Spoon! DIY Pelton Hydro Power, 500W EBike Hub

...was putterin' around the interwebs, wandered into this & while it's just an experiment, I jus' hadta share this guy's creativity - he's cobbed himself a genny for less then what jus' a Pelton Wheel costs (ebay), with regen it's got some potential lol;

ryanonthevedder said:

Used a 500W hub motor and some spoons to make a pelton turbine hydro generator. This is the working generator running off of a garden hose.
The plan is to take it up to the gold claim and use it to power the cabin and charge the batteries that I use

Click to expand...

http://youtu.be/spAxoOrC4PA




...I love the spoons


edit: Figured I'd include the more common DIY Pelton water turbine in case this is new to some folks, the 'convert an old washing machine into a water powered generator' type sans spoons... this is a particularly good resource vid;
http://youtu.be/0ieFZI4-6K8

It's an interesting concept for sure, although a bit atypical for a Pelton Wheel using the hub like that & I'd imagine he'll get far better rotation speed once he's made & aligned pressure nozzles... but yea, Peltons are perfect for LVHP sources (low volume, high pressure) like little creeks on farmsteads

Yeppers, very good stuff ajoh ...but jus as a BTW small Peltons are often operated with little more then a gravity run, the lead hose from the reservoir (creek/pond) down the hill jus' needs be larger then the nozzle as the weight of the water in the hose will pressurize it.

yea, the sneaker wheel - I knew the spoons reminded me of somethin' lol, thanks lowracer

Well... as for the water thing, I've ridden my ebike/hub motor in all seasons/all conditions for goin' on three years now & never had any water intrusion issues, in fact my very first test ride was in the pouring rain, not that I was psyched for that sort of test but it did jus' fine so the above should be good *shrug*

It isn't an optimum setup for a Pelton wheel it's true, nor is it particularly economic if you haven't a spare hub or cheap used ebike... but it is an awesome example of tinkerin' around & experimenting I figure

A pretty good list of resources: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm

One of the interesting advantages of power generation vs consumption is as the motive source for generation is free, efficiency is less critical - for power generation an advantage of the high pressure/low volume of a Pelton turbine vs they more traditional low pressure/high volume paddle wheels is scale, it's not particularly difficult to build one even as little as a five gallon bucket with a automotive style, single wire alternator for powering a small camp or whatnot, though these are more suited to the task (RPM rates & construction): http://www.windbluepower.com/category_s/1.htm

This is one of the smallest, commercially available hydro generators I'm aware of... though granted, I've no idea how well it actually works lol: http://www.microhydropower.com/our-products/watter-buddy/

Again though, for power generation I'd not shrug off the more traditional water wheel, or paddle wheel (to help differentiate) & in fact some years ago I threw together a DIY cob-job paddle wheel that sufficed to power my 19' camper for almost a year out of little more then some chopped wood pallets, a bicycle wheel & the alternator filched out of my truck (& the two deep cycle camper batts) - though this was way up in northern Vermont on a steep hillside, so the creek had both volume and pressure to work with: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Belvidere,+VT

I'm sure it was ridiculously inefficient, it was under-fed (direction) & the wheel didn't even run on bearings (greasy broom handle heh) but squeak, squeak & free power nonetheless. Despite it's primitive nature & gross inefficiency it never failed me, never paused, never stopped. I did occasionally have to disassemble it though, I did need my truck about once a month or so for munchie runs lol

Thanks Dan

If you're referring to making the "spoons" for the Pelton wheel (first pic w/that link), DIY stuff is all over the 'net - 45° PVC couplers cut in half is one idea: http://youtu.be/uZ2fWyDHfrY but you can get ones made specifically for Pelton wheels for roughly a buck each (sold in batches ofc, fleabay)... but as it seems you can get assembled wheels for the same or less w/some searching, it doesn't seem to be the most economical route unless you're buying 500+ lol

As for my lil water wheel, that was some time ago & PDA (pre-digital age) & I really didn't think it worth film at the time - I'd just stripped some pallets for the planks with a bike rim on the side for a belt drive... which after some trial & error ended up being braided twine for the lack of a belt long enough, the alternator was also lashed down for the lack of proper fasteners. Also lacking was but the most basic of tools (camp saw etc), so I used a design similar to the pic below as there's no curves & few fasteners, the broom handle was the axle, secured to the tops of two 4x4" (the big chunks in a pallet) with nails bent over bits of heater hose packed w/grease for it to spin in - there's no way I was drillin' 1" holes through pressure treated with a pocket knife heh;



...in retrospect, somethin' like this would have been easier & tastier too