In a recent trip to Hoover Dam I realized how easy it would to build your own hydroelectric generator. The basic principles of a dam gave me some valuable understanding how to originate my own system. However, by no means is a dam like Hoover simple, or was it easy to construct, but some great ideas can be adapted for whatever living next to a river or stream.
First of all a dam uses a large concrete structure which holds back a river and forms a retention basin or lake. Deep below the waters outside are inlets or pipes which are redirected towards fins of the turbines. The water flows through these pipes at very high pressure which turns the galvanic producing turbines. Speed is controlled by adjusting the fins either slowing down the turbines or speeding them up, depending on the electrical quiz, at the time. This principle can be applied to a home application where you would divert the water to a dc motor with paddle wheel type fins on it. You could either make your own small dam provided you own the land or if you live on a free flowing waterway make a through way to your motor.
DC Motor Drive
One thing which is great about a hydroelectric principles you are returning the water back to the primary waterway. This is truly a good example of using an alternative source of vigor that being water. The only question I see using this type of principles would be if you had flooding, but I believe if you used some opinion about this you could originate your principles to compensate for this.
Next, let us look at what would be best for your motor and storehouse system. The only variation between a hydroelectric dam would be vigor storage. Since dams are producing ac electrical vigor by a constant rotation of a turbine the vigor is available at that time and date where if you are generating vigor using a dc permanent magnet motor at say 12 or 24 volts the you need to store that vigor in batteries and turn it to 120 volts ac.
You by all means; of course want a low rpm motor around 400 rpm for peak voltage yield at around 14-18 volts which will enable batteries to be charged. If you need to speed up the motor then it would be advisable to use some sort of pulley principles with a drive ratio equal to the water flow speed. One thing about your water drive system, it will be better regulated for a more constant speed than a wind turbine that varies with wind speed.
As you can see using the same principles of large dams on a smaller scale can be very efficient for generating your own electricity. To build your own hydroelectric generator you must do some explore before hand. You can find many dissimilar websites about dams and how they are designed. Producing your own electricity can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. Always seek expert help and succeed safety guidelines.
Steps to Build Your Own Hydroelectric Generatordc motor drive