Slater
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 08:52 AM |
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Power from River
I have a river running past the front of my house.
 
River Urie
It's fairly fast flowing, I have often wondered how the use the river to generate power.
I came across these websites below. The concept looks perfect. I have never seen one in use though.
Has anybody done anything similar? I am sure it can't be too difficult to make one of these.
linker
linker 2
[Edited on 16/5/09 by Slater]
Why do they call Port Harcourt "The Garden City"?...... Becauase they can't spell Stramash.
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minitici
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 08:59 AM |
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May be a hazard to navigation 
I note that your river has regular boat traffic.......
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gregs
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:06 AM |
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I love the idea - my parents have a river at the end of their garden and have often thought of how much power could be pulled out but......being the
UK, I think you have to get authority from the Rivers agency before legally doing anything, which probably costs £X00000 as they will need to survey
the river 10 times from source to exit to confirm your 'fits in the back of your car' turbine won't cause non-reversible damage to
the river system 
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MikeR
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:08 AM |
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You will probably find you don't have the rights to tap the river for power or water.
Friends family own an old mill - they have the rights to tap the water in the deads. They looked at it 20 years ago but decided the cost (back then)
wasn't worth it.
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JoelP
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:13 AM |
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thats a very big water wheel, for very little power!
Would you get away with damning it, just a weir to raise it a foot or so? Then a pipe with a nozzle and a home made device to generate from.
You can buy an 850w generator for £40, and use the innards from it.
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BenB
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:17 AM |
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Certainly if you want to use water to power a water mill you have to pay for the privelage. There's probably also rules about access using the
river and if you put a turbine across it there'd be an issue....
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ReMan
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:29 AM |
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There's no way you'll be allowed to do that!
I think it would constitute Renewable energy, give off no CO2, and be environmentally friendly.
That must be illegal 
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t16turbotone
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 09:30 AM |
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200 watts is very little power......i dont think the project would be worth it......approx lighting power for three rooms in your house. Maybe if you
spent a couple of grand on li battries, and a couple of grand on dc to ac invertor, and just use the 200 watts to charge batteries
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zilspeed
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 10:01 AM |
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Mate of mine has a neighbour who wanted to do that very thing.
He got SEPA up to check it over and the bloke agreed to grant the permit at a cost of a grand or so.
Then came the killer.
You must also get a permit to discharge the water back into the river as it's now industrial waste...
That cost another £500 for the permit.
£1,500 in permits to take out some spare kinetic energy from some running water.
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richmars
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 11:02 AM |
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What about taking heat out of it?
Does it freeze in winter? Air/water heat pumps for domestic central heating are getting common, and work down to -20 deg C, so water at just above
freezing should be fine, plus you don't need to worry about discharge back into the river, just a heat exchange sunk into it.
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Mark Allanson
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| posted on 16/5/09 at 12:15 PM |
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You will just end up with a load of chopped up trout!
If you can keep you head, whilst all others around you are losing theirs, you are not fully aware of the situation
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