Mini Hydro Systems
+ Click to enlarge
This is generally the most cost effective form of power generation for a domestic "off-grid" house. If you have a running water supply on your property and you are considering running an "off-grid" system, then your first consideration should be to have the potential assessed. You may be surprised at the small flow required to supply the majority, or all of your power generation requirements.
If the supply drops during the summer period, a balanced system using photo-voltaic panels and mini-hydro can be calculated, to off-set low micro hydro out-put during these periods. This is generally the season when photo-voltaic panel out-put is at its maximum efficiency.
ecogise Mini-hydro Units
We design and manufacture our own units to suit your site.The majority of units are based on a ‘smart-drive" unit with a pelton wheel. The water intake box and micro-hydro housing are constructed from 304 stainless steel. All of the electrical connections, protective circuits and electronic controller are enclosed in a suitable electrical box.We can also custom design systems other than the pelton wheel concept to meet your power requirements.
Assessing your sites potential
A very important factor to remember is to calculate the expected out-put capacity of your creek before you spend money on a mini-hydro system. This enables you to compare costs of other forms of alternative power generation.
We have a very experienced consultant who is able to run the factors through his computer model and calculate the expected out-put for you. We base all our figures on 30% of the potential maximum out-put to avoid overstating the potential. If you gather the figures using the four factors listed below, we can do an initial test run for you to assess the potential out-put. There is no fee for this. For a reasonable fee, a full site assessment by an "ecogise" agent along with a comprehensive report and pricing, can be carried out at your request. The fee would be quoted before under taking the work and would depend on factors such as travel requirements, site accessibility and so fourth.
There are four basic factors to consider
1. The water "flow rate."
This is usually measured in litres / second and can be calculated simply by taking a ten litre bucket and diverting all of the creek flow into it while marking (with a stop watch) the time it takes to fill the bucket. You then divide 10 litres by the number of seconds it took to fill the bucket. For larger streams you would need to contact us for a system to estimate the flow.
2. The "head" of water available.
This is the vertical height of the stream (in meters) taken from the proposed water intake point, to the micro-hydro unit location. This is a critical measurement and needs to be taken by using a surveyor’s dumpy-level in stages if necessary. It is unacceptable to guess, as vertical height is very deceiving especially over longer distances. Even GPS calculations are not usually that accurate so unless you have a very high head to flow rate ratio, don’t guess. The hydro unit is usually situated at the lowest accessible area of the stream, but within reason as you want to limit the distance from it to the batteries and inverter.
3. The "run" distance.
This is the actual distance from the proposed water intake to the micro-hydro unit and is best calculated by walking the route and measuring it. Depending on the head of water and flow rate, this distance can be quite long (say 700 – 800) meters and still be acceptable. The distance may affect the pipe diameter used do reduce the restriction losses.
4. The distance from the proposed mini-hydro unit to the battery bank site.
It is best to keep this distance as short as possible even to the point of locating the battery bank, inverter and other equipment at the same location as the mini-hydro unit. There is far less cost and fewer electrical problems involved in running longer distances to the house site at 230 vac than at say 24 volts DC.
For more advise and information, please contact us at ecogise.
