500 Watt micro hydro for £1500-Off Grid day 39
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- We finally get the micro hydro turbine operating consistently without leaks or issues. We beat our target of 350watts putting out 570watts after some tweaking of the nozzle settings. We reseal the base of the hydro turbine and fix some drips coming from the PSI gauges, sort out the filters at the inlets and test the power output to our ecoflow delta pro making sure not to exceed its capacity.
Turbine-www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204150087055
Nozzles-www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203268369118
AC/DC rectifier-www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386262523602
Pipe-plantexuk.com/collections/mdp...
Waterproofing-www.screwfix.com/p/mapei-aqua...
Website-www.offgridscotland.co.uk/
Facebook- / offgridscotland
Instagram- / offgridscotland123
00:00 Intro
00:46 Fixing the leaks
04:22 Changing the connectors
05:24 Errors made
09:11 Intake filter
12:09 Clear overflow
12:55 Turning it on
16:52 100Watts
18:23 450Watts
20:28 Outro
21:16 570Watts - Jak na to + styl
You need a water collection box with mesh filter at the head. The box needs to be large enough to allow silt to settle before water goes down the pipe.
you are absolutely right. I have discovered this since the install and am already planning the fix
Its good to see a "warts & all" video on the subject. Most CZcamsrs, like to virtual signal with their "look at my setup", without any real info! Keep it real and you will gather more followers 👍
Thanks a lot, I always use CZcams to learn from so I feel like I should show it as it is.
Regarding having equal PSI, it doesn’t matter what your static pressure is. Since you have tune-able nozzles, you can adjust the flow rate on each side such that the dynamic (working) pressure is the same. This will create equal nozzle velocity which is what you actually want.
Thank you for this it is what I was doing when I was listening to the speed as I tried to match the nozzles but wasn't actually sure what I was trying to achieve and noticed it got to an equilibrium at a point where the pressures were different rather than the same
This is probably my favourite channel at the moment about living in remote Scotland, Rob is so open and informative I can't wait to see how things pan out in 2024!
Thanks Peter thats very kind of you
Happy New Year and congrats on 2k subs 🎉
Happy new year to you too. Im having a whisky to celebrate
Happy New Year Rob , to you and your family. I Hope you all enjoyed your first Xmas off grid 🙂.May I say, I think you're doing a fantastic job so far at sorting out all these challenges. I'm watching you very closely! You should make my job a breeze when I get off grid hopefully later in the year 🤣
Happy new year to you too. Great I am glad we are of use, hopefully we make most of the mistakes so that you don't have to. I hope you enjoy your journey as much as I am enjoying mine
Well done Rob! It's great to see a really honest video about mistakes and successes with a hydro project. 500w is a great achievement - 12KWh a day!
Thanks, I am really pleased with it so far
not all usable though. Unless you have a tens of KWh battery pack and actually USE 12KWh a day for something or other - not many people need 12KWH a day unless they are habitual tumble drier users.
Superb mate. Well done. Great idea plugging that heater in to use what you’re producing. 😎👌
Thank you we are having an issue with too much power at the moment but once we have the bigger batteries set up we will be off to the races
Brilliant job 😊
Thanks
Happy new year Rob. All that walking will keep you fit. You need a camera connected to your phone so you can check volts/watts. Some sort of security system but aimed at meters etc
Happy new year to you too Phil, I left the world of the smart phone so my options are limited with remote viewing. Won't be long before my boy can relay the info from the other end
I like the videos, been watching a few because I'm hoping to do something similar. Realised today that I recognise the patterns of the Larch in the background because I live locally. Welcome to the area 😂
Hi Bryan, Very glad to be here we love the area so much. I hope our videos are of some use for your own projects
Happy New Year. Good start for new year, glad your happier with Watts you've got.😂 I think I mentioned if you connect pipes together into a tube to equalise the pressure from both supplies, then then on outlet connect valve and pressure gauge put on a Y connector and connect to both jets, will help keep the pressure equal at both jet and water valve opening, will also stop one jet fighting against the other. More controllable with one valve and one pressure.
Happy new year to you too Michael. Lots of people have mentioned the manifold rather than direct pipes to each nozzle so that is likely the first thing I will be working on once I have it connected to the proper inverter
Try using filter that is used for heatpumps and aircons. New is expensive but I get them for free from old heatpumps. Install like coanda, water flowing over. Very effective and long lasting!
