Don't we all wish we had this on our property

[John in CR]

A new friend who want my help building a high powered ebike is also working on a hydroelectric project on his dairy farm that has an electric bill of over $1000/mo. It's up in the mountains at 4,000m of elevation and he has a small river with year-round flow and a whopping 200m of head . Even with just a 3" pipe he can produce an incredible amount of electricity at the 400gpm rate he is planning. (edited from original gph flow rate)

Hopefully he can negotiate a grid tie arrangement where he gets paid for the excess he generates.

[john61ct]

very nice!

no spawning fish to accommodate?

[Hillhater]

ES member “craneplaneguy” has reported on his “mini hydro” system for several years. Avery nice to have facility.
Another member ( ? Aussie ? Forget name) has also reported on his DIY mini hydro working with limited head, but continuously outputting 1+kw to a large Pb bank, and also to a experimental “pumped hydro” tank system for storage.
Ideal if you have the land , water, and terrain to enable such a system.

[John in CR]

very nice!

no spawning fish to accommodate?

He does have some trout ponds fed with a continuous flow from the river, but no migratory fish to worry about.

[999zip999]

What voltage ?

[JackFlorey]

A new friend who want my help building a high powered ebike is also working on a hydroelectric project on his dairy farm that has an electric bill of over $1000/mo. It's up in the mountains at 4,000m of elevation and he has a small river with year-round flow and a whopping 200m of head . Even with just a 3" pipe he can produce an incredible amount of electricity at the 400gal/hr rate he is planning.

He should be able to get about 2kW continuous, or about 1300kwhr/month. That should offset about $130 a month at 10 cents/kwhr.

[JackFlorey]

What voltage ?

Systems like this often use "wild AC" from generator to rectifier - voltage/frequency determined by RPM and regulated by a MPPT controller.

[John in CR]

A new friend who want my help building a high powered ebike is also working on a hydroelectric project on his dairy farm that has an electric bill of over $1000/mo. It's up in the mountains at 4,000m of elevation and he has a small river with year-round flow and a whopping 200m of head . Even with just a 3" pipe he can produce an incredible amount of electricity at the 400gal/hr rate he is planning.

He should be able to get about 2kW continuous, or about 1300kwhr/month. That should offset about $130 a month at 10 cents/kwhr.

It's been a while since I did the research to confirm his estimate of 6kw continuous as a fairly conservative estimate, but it was more than enough to offset the $1k/mo electric bill for his dairy farm. Note that our 98% green electricity is nationalized, and despite being primarily hydro power, our cost per kwh is almost double your 10 cents. Too bad there's such corruption, because I have pleasant dreams of 2 cents/kwh in the areas supplied by hydro in parts of Canada. If I live long enough to see real global warming, maybe I'll head north to Canada, which would become the new farm belt of the west.

[JackFlorey]

It's been a while since I did the research to confirm his estimate of 6kw continuous as a fairly conservative estimate, but it was more than enough to offset the $1k/mo electric bill for his dairy farm. Note that our 98% green electricity is nationalized, and despite being primarily hydro power, our cost per kwh is almost double your 10 cents.

Hmm. 400 gal/hr is .42 liters per second. Are you sure that's right? That's a pretty small amount of water to run a hydro system with.

[John in CR]

It's been a while since I did the research to confirm his estimate of 6kw continuous as a fairly conservative estimate, but it was more than enough to offset the $1k/mo electric bill for his dairy farm. Note that our 98% green electricity is nationalized, and despite being primarily hydro power, our cost per kwh is almost double your 10 cents.

Hmm. 400 gal/hr is .42 liters per second. Are you sure that's right? That's a pretty small amount of water to run a hydro system with.

Ah, now I see where I went wrong on the original post. It's 400gpm not per hour. His river and waterfall have real flow, and then we both discounted each thing quite a lot to prove his desired 6kw seemed quite reasonable.

[JackFlorey]

Ah, now I see where I went wrong on the original post. It's 400gpm not per hour. His river and waterfall have real flow, and they we both discounted each thing quite a lot to prove his desired 6kw seemed quite reasonable.

Oh, OK! Definitely agree then.

[mu0]

Genuinely, this is the dream.

Can I ask what country your friend's farm is in?

[markz]

Costa Rica aka "CR" in John in CR is my guess.

Yes, the dream is to own land and to live off the land. However I am not the person to live out in the sticks, I would need to live near a big city even if its out in the country, say 20-40 minute drive to the big city lights. I'd be hesitant to live in a city of a population less then 50 or 75k. But maybe the slow stroll, what I like to call the spanish walk, would be better. Beach would be a must!

Genuinely, this is the dream.

Can I ask what country your friend's farm is in?

[DogDipstick]

Mennonites are building a wheel at the CNC Metal shop we contract. They are good with their plasma cutters, that is for sure.

Lol.....its 25 feet in diameter and gonna do ~20-30RPM on about 1100-1350 Ftlbs of Tq.


Lol at your math, John in CR.

I was very interested, and love these equations. I remember when you post this.

400 GPM yes... 200m head.. 3" pipe...

(Aside : Us or Imperial GPM? Lets assume US;)

200m = 656.168 (Ft)


444.83 GPM = 1 cuFt/Sec

Density is 62.5lbs/Cuft

Pressure available is Head (x) Density of fluid =41,000 Lbs force / square foot

41,000 Lbs force / square foot (x) .89 Cubic foot / sec = (Theoretical work energy available... )


=36,500 Ftlbs / sec.

550 Ftlbs/sec = 1 hp

66.36 horsepower availability that theoretical pipe.

6Kw should not be a problem. lol.

( negating efficiency and whatnot Expect 70-90% with the losses in the pipe ad whaddabing waddabang) )


400USGPM @ 658Ft of head = 50 Theoretical Kw. Realistically ~35Kw NET.

[Logic11]

A new friend who want my help building a high powered ebike is also working on a hydroelectric project on his dairy farm that has an electric bill of over $1000/mo. It's up in the mountains at 4,000m of elevation and he has a small river with year-round flow and a whopping 200m of head . Even with just a 3" pipe he can produce an incredible amount of electricity at the 400gpm rate he is planning. (edited from original gph flow rate)

Hopefully he can negotiate a grid tie arrangement where he gets paid for the excess he generates.

Necroing this as there's more power here than you and your friend have thought of:
Poo Power!
or Anaerobic Digestion
Basically you wash all the cow etc poo and other biodegradables into a low pressure airtight tank and let it ferment methane.

Pipe the methane to a diesel genset's air intake and the fuel regulator will auto reduce the diesel used down to just about nothing.
The fermented poop is good for crops/grassland without the stink etc.

Engines turn about 30% of the burning fuel into shaft power.
30% ends up in the water cooling system and 30% goes out the exhaust.
With heat exchangers in the coolant and exhaust you end up with free hot water/air.
(EGR heat exchangers can be recycled to catch the exhaust heat)

Now the ICE is running on a gas that's way more greenhouse than CO2, producing power and heat at an efficiency of..? 60-70%?
More efficient than any turbine the power company is using and you're actually greening things with the ICE..!

[Hillhater]

More efficient than any turbine the power company is using .......

Look up “CCHP” installations in buildings.....and CCGT utility generators.