Hydro power from small river?

[joncooper27]

Hi we have a small river at the bottom of our garden quite fast flowing and always a constant feed.
We would like to explore options of hydro power from the river.
I have attached a pictuyof the river anyone have any experience or people to contact?

 

[SLM]

There’s a guy on utube; don’t recall his name right now, but will scratch my head… anyway, he’s a former IT guy who’s walked away from the rat race in favour of self sufficiency. Many of his videos tend to be about the more technical stuff he’s done, including developing a small hydro power plant. Have a rummage; it would be a great starting point for you.

 

[clogs]

do u own the river....?
prob not.....then u wont be allowed to interupt the main flow.....
a small turbine would work but it wont deliver much juice......
To get high power u need weight of water for a turbine.....
If u went with a wheel, midshot is the most efficient but ur's would be under shot.....

I repaired a water turbine for a rich *landed gentry* type guy in Portugal but he owned the river for miles .....prob 6 time the size of ur's....
His worked ok but it delivered about 1KW.....just a free flowing river with a few mods......
not worth the effort really.....unless u dam it......
BUT if ur OFF Grid and need to charge a battery it'd be perfect.....

also from memory to produce elec from a water source in the UK, even if it's for ur sole use u need a permit.......

I know this as a pub in Derbyshire had a watermill producing elec.....

When the wheel was re-instated the elec board realised the drop in consuption.....
thinking they were on the fiddle they inspected......and found the wheel.....
The owner of the pub was taken to court etc etc....prod elec without a permit......
the judge threw the case out because it was proved the water fall /wheel was mentioned in the Magna Carter........
All costs covered by the elec bord with a little comp for the pub....

good luck.....

 

[Lorenzl]

My uncle brought a cottage and the garden shed was next to a stream. It had one light bulb in it driven from a water turbine; a couple of years later the waterboard were doing a survey in the area and made him take it out.

 

[Terrytpot]

There’s a guy on utube; don’t recall his name right now, but will scratch my head… anyway, he’s a former IT guy who’s walked away from the rat race in favour of self sufficiency. Many of his videos tend to be about the more technical stuff he’s done, including developing a small hydro power plant. Have a rummage; it would be a great starting point for you.

This dude..

 

[doctor Bob]

here's a link to licence requirements, I vaguely looked at this in the past.

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/si...s/Hydro- planning permission and licenses.pdf

 

[Pedronicus]

My uncle brought a cottage and the garden shed was next to a stream. It had one light bulb in it driven from a water turbine; a couple of years later the waterboard were doing a survey in the area and made him take it out.

Correct. You are not even allowed to extract water from a well on your property without an extraction licence.

 

[SLM]

This dude..

That’s the chap I was thinking of!

 

[Jorny]

With small hydro you basically ruin the ecology of the stream for very little energy. Solar photovoltaics are a lot more efficient and cost effective. I mean the one in the link above has an effect og 1.5 kW. Your typical rooftop solar has an effect of 6-12 kW. Solar also has no moving parts and very little maintenance.

 

[Dabop]

With small hydro you basically ruin the ecology of the stream for very little energy. Solar photovoltaics are a lot more efficient and cost effective. I mean the one in the link above has an effect og 1.5 kW. Your typical rooftop solar has an effect of 6-12 kW. Solar also has no moving parts and very little maintenance.

Actually, microhydro has little to no effect on streams ecology (especially if no dam is built ie an undershot or 'paddlewheel')
And its amazing how little 24/7 production is needed to make a significant amount of energy- a 12v/100A output microhydro turbine makes 1200w 24/7- so its daily output is 28.8kwh a day...
In Australia, a 6kw solar array will make about 32kwh a day in summer, and about 27kwh a day in winter- to achieve that in the UK you need 8-10kw of solar panels
Hardly 'little energy' lol

 

[niall Y]

This dude..