Collect water in big 200 liter plastic drum at intake before penstock. No problem w silt and air
That's the current idea, I mentioned in part 4 that silt is our main problem at the moment
Great work! You ideally need some CB radio's and 5 mins of the wife's time so you can get the power watts near perfect! :-)
Thanks! We do have some radios so I should have taken one with me
Why not take them multi meter up with you and measure at source?
Why get an overprices power bank?
Much better to get a dedicated inverter with external batteries. Much more to choose from and easier to set it up to your exact system/specifications.
You can't connect the 2 penstocks together, since they are at different height/pressures the larger head one will just try to push water out of the lower head intake.
You have to regulate the pressure with the nozzles, higher Q (volume) will lower the pressure in that line due to internal resistance.
Instead of just a heater, get a water boiler, then you can get some use out of that dumped energy.
Your intake filter will be a constant headache with clogging. To get a air and debris free intake have a closed space in the stream that the water only can enter on the bottom side and feed your penstock closer to the surface inside the compartment. Just not to close so to get a suction vortex.
Reference this video as an example: czcams.com/video/wZ4JLTnbUy0/video.html
Mr.Hydrohead also used a similar solution on his meadow feed from the creek where he had constant problems with trapped air and debris.
A 200 liter plastic drum is an ideal solution as are 400 - 500 mm plastic drainage pipes.
Wow that is a lot of amazing information thank you so much! We are swapping over to a proper inverter and battery system in the next few videos, they are sitting in the workshop waiting for me to connect them. I will definitely check back on your comment to review the suggestions
@@offgridscotlandif you are using the same size nozzles and you adjust the valves to have equal pressure entering the turbine, that will mean the water velocity is equal, the secret is to keep the velocity hitting the buckets equal
Use a kind of water heater element in a big bucked or IBC so the dump load will heat the water what you can use.
Thats a great idea, I am looking into something like that at the moment
Hi Rob. Happy New Year to you and your family. Great to see that you’re learning as you go here. The system looks brilliant and well engineered. Is it me having been away from a large tv and watching your recent vids on my phone, or have you changed the camera? Keep up the great work. Cheers Paul
Hi Paul happy new year to you too. No I just changed the colour profile from flat to normal as I realised it looked ok before I uploaded but not so good once CZcams got a hold of it
@@offgridscotland nice one Rob. Looks better to me 👍👌
I run my stand pipe the same about 5ft from the intake. The only time I get air in the system is when I start to run out of water and my jets are open to much. After turning the jets down the air will clear within the hour.
One of the hardest things I found to keep things running well and to keep things maintenance free is the intake. I run from a small burn like yours with an average of 60GPM, it's rain dependent so no river or spring and will go well over 60GPM when we get heave rain. When we get heavy rain the amount of rock, stone, sand and grit that come down the hill is crazy as well a grass and dead bracken which is the biggest problem. My thoughts on the filter you have is it will clog up very fast and you will find your running up the hill every other day or more to clear it. Grit and sand can be a problem but I don't use any kind of fine mesh like that. You need to have your intake at least 6" under water so an intake box is a great idea, My first box was a plastic 45g drum on it's side but I changed this out last year for half a wheelie bin, this made it much easier to mesh the top with bee keepers mesh which is heavy grade to handle the weight of the water.
Heavy rain washed my intake out a few years back so depending on your flow you may find your dam get's a kicking.
If you can stretch the budget get yourself a Midnite classic charge controller, they can handle high voltage and will keep your battery in great condition. These controllers will spin the turbine up when you have more power than you need so no need for a dump load or you can divert the power through the controller to something like hot water. I've use all kinds of controllers on sun wind and hydro and will never use anything else now. just plug it in set it up and leave if be.
If your not wanting that much power try using only one jet it would be interesting to see what one can do on it's own.
Nice to see it all coming together, Nothing like splashing about in the burn making your own power. I look forward to your next video.
Have fun 👍😃
Thanks! I have already removed the mesh as I think it was still limiting the intake flow and I am going to wait for the first blockage to try to fix that one and I am expecting it not to be too long before that happens. I have a sunsynk inverter waiting for me to assemble it and it's supposed to handle the hydro internally but I had the midnite on my shopping list if the inverter doesn't work as it's advertised. Its good to hear from someone further down the line than me so I know what sort of issues I might come up agains thanks for the heads up.
use two or three road cones with a frame with anti-mosquito net on the square part of the base;
you have a smooth flow start with little turbulence and easy to clean by changing the grate
slime does not cause problems as they are smaller than the injector hole, while pine needles are problematic because the resin makes them stick to the jet outlet and to the internal protuberances of the fittings or valves
we have very fine, rigid tubular grass in the hills that clogs the grate
Also pay attention to plants that have small seeds or worms that end up in the injector
I hadn't thought about worms or bugs. I will be keeping an eye on it over the summer season to see if the clogging problems change
Excellent work, a tip, don't use mosquito screens like this on the suction tube, create a system called (coanda screen) you will have fewer problems with clogging and consequently less maintenance.
