My DIY Project

[Bill Garrison]

I have a great creek along my property line and want to build a microhydro system to power my house and shop. My idea is simple. I have two gas generators, a 30 amp and a 50 amp. They both already have all of the electronics built in right because once you start them you just plug in your RV power cord or extension cords into the power panel on the the generator and boom you have electricity. I believe if I remove the gas motors and gas cans, then I can throw a pelton wheel or large water wheel on the generator shaft, bring sufficient water to turn the wheel and boom I have electricity. What am I missing? Or will this work as long as I have enough water pressure to turn the wheel? I am excited to hear responses from anyone with a good understanding of this scenario.

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Bill,

Welcome to the forum!
I've moved your message to its own thread. The "Free Energy" title is misleading (mostly people posting with schemes that never work) and wouldn't get you what you're looking for.

So, to your project, the short answer is "yes" that can work. The longer answer is that the generators on gas generators are high-RPM, and you would need quite the transmission to convert the low RPM from a Pelton wheel to something the generator can use. Gas generators are also made for constant RPM (a governor keeps the RPM in check), that wouldn't happen with a Pelton wheel.

There have been others that made Pelton wheels and put alternators on them. The cases I know used permanent magnet alternators that deliver 3-phase with varying Voltage and frequency, that's rectified and piped into an MPPT inverter programmed with a power curve to load up the Pelton wheel just right. If you're spending all that time building a Pelton wheel that would be the better way to go about it.

Still, if you have the parts ready and want to try if/how it works it would be a nice project to hook up the alternator from a gas generator to a Pelton wheel and see how far you get. I'd be interested in the results!

-RoB-