Thread: Hydro-Electric Generator

I had a mate that rigged up a washing machine as a Pelton generator in a creek. The water flo turned the motor generating about 1000 watts or so. It was enough to power a small heater continuously through winter without having to hook it into the "grid"....Unfortunately he passed away. But I know it works, and he was in that industry.

Originally Posted by stretch

Yeah, a mate did a summer internship with them back when they were EcoInnovation. Some interesting stories. Like the time they plumbed a school in Stratford or Inglewood for solar hot water. They found a big hot water cylinder in a locked cupboard that had an inlet and no outlet. Thermostat cranked right up and had been spitting hot water onto the roof endlessly since installation decades prior.

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Our school did something similar with the school pool back in the 80s. They thought asphalt gets hot in the sun. It can heat the water for the pool, so they plumbed the water from the pump through a large series of pipes under the asphalt and back into the pool. Alll seemed very simple and logical. One of those "why didn't we do this years ago???"moments. Well.....the water passed through and cycled fine. Problem is simple. Black asphalt gets hot because it absorbs energy / heat. Issues arise as it also absorbed heat from the pipes. We had the only eco friendly refrigerated pool in chch where the water going into the pool was a good 5 to 10 degrees COLDER than the water that was already there. The asphalt did not care where the heat came from, it simply continued to absorb it....Upside was we had a practical example of a heat pump cycle and how refrigerators work for science class.....

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

gentil annie motors or rewired smartdrives are quite common.

Can hook up to a Pelton wheel or wind turbine and solar.

For what you are looking to do with it, low power, solar would be my pick.