Thanks, I did find it clogged really quickly so removed it
@offgridscotland another detail, I saw that the static water column is very high, but the hydraulic losses are very large, when you open the nozzles the pressure drops drastically.
If you tell me exactly how many liters per second during the rainy season and dry season and the total distance, I can calculate the ideal piping if you want to add more efficiency to the system in the future.
Another tip is to avoid 90-degree connections and always use 45-degree connections to avoid hydraulic losses.
Another thing, be very careful with the turbine rotating at no load as it could burn your charge controller, as the voltage doubles at no load.
There are off grid inverters that support high voltage at its MPPT input, in a future upgrade you can use these inverters.
I did a reverse engineering on your system and it appears that it has a flow rate of 2 liters per second, the 75mm (3") piping would be ideal to have more power with less losses. Or you can install a second piping 50mm (2"). Each pipe being connected to its nozzle, only the capture that can be shared, this way you will get more power as the losses will be lower, now the biggest investment I can recommend is one more pipe, like I have in my system, two 3" pipes for a flow of 3.6 liters, each delivering up to 1500wh.
Thanks I am pondering the upgrades at the moment. I am thinking of taking the two inlets to a single collection chamber and running a single 90mm pipe down to the turbine to increase the power. Our new inverter we just got czcams.com/video/Dp9HolZG724/video.html increased the watts to 750 as we can manually set the volt amp relationship so I am happy with that but the nozzles are now clogging so that's the next thing to work on.@@energiap2p
excellent thank you for working on this. I mentioned in your other comment that I am hoping to combine both of my two pipes in a collection chamber and then one 90mm pipe to the turbine as soon as we have the cash to get the pipe@@energiap2p
Yes, the air standpipe (what you call the air vent) needs to be close to the water inlet. Mine is within 2m below the inlet, that is less than 2m of head below the inlet, so I have a 2m high vertical air standpipe open to atmosphere as a vent. These air stands are necessary if the water is agitated at the inlet, because tiny air bobbles are in the water. The other problem I see you have is the type of water screen (filter) you have. I made a cheap coander screen. Ideally you could make or buy a stainless steel coander screen. These are self-cleaning screens with the slots running in line with the water flow. Finally, you say you are producing too much power?? No such thing. You just need a MPPT charge controller it is able to use only the power necessary to run your electrical load and charge your batteries. If over RPM is what you are worrying about, you may require a dump load, but check first, I have seen people waste a lot of time and money with dump loads that are unnecessary.
Sound like you know what you are talking about and have been through it yourself. We have run it to a small battery pack and it can't go above 150V which seems to be a minimum output on this turbine. Our next video is our proper inverter setup so we can run the hydro properly
It’s great to see you living your dream and building all your self sustainable things I assume these are experimental at moment and once you develop the items you’ll then properly design and build them in for example you’ll need to consider frost protection to prevent damage to the pipes and freezing and some sort of proper filtration system what you need is proper design and build once you’re finished the experiments to ensure a reliable and relatively maintenance free system otherwise you’ll just end up a busy fool. If you don’t have the professional knowledge and understanding I would seek advice so that whatever your create and install is robust and reliable and won’t be affected by the weather. Great to see you having a go though and I’m sure like anything in life it’s a bit of trial and error along the way to eventually get everything working properly and efficiently well done this far look forward to seeing the final results
Hi David, Exactly everything at the moment is a bit of an experiment and I am expecting many versions in the future as we work through the problems which is half of the enjoyment for me. As we will be building our house in the next few years I wanted to get the systems trialed before we make anything permanent to avoid any large investments in something that needs to be refined
@@offgridscotlandyes that’s very sensible like you say the experimenting is part of the fun nothing better when you refine things and get it working properly and efficiently very rewarding I’m sure you’ll get everything perfect I’m 16 years into my project and still many years left to get things the way I want it and maintenance of the land is a life long project. Wish you well with your project I’m sure you’ll have great times on your land and building your house well done.
Thank you very much@@davidbryson4596
You can check AC voltage at the turbine, and it's a well-known and easy calculation to get to a rectified DC voltage- that way you don't need to walk a mile to adjust the nozzles and check the voltage. Once you hook it to a proper MPPT it might be less of an issue.
