water wheel

I picked up a nice water wheel near Portland, OR. for a gentleman in S Calif. I am hauling it to the Tulare, CA. show next week for him. Dick, OR.
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Very nice find.
Will be a head turner at the show.
It is a Pelton turbine, designed for high (water) pressure (over 1500 psi).
 
Neat find, I believe that's the first one I have ever seen like that. Odd to see it going the S CA ware there about out of water it seams. Bandit
 
The blast hits the cups, which turn the wheel, thus generating power? If so, it takes a tremendous amount of power to generate 1500PSI,so why waste a step & go thru the wheel?
 
John, It doesn't take 1500psi to run a pendelton wheel. I know of several that are generating 1100 watts of power continuosly at homes that are off grid. They have a 2-3" pipe feeding them.The pipe is run up the stream bed so there is a hundred ft or so of elevation difference, where the water enters the pipeing. The weight of the water in the pipe (penstock) makes pressure or (head pressure) to run the wheel. The nozzle that feeds the wheel is very small, 1/2-3'4" diamiter. The bigger the penstock, the more head pressure, and the more electricity the hydro can generate. The ones that I have been involved with are about 12" diamiter pendelton wheel in an enclosed housing with an exaust port, and hooked directly to a 12V alternator to maintain a battery bank, and then an inverter is used to supply houseold electric. They are much better than residential wind turbines and solar PV if you have a peice of property with adaquit elevation change, and a decent flowing stream. Water runs 24/7. Wind and solar are inconsistant.
Loren
 
I built a housing for a small Pelton wheel that went to Panama to generate a little power for a couple of lights and a phone charger. My son took it to Panama to a friend that was a missionary trying to develop clean water sources for the locals.
Richard in NW SC
 
Loren: Will 100' drop in elevation to the wheel make 100PSI? Sure would like to see a picture of one hooked up & running.
 
Kev,
Your calculation is dependant upon the size of the penstalk and the gallonage stored at any given moment above the nozzle. more volume more pressure. Same difference as picking up a gal pail full of water verses a five gallon pail full.
Loren
 
The fluid pressure at a given depth does not depend upon the total mass or total volume of the liquid. The static fluid pressure is dependent on density and depth only; it is independent of total mass, weight, volume, etc. of the fluid.
 
Point well taken, but in this situation we are dealing with flowing water rather than static pressure. Bigger penstalk diamiter and more gallonage means less frictional loss, and there for more knetic energy delivered thru the nozzle, (higher volocity - more gpm) delivered to the turbine wheel.
Loren
 

Have you guys ever seen a "Water ram". They are a combination of water elevation and the length of the coloumn of water in motion. The mass of the entire length of the water in the tube moving at what ever speed is generated produces the force. (f=ma) They've used them here in Asia to pump water and they sound like a shotgun going off when the valve slams shut that moving column and forces it upward . A few feet of drop will blow a spout of water 50 to 100 feet in the air. Better to see one than try to explain it, but they work.
 
stay the course loren on your good teaching and bear with those of us who are wise enuf to ask questions ,, us quiet ones are trying to learn and not look dum ,, and gain more from your knowledge
 
Ted: Water Rams were popular here in Seneca County because of the elevation differences & creeks. Old timers told me this farm had one. I have a Goulds Pump Catalog from 1938 that offers them.
 
Ted, water rams are easy to build. Just look online for plans. For every foot of fall to the ram, you can raise water 10 feet. Some are even designed to use creek water to pump clean spring water to houses.
A little trivia. A French man man piped water to his home from a stream way above his house. When he cut the water of at the house, the pipe kept bursting. Put a tee outside the house with a pipe going up the side of the house and when he turned the valve in the house off, the water would spray way higher than the original source. That's how the ram concept was discovered.
Richard in NW SC
 

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