I have a creek that runs about 30ft from our house, and it is constantly taunting me with how much energy might me there for the taking.
I am building a weir to get an average flow measurement but that will have to wait since it has been raining for days. Also trying to get a measurement of the many foot drop I have but the GPS won't work up in the trees and I have no line of sight to make it easy any other way. I might take all the various hoses and pipes around here and actually measure the pressure to find the drop.
I am currently estimating 100' drop with enough water to fill a 4" pipe about 1200' expen$ive, I meant long.
Using I nifty little calculator I found
http://www.energyalternatives.ca/Downloads/MicroHydroCalc.exe says that is about 2KW minus generator efficiency. The same calculator shows a permanent magnet gen @53% and a AC brushless @ 58%, I thought some people here have said a ST is better than that. ??
Now if I can untangle any red tape in my plan, and afford the pipe, ect ,ect. My questions are:
Will a ST head (probably a ST-3) survive orientated with the shaft vertical?
Suggestions for something better than a ST head for efficiency? Please remember this isn't a NASA funded project.
Anyone know about power buyback laws in the US? I have been looking and can't find much info. I don't want to net meter as I would end up giving them a large amount of power for free. I could "burn it off" over the winter with electric heaters if I have no other option.