Thats a much better idea. Just have to remember to take my multimeter with me. We will be fitting our proper inverter over the next week so I am hoping things will be easier once we do
@@offgridscotlandYou could also fit your rectifier at the generator end and fit a small panel meter to read the DC directly in the turbine box, along with your water pressures etc.
You’ll want your be very careful using those ball valves. Pretty sure I heard water hammer around 13:30. Very slow is the key. Full port gate valves are usually recommended to keep you from closing the valve too quickly. You’ll eventually learn all the quirks of your system and it’ll be second nature. Looking good!
Thanks I had to google what water hammer was as I am new to most of this so I will be more careful opening the valve now I know what it is
@@offgridscotland if your hoses are made well, close a pipe with a ball valve, from a huge backpressure that returns to the inlet filter and someone uses it to clean the impurities in the retina. then use expanded polyurethane to block the stones and prevent leaks at the source
PUR works well in contact with water
you can also use two or three orange construction road cones, as water intakes at the source... better a cone than suddenly a cylinder as you did and maybe you have turbulence that sucks in air
good work
Thanks!@@udos46
Holy Cow! 1/2 a KW for £1500, let me just calculate a rough payback time for that.
Assuming that half of the electricity is actually produced when it is needed / can be stored for 16 hours while people are awake = 250W for 16hours. So 4KWH of useful power per day (similar to my average home consumption), @ 30p/unit is £1.2 per day.
Payback is about 3.5 to 4 years. Assuming that the system lasts 8 years between complete overhauls that is about half price electricity. If you need a big battery bank to power the occasional washing machine etc then the batteries will probably last a year (365 cycles for lead acid is a fair estimate) so that'll worsen the return on investment somewhat, but not terminally.
Thanks! I am really happy with it especially as it puts out 750 watts now
I do love this channel, Wondering instead of trying to seal around base of generator, make the hole in floor slightly wider than generator fasten some brackets underneath the base of floor drop generator down the thickness of floor on to brackets so the water is dump straight outside eliminating leak inside. Can you put a pressure realise valve into a tee piece in pipes to protect from too high a pressure or into your manifold when you make it. Your face at 400watts was like mine when I found a peak of solder shorting my XS 650 Yamahas ignition after month of head scratching. Regards Mick
that would be so hard to work through your XS 650 problem. How would you ever get to the solution without a lot of luck! The container is temporary as the turbine makes a lot of noise so I am planning an earth bag shed to keep the noise in so will work on the upgrades then, good suggestion on making the hole bigger though
I was at a junction a car hit me at the side of bike knocking me over, no damage to me or bike, the old was chap really upset, took ages to calm him down but the bike stopped missing pulled into layby cup of tea had think then leaned bike over opposite way shook it and started missing. sat awhile took point cover off end of cam shaft could see sparks behind camshaft with it getting dark. A bit of side ways movement about 1mm on cam brought it near to a peak of solder on boyer electronic circuit board just enough for a intermittent short. Always a upside in life or accidents if you look for them. Just stay positive. Brilliant show Thanks for including all of us in this part of your Life.👍👍👍
Absolutely brilliant....
Do you have mobile signal? I've got an old mobile with a cheapie SIM that I leave on tether that my EcoFlow units connect to. It means I can use the app to monitor my units remotely.
Do you have a link to the turbine?
Yes we have mobile signal here, thats a great idea because we are only able to see whats going on when we are within our wifi range. Would be really good for starting the generator remotely as well.
here is the link to the turbine but they also do a lower voltage version which I think would be better for the eco flow one as I go over the voltage pretty quick www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204150087055
SW3L-LB DN25 G1 Sensore di flusso LoRaWAN 868 MHz can be understood, the micro turbine charges the battery for .. clean filter
Thanks!
the adjustable double plug has two protuberances to be able to thread and place a pressure gauge, without creating turbulence as you have currently done
Just re-read the comment and realised you meant the nozzles have bits to screw the pressure gauges to. Thanks for pointing it out
Hey Rob, I hope my comments throw some inspiration/motivation your way. According to my calc on your specs, I estimate the potential capability of your hydro system to be around 1300 watts at 50% efficiency. Get the correct controller sorted and lets see it fly !! (it's the head that makes the big difference...)
Thanks! I am getting 750 watts at the moment with the new controller (video coming out on Friday) and I think its the pipe diameter holding us back with the friction loss.
