boy it’s crazy being old
4 phrases, so not a standard haiku
if you could advertise for a local hobbyist to do it for you, could be done...
Great Work!!! I can't wait to see the build tutorial.
Quite an interesting idea! Might make a version if I have enough spare time! Thanks!
Good to hear it. Let me know how you get on.
Brilliant content, thanks for sharing 💚🌍
I have subscribed
Suggestion: To improve eficiency; before the impeler fixed axel guide, inside the tube. You can instal on the shaft a Spinner, in cone format, to improve watter flow. Also on the impeler itself, instal a cone! Willl acelerate vater Speed a lot
Love your work on this. I know printing with glass filled materials may be tough, but definately use a nylon material. That is great in water.
Very nice. Just what I was looking for. Looks like a great design. Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant work.
I also wondered about the fan blades breaking. If there was fluctuating pressure on them, it could bend them back and forth, even though ever so slightly, but it would fatigue the plastic and they would break eventually. You may be able to get a handle on predicting it by measuring pressure differential across the fan. The other thing that struck me about using a fan was the question of efficiency. The Pelton wheel is tried and tested, and designed for the job. These blades are designed for a quite different job. There may be other fans out there with a more suited blade. Maybe the propeller from an outboard motor would be worth experimenting with? Brunel fabricated a ship's propeller from flat plate, and if memory serves, it was quite efficient.
The PTFE bearing is a nice idea, but just in case you didn't know (though you probably did), marine bearings, from ships' propeller shafts to outboard motors and pleasure yachts, are usually made of rubber. It is water-lubricated.
I'm in the process of installing a couple field tests in order to see how the materials hold up longer term. There's a fair chance the fan won't last, but there are options for strengthening it. Something like a small boat prop would do a better job in terms of longevity and probably efficiency, but it's a matter of cost and availability in other parts of the world.
Peltons are great, but generally need at least 20 meters of head to function properly. This is meant as a low head, medium flow momentum turbine for serving the niche of people with only that water resource availability.
Other bearings would also do the job, but also a matter of availability.
@@OpenSourceLowTech Power (sic) to your elbow. This is a project that could lighten the lives of many, many people.
Amazing work and thank you for sharing!!
I'd suggest a neater test load solution - 5x12V 21W car bulbs /less than 1$ each/ in series will give you ~100W load for the given voltage output /~60V/ with a visual feedback of the system performance. 5 bulbs /low beams/ will give 300W,. You may use high/low beam switchable load or use sets of these in parallel. The plastic fan will go quick for sure. It will erode and one of the reasons to use less rpm and high torque to lower the cavitation erosion and to prolong the turbine life. Pipe setup is amazing. Keep up the good work!
First thought on variable load was car headlamps, but they have the issue of changing resistance as they heat up. The liquid rheostat worked surprisingly well, and didn't cost anything.
I'm interested to see how the fan holds up over time. Hopefully it'll last long enough to be worth it, as they're way more available and accessible than any other option I've come across so far.
Will see with the field installations this year.
@@OpenSourceLowTech I agree that car bulbs are more expensive but it's on the R&D side not on the cost of the final product. The thermal time constant of the bulbs is around 2 sec and after that they are fixed load. This is on cold start. In normal working condition the change of their resistance based on the temp will be negligible. When you create your "voltage, current, power" chart this is not relevant.
You are not completely right about the liquid thermostat. There Is heating also going on and the resistance is changed by the heating, also there is complex electrolysis /being water solution/ going on, that change the resistance too. I am not saying it is not good, the change of the load is not vital when you measure both voltage and current. The absolute value is not important as long as it is in a preferable range, close to the real world scenarios. Over the years I used both solutions but the bulbs are less messy :-).
On the fan, I guess my expectation is a slow erosion starting from the peripheral part slowly eating towards the center. There is a good reason why all boats and hydroelectric turbines are all made from metal . My guess is that you don't need the material to be though, but as hard as possible to resist the wearing.
With that said the only weak point I see so far is the expectation about the system to work long time , created from easily available components. This is hard to achieve. The generator you are using is an example for a part designed to work probably less than 2000 hours /this translates to use hoverboard full 2 hours, every day for around 3 years/ For a car alternator it is probably around 10-15000 hours. 2000 hours lifespan will give you less than 3 months durability.
Let this not stoping you! There is always a solution and we just need to find it.
@@plamenmarinov7314
> The thermal time constant of the bulbs is around 2 sec and after that they are fixed load.
This may be a good option for a hydro under constant water supply, but in Berlin coming from the tank the first two seconds were the peak output, so if the resistance was changing during that period it may have thrown off my readings.
Wind turbines also wouldn't be ideal for this given that they're constantly changing input power.
Is there also not an issue with bulbs in terms of voltage? Testing this turbine I had anything up to 115VDC.
> There Is heating also going on and the resistance is changed by the heating
I didn't notice any of either, but only had it loaded for the 20 seconds or so it took to empty the tank. A litre of water tho does have a fair amount of thermal mass.
> also there is complex electrolysis /being water solution/ going on, that change the resistance too.
It did off gas a little, but I found I only needed to top it up with more washing soda and water about once a week or so to come back to the original resistance.
> the change of the load is not vital when you measure both voltage and current. The absolute value is not important as long as it is in a preferable range
Yeah this was basically my approach. The resistance didn't have to be specific, just something that could give me more or less then range of amperages I needed for a useful power curve, and I was measuring the amps and volts from which I calculated the resistance and wattage.
> There is a good reason why all boats and hydroelectric turbines are all made from metal.
Yeah I'll see how that holds up over time. There are a couple options for strengthening it if necessary, but hopefully the fan remains useful as it's a way more globally accessible option than anything else I can think of.
> The generator you are using is an example for a part designed to work probably less than 2000 hours
The only likely points of failure there are the bearings, which seem pretty robust, and the wire, which should hold a while long as it's not over amped.
They're fairly impressively solid units.
> There is always a solution
Indeed.
Wow, this video is very inspiring, I want to do something similar in a waterfall near my town and help those most in need.