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re: Any of you knuckle draggers ever built your own generator?
Posted on 9/21/17 at 8:43 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
Posted on 9/21/17 at 8:43 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
Thanks for answering, it's a nice sized little spring branch, with a pretty good flow all the time. I think it would turn a good sized wheel,with a large sized pulley to an alternator pulley, I might be able to get a couple hurdred RPM maybe more.That's going to be the big question.
You are definitely right about starting out with 1 alternator at first.
I think it will be fun to try. Maybe use a wire spools to make the wheel. If 1 works,then possibly make a series of them.
You are definitely right about starting out with 1 alternator at first.
I think it will be fun to try. Maybe use a wire spools to make the wheel. If 1 works,then possibly make a series of them.
2
Posted on 9/21/17 at 8:46 pm to auggie
Shitchyea do it. Do some research on figuring out roughly how much theoretical power the stream can make. I think it's just elevation and flow rate that really matter but one of those civil guys could answer that better than me.
If you actually could get 7.2kW out of it that'd be enough to run the damn house other than starting the AC and shite, and you could make that work if you wanted to bad enough. I think that much power is ambitious but even if it's only 1kW that's enough to run a bunch of shite.
If you actually could get 7.2kW out of it that'd be enough to run the damn house other than starting the AC and shite, and you could make that work if you wanted to bad enough. I think that much power is ambitious but even if it's only 1kW that's enough to run a bunch of shite.
Posted on 9/21/17 at 9:16 pm to auggie
Yes. Old 4 cylinder water cooled forklift engine, belt drive to a 20 KW ST generator head (single phase). Pulley sizes were adjusted to keep the engine at 1800 rpm. There is actually a formula for that. Used a triple belt pulley setup.
In the end, we spent more than we would have spent buying a good used 20 KW unit!!!! We did have a hell of a lot of fun fabricating everything up though.
If you are going to do it use an ST head. That is what they use in those 3rd world villages to run power 24/7. They are built like a tank and cheap to repair. Very heavy though.
Also I can't recommend an old 4 cyl forklift engine. A little lacking in power for 20 KW, but it was free. Somewhere on the internet there is a chart that pretty much tells you what HP engine you need to produce X amount of KW in a generator setup.
There is a whole group of people who have made homemade generators using the ST heads and Lister type engines. These are slow rpm diesels with heavy flywheels.
Water wheel setups are a little tougher, electronic voltage regulators can only do so much to regulate the power as far as the wheel turning faster than the designed rpm. Without some sort of governor your voltage and frequency could be all over the place based on the flow of the spring.
Here are some things I learned during our project: 2 pole generator head (like what is on the cheap Home Depot units) will need 3600 RPM for 120/240V @ 60hz. 4 pole generator head will need 1800 rpm for 120/240 volts @ 60hz. You will want the voltage / hz adjusted a little high say somewhere 120 - 125V unloaded, that way when you put a load on the generator it will settle down to 120 @ 60Hz.
Another route you could take is a decent 12V battery bank (like 4 6V golf cart batteries wired series, series, parallel) and some heavy duty truck alternators run off the water wheel to keep them charged / supply power to an inverter.
In the end, we spent more than we would have spent buying a good used 20 KW unit!!!! We did have a hell of a lot of fun fabricating everything up though.
If you are going to do it use an ST head. That is what they use in those 3rd world villages to run power 24/7. They are built like a tank and cheap to repair. Very heavy though.
Also I can't recommend an old 4 cyl forklift engine. A little lacking in power for 20 KW, but it was free. Somewhere on the internet there is a chart that pretty much tells you what HP engine you need to produce X amount of KW in a generator setup.
There is a whole group of people who have made homemade generators using the ST heads and Lister type engines. These are slow rpm diesels with heavy flywheels.
Water wheel setups are a little tougher, electronic voltage regulators can only do so much to regulate the power as far as the wheel turning faster than the designed rpm. Without some sort of governor your voltage and frequency could be all over the place based on the flow of the spring.
Here are some things I learned during our project: 2 pole generator head (like what is on the cheap Home Depot units) will need 3600 RPM for 120/240V @ 60hz. 4 pole generator head will need 1800 rpm for 120/240 volts @ 60hz. You will want the voltage / hz adjusted a little high say somewhere 120 - 125V unloaded, that way when you put a load on the generator it will settle down to 120 @ 60Hz.
Another route you could take is a decent 12V battery bank (like 4 6V golf cart batteries wired series, series, parallel) and some heavy duty truck alternators run off the water wheel to keep them charged / supply power to an inverter.
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