A Pelton-wheel Micro-Hydro Scheme

This has been running virtually faultlessly for over 2 years now, but it's VERY small!! (Only 25 watts)

But it's very satisfying to have reading-lamps around the house, powered by my own little system which runs quietly away charging batteries during the day.

This system is powered by water from a spring on our neighbour's property. I've built a little weir on our boundary, and channeled the water in a 50mm polythene pipe down to our house, 400 metres away. The pelton wheel turbine drives a washing-machine motor to provide three-phase alternating current at about 30 volts per phase (no load).
I've rectified this current, regulated it so that it never goes above 28 volts DC, and used it to charge a bank of recycled batteries.

.....more here later....

Here's a couple of (very bad) photos to whet your appetite for the moment...


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