craneplaneguy
10 kW
I got my hydro system, deactivated and drained through the winter, back up and running yesterday. With 147' of fall/head at 90 GPM through the 3" delivery penstock, it'll produce, for the next several months until the flow drops, over 750 watts into the grid 24/7. This is in addition to my 2.5 KW wind turbine and 4 KW PV grid tie systems. The hydro uses a Outback battery based grid tied inverter, the hydro alternator is 24 vdc, the end product into the grid is a hair above 240 vac. I currently (pun intended) have a net KW credit with my utility of over 8,000. Now that winter is over it will built back up to 10,000 or so, and then through the winter months when my production falls below my consumption, I'll use some of it up. I have jokingly/somewhat seriously told people that I am showing one of my three different Ebikes to, that I HAD to find a way to use up my excess power, and this looked like a fun way to do it!
Later that day as I was riding the 1500 watt fat bike up the mountain to the ski area above my place, I realized that the snow I was going up to play on would later be in part running my pelton wheel and producing the power to.......recharge my bikes battery. At some point this summer I'll ride down to the hydro power shack and recharge directly off the inverter, as direct as I can get from falling water going downhill to pushing me uphill on the bike
Later that day as I was riding the 1500 watt fat bike up the mountain to the ski area above my place, I realized that the snow I was going up to play on would later be in part running my pelton wheel and producing the power to.......recharge my bikes battery. At some point this summer I'll ride down to the hydro power shack and recharge directly off the inverter, as direct as I can get from falling water going downhill to pushing me uphill on the bike