DIY Hydro Power Generator! Construction + Field Trip
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
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Congratulations to you for fulfilling your childhood goal of building a hydropower device. I enjoyed the clip a lot and was also inspired a lot by your work as always. Knowledge and skill could make a little difference to this world.
John's little video about littering can be found here btw: th-cam.com/video/gNfXON1Kgec/w-d-xo.html
hydro power generator looks great point to start - can not wait to see more of the progress
I liked this little different style video! Would love to see more of this kind with the new upcoming project you mentioned!
This is brilliant, i did exactly this when i was 9yrs old with an old washing machine motor. It produced enough to power a 40w bulb.
I built a small hut with fully functional fireplace and chimney and put the 40w bulb to read by 🙂
I did almost the same when I was 9 years old: Me and a friend dumped an old washing machine (and a coupla TVs and a bath tub) in a creek and it's all still there, quietly rusting and leaching chemicals! It doesn't power a damned shit, there isn't even a dam ... My friend's dead, but I've been back there a coupla times, mostly tripping or stoned out of my gourd, waking up under a harsh morning sun, face stuck to the mud and in bad need of a shit but without toilet paper. Isn't life wonderful !
They were the best of boys. They were the worst of boys.
@@barkebaat maybe there is a very important role that you are perfect for. I bet there is a critical need that you would be one of the few if not the only one to fill. I hope your journey is fulfilling and you do some good.
Later gater
@@mrwess1927 - Just a wild guess: You're American ?
I was googling for hydroelectric generator, I saw the thumbnail of this video. When I looked at the name of your your channel, I immediately subscribed👍🏼
Beautiful project and congratulations on a dream fulfilled! As a tip in regards to your waterwheel - When making multi-layer wheels you want to make sure to offset each layer by a small amount so that the blades aren't synchronized, this will allow a much more consistent feed-rate on the wheel and provide more stable output to whatever it is you're wanting to power!
I think if you look closely at 7:04 you will see that the blades are indeed offset, albeit very slightly.
@@your.names. That seems more accidental than purposeful staggering. 🤔
@@serversurfer6169 Perhaps! They all seem staggered by the same degree and in the same sequence if that make sense, but I guess that could happen randomly.
@@your.names. That's because it's the same quarter-wheel, duplicated a dozen times, meaning each of the three sub-wheels are identical. So if one wheel was misaligned by a couple of degrees when mating it to its partner, that mismatch would be duplicated evenly around the circumference of the wheel, if that makes sense. 😅
But ideally, each wheel would be offset by a third of the inter-vane distance. So let's say you had a wheel that was 90cm in circumference with 10 vanes, giving a 9cm gap between each vane. Then when you join them up, you wanna rotate each wheel 3cm before you attach it. HTH 🤓
I agree
Your tinkering expertise has inspired me. Watching you repair handtools gave me the courage to try it myself. In the past six months I have replaced the power cords of 2 drills and 2 Circular saws. And just yesterday I did a battery conversion on an older Ni-Cad drill. Now it accepts dewalt 20amp lithium batteries. Thank you for sharing your projects with the world.
You've just reminded me of similar things I used to do as a boy. I used to use ivy as warp and and weft to weave the structure of a tent over a low hanging branch. the gaps were filled in with leaves. Thank you for reviving a cherished but forgotten part of my childhood. Halcyon Days.
Great job on the video Sir !
You visitied your parents home, built a water generator & went camping in The Great Outdoors,.. "Post Apocalyptic Style!"👍
The place looks so much nicer after picking up all that trash.
Some people have no respect for placing trash in its proper place!
Thank you for cleaning it up.
Littering is distasteful & disrespectful toward all of us!
You really put a lot of work into this video,....Again, great job!
Your knowledge on things & the skills you have on many different subjects are greatly appreciated!
Sometimes picking the rubbish pays for itself. I went canoeing with my son and we collected mostly plastic bottles off the lake. However we found a cigarette packed that had a few cigarettes and a £10 note in it, so bought some ice creams.
