Handmade Hydro Homestead.pdf

Roseanne Olson’s diesel

generator died. Faced

with an expensive repair,

Matt figured this was as

good a time as any to build

the hydroplant which he’d

been collecting parts for

over the past four years.

With the help of his good

neighbor and friend, Rod

Ward, he set to work

building a temporary fix for

his generator problems.

Eighteen years later, that

“temporary” fix is still

producing clean,

renewable electricity. The

old diesel plant has long

since been traded for

spare parts.

Above: A thirteen foot diameter overshot hydro wheel makes

2,000 watts of electric power. Photo by Richard Perez

Location is Everything

Matt and Rosie live at the confluence

of Methodist Creek and the Salmon

River in Northern California. Their

homesite lies in the western part of

the Klamath National Forest. This

river corridor is still very scenic and

colorful, despite placer mining before

and during the 1930s, the ravages of

two major fires, and extensive road

building and timber cutting by the

Forest Service over the past 30

years. The beauty of the Salmon

River Country is due in no small part

to reclamation by folks like the

Olsons and small-scale miners along

the river who have adopted an

attitude of stewardship and living with

the land rather than from it.

Handmade

Hydro Homestead

This country is a dandy place for low-

impact microhydro because of the

many creeks and springs which feed

the Salmon River. The nearest

electric utility lines are 23 miles away

Bob-O Schultze

Home Power #37 • October / November 1993

I n 1975, Matt and

through one of the steepest, most

picturesque river canyons in

California. Even if the locals wanted

utility power — which they don’t —

and even if the utility was willing to

provide it — which they aren’t — the

cost and visual impact to the area

would be prohibitive. So it’s a case of

using what Mother Nature provides

on-site and learning to live on her

terms. Not a bad philosophy for all of

us.

It’s the Water

It takes a fair amount of water to run

an overshot wheel. Matt & Rosie’s

hydro and irrigation water comes

from a recycled mining ditch which

flows along the back edge of their

property. A weir, that is, an adjustable

gate, at the intake from Methodist

Creek determines the flow into the

main ditch which feeds the ram

pump, flood irrigation check ditches,

and, finally, the overshot wheel itself.

This weir restriction serves two

functions. First, it keeps out the

anadromous fish which use Methodist

Creek as a spawning ground. The

existence of large redds, or spawning

beds, at and above the intake attest

to its low impact. Second, the weir

limits the flow of water into the ditch

during high water periods which

would cause erosion of the ditch

banks and overspeeding of the

wheel.

All along the ditch, trees, bushes, and

a giant thicket of blackberry vines

drink their share of the water. How

much do they take? “About 500

watts/hour worth during a hot

summer’s afternoon,” according to

Matt who can watch the power drop

as the temperature climbs. “The

plants, grass, and especially Rosie’s

flower garden come first where the

water is concerned,” said Matt. “In

low water years we may have to shut

the wheel down for up to three

months because they get priority.”

After the water leaves the wheel, it

flows down through an overgrown

mining tailrace and into the Salmon

River, none the worse for wear.

Above: Bob-O Schultze (left) and Matt Olson (right) examine the power

transmission for the hydro. Photo by Richard Perez

Recycle, Reuse, Rebuild

Nearly every part of Matt & Rosie’s hydroplant has been reincarnated

after dying as something else. The hub and main shaft of the 13 foot

diameter overshot were part of a 24 inch Pelton wheel with the cups

removed. The one inch steel rods radiating from the hub came from a

scrap metal pile. The floor of the buckets and the 18 inch x 12 inch deep

buckets themselves were painstakingly cut from an old dump truck body

and individually welded into place. Most of the pulleys, sprockets, and

jack shafts for the speed multiplier gear train were bartered or

scrounged from deceased mining and farming machinery. About the

only things purchased new were the bearings for the main and jack

Home Power #37 • October / November 1993

Hydro

shafts and the V belts. In 1975, those items cost

approximately $250. To replace them all at today’s

prices would run about $550.

The wheel uses one cubic foot per second (cfs) of

water, and turns at 12 rpm while under load. Through a

system of jack shafts that would do Rube Goldberg

proud, the speed is increased to approximately 2000

rpm. Maintenance consists of greasing all the bearings

weekly and knocking some of the ice build-up off the

wheel during the coldest part of the winter.

The 1800 rpm 2.6 kiloWatt Kurz-Root ac generator

came out of a 1940s military portable GenSet. Matt

replaces the brushes about twice yearly and trues the

commutator and slip rings every couple of years. He

tells a great story about filling a missing commutator

insulator with JB Weld™, which turns out to be

nonconductive, and turning it down on a lathe. “That

was over a year ago, and the dang thing still runs

great.”

