Looking good!
retired, living self sufficently in Alabama (Part 2)
Nice work! What a lovely place you have there also :)
Good job! How deep is the water in front of the dam?
I have been thinking about this today. Is this right? The water turns the wheel. The wheel turns the belt/chain. The belt/chain turns the motor/generator. The motor/generator makes the power. The power runs through wires hooked to the battery bank where it is stored until it is used. Do you have to have an inverter to be able to move the stored power from the batteries to whatever uses it? What exactly is an inverter?
An inverter takes DC power , converts it and makes it available for use as AC power (standard household power). I have one in my truck that plugs into the cigarette lighter and powers my laptop or cell phone charger while I'm driving.
You would not need an inverter if what you are powering can run off of DC power, but most folks don't have DC stuff :)
right now in front of the dam the water is only about 2ft. deep.
and your "thinking" is correct Cajun. thats exactly how it works ...
i use an inverter, it changes the 12 volt dc into 120 volt ac, thats what your standard plugs have in your house for standard applances, but you dont have to have an inverter to use the power stored, if for lights an such, just use 12 volt lights or 12 volt pumps an such.
sailer... I would have thought the blocks needed to be shaped more like a funnel to direct the water to the chute?
Thanks for the info. DH and I were talking about it today. Maybe I can get him interested enough in it to give it a try. I'd love that. Where did you get your generator?
Do you have a place where you can divert the creek so all the water does not go onto the wheel?
Darius,
yeah i agree with you there, but the natural ledge of the dam was in that shape of my dam so i dint wanna fool with Mother Nature's design too much other than raise'n it higher to where i could put my wheel in. LOL there's always a reason to my madness hehee.
Cajun,
i recycled my generator from an old 120 volt air compressor. its a permament magnet dc motor. works good for a generator. and yes on the far side of the dam i have a gate that i can open or close to devert the water around the wheel ...
Looks good Sailer,makes me want to hurry back to my place in Ky, so I can build one on my creek. Maybe I should wait for it to warm up a bit first though.Lol
Chancemft,
yeah be easier workin on one if it was warmer, but free power is free power anyway ya look at it
True, just dont want to freeze my but of in the water right now, might use the cold weather for building the stuff in the shop, and save the set up for warmer weather.
LOL good idea, get everything togather, an wait for warm weather .. then build it, should be enough time from now till then to gather it all up
Got alot of the stuff I need, I think. Now it's just taking the time for the trial and error, then transporting it all back to Ky and setting it up.
LOL everything i do is trial an error .. you mean there's another way of doin something ? hehee ...
I've found error sponds sucsess. But it sure gets old sometimes!
Does it have to be a generator or can you use a motor? What kind of appliances would I be likely to find what I need in? I have a side by side fridge I am going to scrap but the motor works fine. DH says it would not work for making electricity so I am assuming I need a generator and not a motor?
Why are you scrapping the fridge?
Several reasons. The liner inside is cracked. It is also too big for this itty bitty house and we cannot afford to run 2 fridges so it is just taking up space in the garage. It is a big one with an ice maker and ice and water through the door. Crushed ice even! I don't know what kind of shape it is in at the moment. It has been stored out there since we moved here a year and a half ago.
I asked because I'm looking for a free fridge to convert to a sausage "cave". The cracked liner would make it bad for a cheese cave. However, I just looked at GoogleMaps; you are about a hundred miles from here and at the price of gas, I don't think I could afford the drive even if you gave it to me.
That's too bad. You would have been welcome to it. Fuel prices are outrageous. When will it all stop?
If you could seal the fracture tightly enough to know you'd get no mold growth in it, you could turn it into a cheese cave, and a place to store milk until you get enough for a batch of cheese.
You can make cheese from milk not kept cool?
No, you'd have to chill it. I thought you said the fridge works? I did read that you said you can't afford to run 2, but if you made cheese you'd save on groceries thus maybe be able to run both.
Turning one into a cave (not chilling milk) requires bypassing the thermostat so it will stay warmer, like around 55º, and you'd need to add a humidifier to get the humidity up to 93-96%. To convert one for curing meats, the temps are nearly the same but lower humidity. Humidity high enough for cheese would rot salami or hams curing.
My sister sent me a book and every page makes me think of you. It's "Forgotten Skills of Cooking" by Darina Allen. It is amazing. I am so enjoying it. It is a how to book on lost skills like milking, butchering, making cheese, preserving meats, ect. It also has over 700 recipes in it. There is a great section on foraging too.
My nearest DG neighbor has that book. I borrowed it 3-4 weeks ago and then didn't have time to look at much of it before she wanted it back. It's on my Amazon wish list.
My sister was reading it and decided it was something I would really enjoy. She didn't want to let go of her copy ( and I can see why ) so she ordered me one from Amazon and had it sent here. Wasn't that nice? Now we are both reading it and we can discuss it. It's a great book but it is going to take me forever. I am barely into the foraging section. Every plant she mentions that I am not familiar with, I google it. :) I am going to keep my eye out on my little hikes in the woods and see if I spot anything in the book. I certainly can't hike like I did in years past but I still get out on occasion when I am having a very good day.
I 'spect I could nearly survive just on the edible "weeds" growing just in my yard! If I had the stamina, I'd hike some of our hillside to see what's up there.
wow lots of rain last nite and today, had to pop the gate on the dam an divert water away from the waterwheel, its cranking out 25 to 30 amps contuniously. thats some serious power, an its maxed out with water flow, so i guess i could say my design is workin as it should at max output to waterflow rates. i actualy dont think it could spin any faster without some serious tune'n. an the torque is unreal, no way possible to stop with with just your hands .. it'd have to have some kinda brake system on it .. or raise it out of the waterflow to stop it. i even grounded out the alternator an it wouldnt stop it .. so tourque an speed i have .. wooo hooooooooooo mission compleat .. LOL
also when grounded it out compleatly it was crankin over 70 amps of power, peg'd my 70 amp meter so how much more i dont know .. now im happy with it. ;-D>
This message was edited Mar 5, 2011 1:56 PM
Cool Beans! I love it when a plan works. :)
need a storage plan!
Congrats freedom, on a job well done :)
ty ty, an yes i need more batterys to store all the power in now. 1392 amp capacity might not be enough
RAH!
Congrats, sounds like you gott'er licked now!
a shot just after i removed the big alternator from the waterwheel, it had no sheild built around it an i was afraid the water would screw it up .. so i took it off before the main part of the water came down the creek .. cause if my mounts had given away it would have washed it down the creek an made a mess of things ..
and another view.
WOW!
now thats hydro! now i have your rain - needed the moisture ! will not complain.
Here's a shot of my creek, looking upstream from my bridge a few minutes ago. It's above flood stage, but since it's wider, not as much turbulence as sailer has...
It's also sleeting right now.
Sailor, fantastic!
Darius, who would have thought your pretty little creek could get so ugly-looking...