Very inspirational. I am an assistant Scoutmaster with a scout troop. These are the kind of things we do. We cleanup trails and camp out and teach the scout cooking and skills that could help them someday. I can see these videos reaching people in the same way. The world need more people like you.
Forgot to say we have a survival weekend once a year with the scouts on some land I own. Makes me smile when I see these teenagers building shelters and filtering water. We too do not harvest live trees. All the wood is from dead and fallen trees. The only ones we cut down are bad trees that are killing the good trees.
I find very admirable your philosofical ideas, maybe it will be great to write a handbook like, book with them all and some simple, basic and usefull electronic and mechanic proyects for the post apocalyptic survivor- Thanks for all the great content.
This is a great idea. Maybe even as a incentive to signing up for the or donating.
The handbook idea is great! Or maybe a new series of survivor vieos?
Thanks for helping people know my little film exists! Please give it a try fellow TPAI fans. Another great episode - that water wheel was zooming!
You have my resonance my TH-cam friend. Watched and learnt much from you over the years. Superlative thoughtful dialogue in this mad world.
Nice! Thanks for a trip down memory lane. We had a creek also. I'm 61 now so it was a very long time ago that I was there in our creek playing. Making a childhood dream come true is awesome!
As an inhabitant of a semi-arid desert region (10 to 14 inches of rain per year) it's fascinating to see your country with its flowing streams and lush landscape. Where I live the litter problem is eased a little by the fact that every bottle and can has an extra 10 cents deposit put on it, prompting people to return them to recycling centres for cash. Kudos for cleaning up after the thoughtless bastards who left that rubbish behind ! Keep working on those lashings! Love your channel!
Discovered I had missed this and it is one of your best! You are quite prescient and as it is one year almost, four vast heatwaves occur at once, fueled by "anticyclones". You prescience leads me to redouble my attention by taking notes, and your detailed descriptions are quite invaluable. You are quite a leader and quite well-accomplished, there is little here that isn't well-thought out, but some of it is sharp improvisation using what is already onsite.
As always nice work. I always watch your videos and enjoy what you do. The repair/build videos are excellent. I've spent my life repairing one thing or another and lucky to have been paid to do it. At 63 I still do not understand consumerism and people that throw things away rather than repair them. It is heartening to see someone your age using your skills, talents and intelligence to consider alternatives to consumption and contemplate better ways of living.
mere comments on the video can not express my admiration and gratitude for all of your efforts. so resonant with the times, we may all need to rely on our ability to do these the things you demonstrate in the times to come. staying alive with hope and inspiration, improvising with what is at hand.
i think this small water wheel is an awesome idea, and would be very useful when camping to provide some free electric power to operate led lighting at the campsite, a laptop, charge a cell phone or used in conjunction with solar panels and a portable power station, could power any number of electronic devices, limited only by your imagination. simply spending time in the woods doing nothing more than being still and observing the life that is all around you, i have always found to be very cleansing for the soul. good on you for cleaning up the mess left by those who obviously don't deserve the privilege of enjoying the natural spaces that they seem only to value as a place to dump their trash.
I like the fact you left that clearing in the woods better than you found it, and it will be there for others to appreciate if they want to do the same.
Great video. I grew up next to a creek as well and remember thinking about building waterwheels, boats, bridges, and dams. Of course my accomplishments were primative but a waterwheel was the only one I never got to do. I loved playing around that creek.
Your undershot waterwheel is a success! No doubt some capacitors could stop the pulsing of the power. As a proof-of-concept, this was perfect! No doubt enough power could be made to perhaps charge your cellphone? I had family who lived on a river and always wanted to make my own power. So glad you were able to accomplish a childhood dream! Please keep up these efforts as they are greatly appreciated and treasured!