A great link................ I disappeared down a rabbit hole for over an hour , Still have the final one to watch

 

[Tris]

If your land allows for enough drop you could look at a hydraulic ram pump to lift water to a header tank then pipe it back down through a pelton wheel turbine. The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales has a good example of this

 

[Jorny]

Actually, microhydro has little to no effect on streams ecology (especially if no dam is built ie an undershot or 'paddlewheel')
And its amazing how little 24/7 production is needed to make a significant amount of energy- a 12v/100A output microhydro turbine makes 1200w 24/7- so its daily output is 28.8kwh a day...
In Australia, a 6kw solar array will make about 32kwh a day in summer, and about 27kwh a day in winter- to achieve that in the UK you need 8-10kw of solar panels
Hardly 'little energy' lol

1200w? So not quite enough to power a electric kettle? My toaster is about 900 watts, so at least that is covered...

It is still incredibly ineffiecient compared to solar.

 

[joncooper27]

Thanks everyone for your input if I could get 1200w 24/7 365 days a year to batteries I would be happy. Would beat solar anyday the river has a good flow all year as is fed from reservoir even this summer river never went down. I have watched the video previously too.
Any more ideas help greatly appreciated

 

[Chris_Pallet]

Haha brilliant reading, I've always wondered this when I say. I'm gonna win the lottery and buy a house and have a river turbine to run it
Good luck in your venture, post your progress.

 

[Bromley]

What about a Ground Source Heat Pump in the stream? I have always wondered about this, but would be concerned a spate would wash it all away, so it would need to be very securely installed.

 

[Pedronicus]

What about a Ground Source Heat Pump in the stream? I have always wondered about this, but would be concerned a spate would wash it all away, so it would need to be very securely installed.

Be very careful with this. A chap on a forum I follow has been involved on the edge of such an installation in place of an oil boiler to serve a large country house converted into flats using a very large lake as the heat source and costing over £250k. The system does not work and the poor residents have had to resort to buying numerous convector and fan heaters in order to keep warm.

 

[joncooper27]

We have a Biomass Boiler for heating I need to generate electricity!!

 

[dirtbagd89`]

Hi Jon, the power you can generate is proportional to the flow and pressure you have available. To work out the power output you simply multiply these two parameters together. To get the output in Watts you need to use m3/s for flow and N/m2 for pressure. You also need to take into account the efficiency of the system which will probably be between 50 and 70%.

E.g if you have 5m head and 25 l/s available. 5m head is 50,000 N/m2 and 25 l/s is 0.025 m3/s. 0.025 x 50000=1250 W. Assuming 60% efficiency water to wire therefore actual output is 750 W.

Working out the head available should be pretty simple, you just do some basic surveying. Establishing the flow available is a bit more complicated but a good first exercise would be to measure the cross sectional area of the river and the water velocity. Multiply these two values together to get the approximate total river flow (using m/s for velocity and m2 for cross sectional area will give you the flow in m3/s). You will only be able to take a proportion of this flow which will be determined by a licence. When the river flow drops below a certain values you may not be able to take any flow.

Looking at it another way, if you know the head you have available and the power needed to keep your batteries topped up you can work out how much flow is required to achieve this with some simple algebra. E.g. if you need 1200W, you have say 5m head and the water to wire efficiency is 60%. Flow required=1200/(50,000x0.6)=0.04m3/s or 40 l/s.

Hope that's useful.

 

[Pedronicus]

I don't think you can bring pressure into the equation when dealing with an open river/stream as any restriction placed in the flow (a turbine generator) will cause the flow to be diverted around said restriction into the surrounding waterway. I seem to remember that, in the Youtube series referenced, the flow to the turbine was diverted through a pipe which would lead to a pressure being built up within the pipe. Then head comes into play. I don't think that just dunking a turbine into an open flowing water course will have the desired result.

I think the OP needs to contact the Environment Agency to ascertain if his proposal is a)viable and b)would be allowed. Also to ascertain if the stream actually runs through his property as if it doesn't then I doubt extraction would be allowed without the real owner's (and EA's) permission.