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Off Grid Miner
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 04:08pm
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Hi there. I do mining in a remote wilderness area. I have a camp where I have a travel trailer, work shed, water storage tanks, satellite internet and t.v. Currently I run everything with gas generators and two batteries in the travel trailer.
This is my third season mining and I would like to get away from using the generators if possible and either go with hydro power from the creek that flows through my camp or with solar panels. I have a water use permit for the creek already in place under my mining permit so using the water for a hydro generator is allowed under my current permit.
I have been doing some reading on using alternate power sources and have seen from most of the videos and descriptions of these systems mention using a charge controller, battery bank, and an inverter with the power sources ie solar or hydro.
In my travel trailer where I use most of the power I have some items on DC battery power like some of the lights, the propane furnace fan, the fridge light etc, and then the rest of the electric outlets in the trailer are 110 volt and are wired to the convertor that is wired to shore power plug that can be hooked to a generator for a power source.
I understand that if I go with solar power I will have to wire the panels to a charge controller then to the battery bank, then to the inverter because I will need to have some stored power for when the solar panels aren't collecting energy in the dark time periods.
But if I go with an AC current micro hydro power source I will be able to be collecting energy 24 hrs a day so I am wondering if I can avoid having to charge a battery bank and just wire the hydro turbine generator straight to a breaker panel in my trailer? And since they make the hydro generators in AC then does that mean I can avoid the need of an inverter too if I go straight to a controller and breaker panel? If the creek has enough water flow to support a 30 amp generator then that would be enough for my camps electrical power needs. If that is possible does that mean I would have to still have the hydro generator wired to a controller, then to the electrical breaker panel? If so does the system still have to dump extra power if I'm not using the full 30 amps it's producing? If so, does the controller take care of dumping that extra power into a heat ballast, or something like that, or can I create an extra power dump that will go to a water tank heater or something like that? Just trying to figure out the most straight forward way of hooking it up. If I can use the AC 30 amp hydro power 24 hrs a day and avoid the battery bank and inverter that would save me a bunch of money. If something happens to the hydro power I will still have my generator as back up.
Sorry if I'm not making sense. This is all very new to me so I'm not quite getting how this works with getting the power straight to a breaker panel and having to deal with the extra power that is created from the hydro generator that is not being used up.
Am I understanding things correctly that when we use on the grid power in our homes from the utility company any extra power we don't use goes back to the grid somehow? If so, is that what I also have to do with the power coming from the hydro generator by dumping the extra power somewhere?
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 05:29pm
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I dont think it can do heavy charging unless its a real waterfall. But something that can constantly be trickle charging to offset loads, maybe up to 10 amps or so??? This would be great as it would charge all night and day long too, and the day, the solar can come online to assist. Reduce generator run time quite a bit depending on loads.
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tkanscholl
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 08:17pm
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Actually off grid miner a micro hydro system doesnt work that way. If the turbine isnt underload it can overspool and damage it. Most people use a charge controller with a diversion load built in.
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Off Grid Miner
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 08:39pm
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech I dont think it can do heavy charging unless its a real waterfall. But something that can constantly be trickle charging to offset loads, maybe up to 10 amps or so??? This would be great as it would charge all night and day long too, and the day, the solar can come online to assist. Reduce generator run time quite a bit depending on loads.
Absolutely hydro turbine generators can create massive amounts of power. There's all kinds of sizes available now days too. No need for a water fall at all. There is a math formula to calculate the GPM and head (fall) of the water. That measurement will dictate how the inlet tubes have to be set up for the size of turbine generator to be used.
Quoting: tkanscholl Actually off grid miner a micro hydro system doesnt work that way. If the turbine isnt underload it can overspool and damage it. Most people use a charge controller with a diversion load built in.
So with a controller and a power dump diversion does that mean an inverter and battery bank is not needed as long as the generator is creating AC power, not DC? Or would I still need a pure sign wave inverter to get the current to be constant and not variable?
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 08:44pm
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Quoting: Off Grid Miner Absolutely hydro turbine generators can create massive amounts of power
Ok, I guess you better elaborate on your creek. I'm thinking of a little babbling brook with slow flow. But if its massive water, steep drops, certainly capable.
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Off Grid Miner
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 08:53pm
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech Ok, I guess you better elaborate on your creek. I'm thinking of a little babbling brook with slow flow. But if its massive water, steep drops, certainly capable.
On Youtube do a search for "micro hydro generator" and you will see a lot of videos of people using all kinds of different size turbine generators all over the world. From small ditch creeks to bigger rivers. Just depends on what you wanna do and how you set up the intake pipes. Sometimes it's necessary to make the run of intake pipe very long to create enough flow and pressure and head. Then the larger pipes are reduced to smaller pipes before hitting the turbine to create more PSI.
This video shows one of the units I am thinking of getting. The manufacturer makes custom ones whatever size you want and tells the customer how to figure out what head and GPM the water source can supply then can figure out the correct size turbine for the application you want. It's also possible to do multiple inlets to get more speed to the turbine. URL
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tkanscholl
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2017 11:08pm
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What I have seen is that most micrometer systems produce a.c. power that is rectified into dc power like a wind turbine. A battery bank is needed but you can go smaller than you would normally with a standard offgrid system because the power source runs constantly.
I have seen some in homepower that have been wired at 110 but it takes constant load management to make these types of systems to work.
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ChuckDynasty
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# Posted: 19 Dec 2017 02:45pm - Edited by: ChuckDynasty
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Search engineer775 videos on youtube. Quite a bit regarding water.
Micro Hydro Power with Turgo generator Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njNYuEKW-ek
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ColdFlame
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# Posted: 19 Dec 2017 06:03pm
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Also search MrHydroHead on youtube. Amazing system and very well documented:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MrHydrohead
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Timoja
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# Posted: 7 Jan 2018 06:08am
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Could you specify how much water flow is available to you?
I' currently working on a micro hydro power system and I'm looking for potential use cases.
The system does not need any alterations to the stream and just uses the kinetic energy of the water.
However, the water depth should be at least 0.5 m and the flow speed greater than 0.5 m/s.
Could you maybe post a picture of the stream in order to get an idea which kind of systems could work in your case?
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