Wow You've just took me back to my childhood days being out in the wild and building things with any material I could find and sometimes spending nights in caves and picking up litter of other people .Keep them coming.
My brothers and I used to dig an underground fort in an old dump yard in the desert in Arizona. We'd use old plywood sheets for roofing and recover it with dirt. Fun times. You would've loved that dump!
Most impressed that you pronounced aluminium correctly! 😊 I did chuckle when you said you couldn’t risk a fire out there in the bush, I looked around there and it’s lush green and damp forest, I think it would have been safe but, then again, fires should never be relied upon by bushwalkers/campers. If you need a fire then you’re not self reliant. The ‘all powerful’ algorithm hasn’t shown me the last few episodes so I am doing a catch up. Very impressed by the waterwheel, such great potential there. (Pardon the pun). 😅
I've also had dreams of microhydro installations like these since childhood. Nice to see you making them real!
Dude you're inspirational, so far I've got myself a cargo bike because of you and installed several solar setups - oh and rescued and renovated a big old engineer's vice! Thanks for your efforts it is appreciated!
Ditto - I built a cargo bike and restored a vice thanks in large part to you. 500km of shopping trips not in the car and a vice made in England are a start😀
@@MattOckendon good for you mate, happy cycling! Have now accumulated several vices, might be becoming a bit of an addiction!
Thank you for cleaning that up. Here in Oregon in the USA, it's possible to return old cans and bottles for .10 cents each. Since I ride my bike on forest roads, it's sometimes possible to make 5 dollars or so, just by picking them from ditches. This money can then be used to upgrade or buy materials for my bike.
You're not alone with this childhood dream. Nearly 20 years ago, I build an smal waterweel out of plywood and hotglue with the help of my father. Sadly without any chance for producing electricety.
Now living in the north of Germany, lak of fast flowing water, my plan ist, to build an windmill instead. Just waiting to salvage used parts for it.
I can't wait what cool stuf you wanna build in your friends property! Have fun! 😊
Wow! TPAI does Bushcraft! Thank you, this was a great episode, especially as water wheels and watermills are a long-time interest of mine (60 years +). I am really excited to see what you’re planning at your friend’s new (old) property. Anything to do with watermills is more than OK with me. A good camp in the woods too. I’d like to camp out where I used to play, but they knocked the woods down and built houses there☹️. Thank you again, Gerolf. Les in UK
Les, that was a crying shame to read about. I was fortunate to grow up near an enormous park with undeveloped, off-trail woodsy areas ideal for the building of Hidden Forts of various kinds. Fortunately, it's all still there, although I wonder how many kids - even in that small midwestern town 10 or 20 years behind the times of our coastal cities - still build or use forts in the woods. :/ Now I am past 60 myself, and planning to sell the house in the city (on the plains) we thought we'd retire in, so we can move to a place in the mountains - a wooded area to be sure, where it is quieter. I'm going to back to having my own "fort in the woods" at last. ;D something, something second childhood... ^_^
I don't know why but I'm drawn to your videos. I guess I've always enjoyed repairing and tinkering with items. You truly have a great work ethic keep up the great work.
i too find myself picking up and carrying out any garbage encountered in my travels, glad to know that spirit is still alive across the realm! thank you for sharing
Great video, one of my all time favorite TPAI videos! I love that you revisited childhood play spaces and reimagined and then lived out the childhood dreams! That is special. I, and I'm sure a great many others, would love to be able to do so! Thanks for sharing!
Looks great!
Some corrections/suggestions: 1. That is not 'paracord' (sheathed bundle of individual strands); it looks like a modern, plastic equivalent to 'bank line' (originally tarred hemp, used by trappers and fishermen near stream banks), just twisted string.
2. If you build your shelter roof so that 1 side is >10cm higher than the other, then water can not puddle up on your roof. Also, if you add a slight V shape, you can collect rain water on the end.