Hi I’m trying to do the same setup at home are you just running the turbine to a bridge rectifier and then straight into EcoFlow ?
Hi, yes exactly that. I have filmed a video specifically on how we work it with the eco flow that will be coming out at the end of the week
Great video, why don't you get a couple of cheap door bell / WiFi cameras cameras and place them Infront of of you displays so you can check the output from the hydro or anywhere
Thanks. I have actually been looking into exactly that so hopefully in a future video we will look and see how they perform
@@offgridscotland Looking forward to it😁
If don’t make mistakes you’re not learning keep up the good work 🇳🇿
Thanks! Thats a frame of mind I try to keep to as it ensures we grow
A few queries please. Turbine make? I think you said off ebay? What flow do you have? Did you need an abstraction licence? Thanks
We are dealing with the licence with the council at the moment but it is a very small stream that runs within our propery and we are returning it to the same stream before it gets to the river. Its Turbine-www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204150087055 this one made by motenergy. available flow is much higher than we use, there is 5 litres ps per input and I don't think we are using more than 1 lps per nozzle
hey Rob what happens to your water supply when it reduces during the summer will it affect your supply? have you considered a bore hole ?i cant remember if you mentioned it before ,it is expensive to have done ,happy new year xx
Hi Eileen, I am planning on turning the hydro power off during the summer as the water flow will slow down drastically in the streams, there should be enough for our drinking water though. The good thing is that the solar is much better when it's dry so the solar panels should pick up the slack. Happy new year to you too
Hi if you water drops of for drinking have you thought of a Ram Pump ticking away in background filling your tubs, work on water pressure no electric.
I had definitely considered a ram pump as they look really cool, I have found I am not using very much of the water flow at the moment so we don't have the problem but I am keeping ram pumps in mind for if that problem arrises@@michaelmason5459
Progress is progress! Keep it up mate! Which turbine have you chose? 1211 or 1603.
I’m thinking about the same set up, but I’ll bite the bullet and get a Coanda screen since I hear most problems start there.
My penstock is only 32mm (1”), but about 350m of downhill, so I hope will be enough head pressure to split the pipe at the bottom, to send water to two nozzles as you have it as well.
Cheers and best of luck!
Thanks, its the 1603 as I wanted to keep the amps a little lower for cable sizes etc
@@offgridscotland Thanks for getting back to me!
No worries@@adrianprelipceanu9546
Try thread sealant paste instead of tape. It’s a little messier but you’ll never go back to tape.
You have good timing I am having a nightmare with ptfe today and am looking for an alternative
Armerflex tape will cure your leaks on the base .
Amazing I will have a look for some
you are getting good power from that and i bet its got even more if you modify the inefficiencies out of it! take a look at kris harbours hydro system and do an intake box like his.
Thanks it was Kris that inspired me years ago when I watched his video. We are getting 650watts at the minute after some tweaking of nozzle settings etc so really happy with the results
Is that Scotland its beautiful
Thank you yes we are in the highlands of Scotland and loving it
Maybe 1 bigger pipe would work better than 2. The smaller the pipe the more friction from the pipe walls
I agree, on the next version I am planning to run a 90mm pipe from a collection tank fed from both streams
I would recommend adding a softer bend to the cable out of the isolator as it looks like it is being bent quite hard also a coander screen intake is best they are easy to make as I have 3d printed several
Thanks yes it is too tight, I had rigged it up quickly for testing but will be moving it to a new location when we fit the proper inverter
I haven't got a 3d printer yet but its on my list as its going to be so useful here
I would recommend an ender 3 if you are to get one very affordable and good but small print area.@@offgridscotland
Thanks I will have a look into them @@UKsystems
I think your attachment is terrible. If you want to make a good connection, you need some upgrades to the quality of that seal. It's an easy fix. Some aluminum square tubing wrapped in rubber in a square will fit that recess to the housing. Placing it flat against the wood like you have it now is never going to seal with your current setup. Hope you get inspired. I can see some potential.
Thanks for the suggestion. It works for now which is all I was really after. The turbine is really loud so I will be remaking the whole housing soon and will make a better method of fixing the turbine down. I was thinking of something similar to what you have said. Good spot
@@offgridscotland I am going to watch some more videos. Good luck with your upgrades. I hope to visit Scotland soon. Retiring soon.
@@offgridscotland Oh, and if you get it nice and sealed, then you can work in some soundproofing. It def needs that. Awesome stuff.
Thanks you will love it if you do move here@@matthew3136
yea we can hear it all the way up at the barn especially when its really going for it@@matthew3136