Applying Small Turbine Technology To Everyday Systems. By Dennis Pulley www.The1HomeGuru.blogspot.com
 |
| Precision Built Micro-Turbines |
A
friend told me, today, about a shower head he saw with LED lights and explained
that the owner told him a generator was contained within and powered the
lights. I was hoping he was wrong, that it hadn’t really been invented yet but,
after 20 minutes on Google, Kohler does actually sell showerheads that do
generate direct electricity. Well, before he’d even finished the sentence, my
jaw had already dropped and we spent the next hour applying this idea to a
handful of other appliances. This is a million dollar idea. This will get
someone incredibly rich and I sure hope my friend and I can do something with
this before it’s taken up by another. These are my first thoughts, as it’s only
been a few hours since our conversation happened.
Our
indoor plumbing can be used to produce electric power. Yes, small quantities
but power nonetheless. The water supply into the house can be tapped with
in-line turbines or impellers to either charge batteries or direct connected to
lighting or other appliance. Perhaps this would best be achieved with
low-voltage appliances containing a rechargeable battery. These impellers can be
utilized in many ways but we must remember that you can’t get something from
nothing. Every impeller would siphon off pressure and unfortunately, most
municipalities use electricity to pressurize the water through pumps and even
in the localities with water towers, the water must still be pumped to the top
of the tower. This is something an individual may be able to get away with for
a bit but eventually, electricity prices for the pumps would make its way to
your bill. Best-case scenario would be a home fed by an uphill aquifer. This
would be free.
 |
| Small Hi-Performance Turbines. |
There may be a way make this work for supply, you’d
conceivably build a tank at the highest elevation that city water pressure
could push and plumb your house from the top down, utilizing long stretches of
drop with strategically placed turbines throughout. This would work but again,
if everyone does it, we would be using a much more noticeable amount of power
for the pumps and it would be carried into our water bill.
Our
drains, however, are another story. The turbines could either be placed
directly at the drain beneath our sinks and tubs, but we would drain much
slower, or we could have a sort of holding tank dug into the ground, ideally
keeping the water level just a foot or so below our lowest fixture and draining
it through a small, turbine-carrying orifice from the bottom into the sewer
lateral.
This is very real and can become part of a
multi-faceted plan to contain our energy costs. This should also be implemented
into our roof gutters, rain barrels even municipal storm water drains. In order
to become more responsible for our own power needs, we need to employ a variety
of methods: Sun, Wind and Water are all very scale able means of producing
electricity and require little technical know how to build. The efficiency of
these means will increase exponentially as more and more of us see the benefit
in not only implementing one of these devices but actually building our own and
open sourcing our ideas and designs.
 |
| Small dishwasher pumps are easily used as water turbines. |
Above is a washing machine or dishwasher
pump, this is essentially an impeller built within a housing designed to allow
water to flow in one end, spin the impeller and out through the other end. These
are perfect all-purpose pumps, easily connected to a water source, with an AC
motor that can easily be changed to a DC Stepper motor from an old printer and can
easily charge small battery banks. Individual solar cells are becoming very
cheap in China and with a little know how, can be wired together to create one’s
own solar panels. Wind turbines can be made, with a bit of instruction, using
non-working appliance parts such as washing machine motors, and YouTube is full
of videos detailing how to build water turbines from the same appliance. The way
is easy if you have the will and even easier if you’re poor. We can’t all
afford to run our air conditioners but what if you spent just two weeks
learning how and building your own means of generating just enough to power
that A.C. through the summer? Would you do it?
Read this
to build your own electrical generator.
 |
| A copper core moving around a magnet |
This Instructable teaches you how to make this water wheel using your lunch trash.
This
article on DIY water turbines will give you the principles involved in nearly all
turbines and, perhaps even the confidence to build one.
Do what you can and send me some pics and
plans. What other uses would small wind and water turbines have? How can these
be wired? What is the simplest way to generate power?
Post your comments because I love this stuff.
Me @_almostanexpert
Or read me
here: www.almostanexpert.com