Living with an ac Hydroplant

There are no batteries, inverter, or controls that we

normally associate with a stand-alone renewable

energy system. It’s rolling thunder and you have to use

what you produce — one way or another. Increasing

the wattage loading past the generator’s output will

cause low voltage brownouts and lower than 60 Hz

power frequency. Decreasing the load on the generator

will cause the wheel to spin faster, subjecting all the

appliances and lights to a high voltage and frequency

condition.

The Hydroplant

The total head of the Olsons’ hydro system is about 14

feet. This includes the pitch on the wooden chute which

acts as a nozzle and the 13 foot diameter wheel itself.

At full output, the Olsons’ hydro system produces 2,500

watts (2.5 kiloWatts) of 120 volt, 60 Hz ac power. This

hydro produces a whooping 40 kiloWatt-hours daily.

2000

rpm) at the electric generator. The wheel is coupled to the uppermost shaft in the photo. Here a chain drive is used

to transfer the power to the next shaft at a higher speed. In all, four shafts are used to speed up the water wheel’s

power output by about 160 times for electric power generation. Photo by Richard Perez

Home Power #37 • October / November 1993

Below: The power transmission increases the low speed (12 rpm) of the overshot water wheel to high speed (

Hydro

the physic

The water falls and as it falls it does what

physicists call work because its mass is

accelerated by the pull of gravity. The overshot

water wheel converts the energy of the water’s

falling mass into mechanical power at the wheel’s

axle. The amount of power available for conversion

depends on two factors: the amount of water per

second flowing over the wheel, and the vertical

distance that the water falls. Here’s the equation.

P = W h

0.7376

Above: Matt and Rosie’s hydro powered homestead.

Not only does falling water provide the electricity, but it

also drives a ram pump to pump water for the house

and gardens. Note the lights burning in the living room

during the middle of the day. This is a typical practice in

120 vac 60 cycle hydro systems.

where:

P = the available power in watts

Below: The flume delivers about one cubic foot of water

to the wheel every second. Photos by Richard Perez

W = the weight (in pounds) of water flowing

over the wheel per second. A gallon of

water weighs about eight pounds. A cubic

foot of water weighs about 64 pounds.

h = the distance (in feet) that the water falls.

Most overshot wheels only capture the

water for 120° of their rotation. With 120°

rotation, h is equal to 1.5 times the wheel’s

radius.

The 0.7376 is a fudge factor to make the Power

unit come out as watts rather than foot-pounds per

second.

From the equation, two facts are obvious to every

hydromaniac — the more water flowing over the

wheel per second the better, and the longer

distance that the water falls the better. These two

factors, flow and head, determine the power

potential of all hydros regardless of type.

Home Power #37 • October / November 1993

G ravity powers the overshot water wheel.

Hydro

night are common. Matt and Rosie power lighting, a

satellite TV system with color TV, Matt’s machine shop

full of power tools, and a slew of kitchen appliances.

Cooking and water heating is fueled by propane.

Using Water to get Water

Rather than using electricity to run a pump for the

house water, Matt and Rosie use a 40 year old Rife™

ram pump. The Rife is fed through a 2 inch diameter

pipeline dropping about 20 feet from the ditch into

another ancient mining tailrace. They’ve been using the

Rife continuously for the past 24 years!

The ram pumps against a large pressure tank which

also feeds a couple of sprinklers for the lawn during the

summer and an open overflow line in winter. Matt

figures that the Rife produces about 10–15 gpm. By

keeping track of the amount of water being used

continually, they can maintain about 25–30 psi of

pressure in the tank. Plenty for most household uses.

Above: Matt Olson.

Matt has modified the captive air tank on the ram pump

by adding a couple of small petcocks. These valves

make the weekly chore of draining the water and re-

establishing the air “cushion” in the pump just a five

minute job. The only other maintenance Matt has

performed during the ram pump’s 24 year tenure is

Matt and Rosie use the simplest form of manual load

management. They leave the lights on. Rosie jokingly

says, “I’ve had friends who don’t know about the

system come to the house and tell us ‘That must have

been a hell of a party last night for you to go to bed and

leave all the lights on!’ ” They also keep an eagle eye

on the voltage and frequency meters mounted in the

kitchen between the sink and the refrigerator. “We just

always glance at it as we go by, it’s not even something

we think about anymore,” according to Rosie. What

better place for metering than the highest traffic area in

the house? It’s a great place to install the system

instrumentation in any RE powered home.

Below: Rosie Olson visits in her beautiful garden.

This kind of load management would be very difficult —

even dangerous — with a high rpm impulse wheel

system like a Pelton, but the overshot wheel turns at

only 12 rpm. Consequently, it takes a while to change

the rpm of the generator, and hence change the voltage

and frequency, one way or the other. Time enough to

turn an appliance on and some lights off without a mad

dash for the switch.

Hydro-power Appliances

Matt and Rosie’s system powers all the electrical

appliances they need. Like most folks powered by

hydro, they were vague about their power consumption.

When your concern is keeping the hydro’s constant

power output under control, things like lights burning all

Home Power #37 • October / November 1993

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