Calculating Water Flow Without a Flow Meter: A Practical Approach

[OrdinaryJoe]

Hello all.
As stated I am just an ordinary Joe and I have tried to find some information about water mills to generate my own electricity and I would like to see if you guys can see if this is feasible or not :)
I have one daughter(15months) and a lovely wife(34y).
Hope that you will help me out since I am not the brightest bulb in the room haha ;)
Cheers!

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Welcome to PF!

I am not the brightest bulb in the room

We know how to increase the voltage

Post your question in the correct forum and members shall surely help you.

Regards,
Wrichik.

 

[berkeman]

I have tried to find some information about water mills to generate my own electricity

Welcome to the PF, Joe!

You've come to the right place. If your main questions are about what type of generator to pick for your given water flow, the Mechanical Engineering (ME) forum may be the best place to start a thread to ask your questions. If you know what type of generator type you want to use already, and mainly have electrical questions, the Electrical Engineering (EE) forum is probably the best place to start the thread. There are lots of important things to take into account (like MPPT power conversion, Anti-Islanding protection, etc.), so it's definitely worth discussing all of that in a thread. The more information that you can give when you start your thread (water flow rates, water head available, your background in pumps/generators/electricity, etc.), the better.

 

[OrdinaryJoe]

Welcome to the PF, Joe!

You've come to the right place. If your main questions are about what type of generator to pick for your given water flow, the Mechanical Engineering (ME) forum may be the best place to start a thread to ask your questions. If you know what type of generator type you want to use already, and mainly have electrical questions, the Electrical Engineering (EE) forum is probably the best place to start the thread. There are lots of important things to take into account (like MPPT power conversion, Anti-Islanding protection, etc.), so it's definitely worth discussing all of that in a thread. The more information that you can give when you start your thread (water flow rates, water head available, your background in pumps/generators/electricity, etc.), the better.

Wow great reply! Thank you mate for your helpful post.
You gave me a lot to think about (and study up on) even before I start asking my questions.
If I don't have a flow meter. Could I calculate the flow with just the width*depth of the channel and the speed of the stream by measuring how far a plastic duck travels during a second?
I'll go and do some recordings and measurements of the mill and canal so I can open up a thread :)

 

[OrdinaryJoe]

Welcome to PF!
We know how to increase the voltage

Post your question in the correct forum and members shall surely help you.

Regards,
Wrichik.

Are you sure that you have good enough step up transformers ;)
Thank you buddy!

 

[berkeman]

You gave me a lot to think about (and study up on) even before I start asking my questions.

Sounds like you will fit in just fine here at the PF!

If I don't have a flow meter. Could I calculate the flow with just the width*depth of the channel and the speed of the stream by measuring how far a plastic duck travels during a second?

That works!