BullwinkleII's system

BullwinkleII

Cool thanks.

I've used my 100gig of monthly download for the first time and have been slowed to 64k or something and I'm going nuts. A good slice of my education comes from watching youtube videos, and it drives you crazy to have to wait for the breaks in streaming only to discover that the person who made the video should have stayed in bed instead

No doubt people say the same about my videos, but man there is some rubbish in amongst the gems

I'd take my laptop and park out in front of a burger joint, but it's battery only lasts long enough to run from one power point to the next within my house

You get what you pay for

Free comes with a downside it seems.

jmalone68

I saw a tagline on a forum that said: "Cheap, no good. Good, no cheap".
As a lifelong thrift (is that a word?), but someone that likes quality, I have an internal struggle between the two.

BullwinkleII

The cost to quality ratio thing breaks down and creates some infinity issues when you find your laptop out on the footpath, put there for rubbish collection

BullwinkleII

threshing wheat with a flail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5kXm4sa ... re=related

libertymtn

Regarding the producing power thing - We want to have a waterfill going into the FT - could we not put a water wheel in the waterfall and have it charging batteries that would be used to keep the system running if we lose power?

bunson

<Trying to remember his physics>Newton's 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states something along the lines of, "there is no such thing as a free lunch"

If you're going to have a waterfall, water is going to be pumped to the top, I assume by an electrical pump? If so, simply run power to a battery charger which will charge the backup power supply more efficiently than having system losses and friction to contend with in a homemade hydro-electric plant.

$0.02c (to add to Charlie's total

)

Ronmaggi

The water wheel might be nice to add more aeration though... It could be a neat water feature, and hooking it up to a generator might help offset some if the power used to pump the water higher. You would still need external power to keep it running. That makes me think. If someone had more water flow than needed, instead of diverting the water back, perhaps putting it through a power turbine to offset the power used some and reduce the flow as needed. So instead of just consuming 100 watts of power, you consume 100 watts, and generate 15 watts, for a net consumption of 85 watts. It is not trying to get something for nothing, just being more thrifty with what you have.

libertymtn

Yes, the water would be moving from a pump but the water wheel in the waterfall would be to use some of that energy to store it. And if it can also add more aeration like Ronmaggi was saying, that's another plus, yes?

TCLynx

I'm very confused, I got the notice of posts to this thread and I clicked on the link like normal and it took me to page 1 instead of the latest post. I thought I was loosing my mind when I started reading at the first post without looking at the date posted.

bunson

Ronmaggi wrote:

If someone had more water flow than needed, instead of diverting the water back, perhaps putting it through a power turbine to offset the power used some and reduce the flow as needed. So instead of just consuming 100 watts of power, you consume 100 watts, and generate 15 watts, for a net consumption of 85 watts. It is not trying to get something for nothing, just being more thrifty with what you have.

Although that is possible, due to losses in the system (still no free lunches) it would be more efficient (and probably cost effective) to simply purchase a smaller pump and add a main power battery charger!

Ronmaggi

bunson wrote:

Ronmaggi wrote:

If someone had more water flow than needed, instead of diverting the water back, perhaps putting it through a power turbine to offset the power used some and reduce the flow as needed. So instead of just consuming 100 watts of power, you consume 100 watts, and generate 15 watts, for a net consumption of 85 watts. It is not trying to get something for nothing, just being more thrifty with what you have.

Although that is possible, due to losses in the system (still no free lunches) it would be more efficient (and probably cost effective) to simply purchase a smaller pump and add a main power battery charger!

Ah, but the mantra here seems to be, buy bigger, that way you can expand more later. :cheers:

bunson

Yes, but then as soon as you upsize your system and direct all your water flow to the GBs instead of recirculating through your turbine you'll end up with a very expensive generator sitting in your shed doing nothing!

If however, you fitted the turbine inline between the pump and the GB, then you could be on to something, so long as the volume of water reaching the GBs isn't reduced. In any case, the turbine has to be able to deal with solids.

Good impeller turbine generators are very expensive and you'd probably still come out in front $$$-wise if you just paid for the battery charger and some electricity every now and then to keep the battery topped up?

I haven't looked at hydro for a long while, so maybe things have got cheaper in recent times? Here is a useful site with some plans, designs, discussions, calculators etc: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm Do the sums and let us know the feasibility, cost and benefit.

Scott

BullwinkleII

TCLynx wrote:

I'm very confused, I got the notice of posts to this thread and I clicked on the link like normal and it took me to page 1 instead of the latest post. I thought I was loosing my mind when I started reading at the first post without looking at the date posted.

You could just be losing your mind.

That can happen you know

BullwinkleII

I put in a reply to this power business and now its gone, so I figure I'm losing MY mind

BullwinkleII

bunson wrote:

Yes, but then as soon as you upsize your system and direct all your water flow to the GBs instead of recirculating through your turbine you'll end up with a very expensive generator sitting in your shed doing nothing!

If however, you fitted the turbine inline between the pump and the GB, then you could be on to something, so long as the volume of water reaching the GBs isn't reduced. In any case, the turbine has to be able to deal with solids.

Good impeller turbine generators are very expensive and you'd probably still come out in front $$$-wise if you just paid for the battery charger and some electricity every now and then to keep the battery topped up?

I haven't looked at hydro for a long while, so maybe things have got cheaper in recent times? Here is a useful site with some plans, designs, discussions, calculators etc: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm Do the sums and let us know the feasibility, cost and benefit.

Scott

I'm failing miserably at learning electronics, but I think additional load (friction, height, whatever) on the pump means additional power consumed. I think a pump pumping to zero head uses less power than one pumping uphill with a generator in it.

I think.

Can someone who knows such stuff confirm or debunk that.

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