3. You can empty modern soup cans into another container, set the can on its side, and start a small fire inside it with twigs (occasionally rolling the can to make sure all sides are burned), it will burn off the coating, leaving you with a bare steel can. (DOES NOT WORK FOR ZINCED CANS!)
This is a fantastic video to watch. It's nice to know the inner child can come out. The spontaneous decisions are always the greatest. Always loved building camp's in the forest. Here in South East England, I use branches from a Willow tree, stick them in the ground and make a dome shape with a circular in the middle for a inside bonfire. The Willow grows quick and makes a natural camp. Willow grows very fast.
I liked the water wheel, you come probably use it a a vertical wind generator too. As with most of your videos, could to build something just from the trash and discarded stuff you find. That would add everyone's enjoyment. Lots of things can be made from old soda cans.
Es gibt doch nichts schöneres als das Bergische/ Obebergische Land! Meine Heimat erkenne ich doch sofort.
Kleiner Tip noch: Wenn Du auf deinem Wasserrad noch einen großen Behälter anbringst, diesen dann mit Wasser aus dem Fluß füllst, dann wird die Konstruktion auch viel stabiler im Waasser stehen. Also eine alte Wanne/Plastikkiste oder ähnlichem einfach auf die Konstruktion drauf stellen und mit dem Flußwasser füllen. Für den Transport wäre das nur ein unwesentlich mehr an Gewicht und Du kannst deine Konstruktion + Kabel und Batterien einfacher dadrinnen befördern. Durch das erhöhte Gewicht kannst Du dann auch Bereiche nutzen die etwas höhere Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten haben, ohne das die Konstruktion vom Fluß weg gerissen wird.
Es gibt doch nichts schöneres als den Teutoburger Wald! Meine Heimat erkenne ich doch sofort.
Würde nicht mein Leben drauf verwetten. Aber n 5er wäre es mir Wert 😉
@@peterkuhlmann426 Ich kann mich an sein Kennzeichen dran erinnern....K - XX XXX.
Peter ich glaube die Wette würdest Du verlieren.
@@thomaskamp9365 das stimmt. Aber du musst dann auch die Videos schauen in denen er sein Elternhaus besucht und in OWL Nähe Bielefeld ist. Er erzählt in diesem Video das er in der Kindheit dort gespielt hat und erwähnt auch Ostwestfalen. Ich würde die Wette noch immer eingehen 😉
@@peterkuhlmann426 Einigen Wir und auf Teterburger Wald/Bergisches LAnd im umkreis von 200-3000 km ....dann haben Wir beide immer recht
@@thomaskamp9365 du hast Recht aber ich hab Rechter
Gerade nochmal nachgeschaut. Solar E-Bike Trailer Video. Es war Altenbeken nicht Bielefeld. Aber trotzdem Teutoburger Wald 😅
This is awesome - especially the water wheel. Thank you for taking the time to share this!
I had seen a video about a vortex generator and ever since I've been fascinated with the idea of making your own hydro electric system. One day I'd like to live off the grid. Thank you for sharing your water wheel.
I cheered when I saw the water wheel working, I can understand the feeling. I grew up in the city, but I totally understand the fascination of somehow harnessing the power of the endless yet narrow stream of water flowing calmly
Fun video. I always enjoy seeing the "back country" in different places around the world. So often we only see the developed places and the tourist traps and we don't realize all the little pockets of wilderness that exist all around.
Really like the part clearing garbage and using old/dead/used material to build a functioning and nice shelter, really great!
That was absolutely fascinating, thank you for sharing your creativity and Talent with us and for making such an interesting channel. I wish you every success and happiness in the future. thanks again, all the best
Really enjoyed going back to your childhood as mine was very much the same, in the woods with friends(and the enemy lol) camps, stream in my garden that all friends would dam up and see how deep we could make it. Plus crouching through tunnels of the stream under paths, gardens and roads. Had lots fun and realise now how lucky I was, we were by having that all around to live in play for hours and nights much to my mother at the end of a whistle to end our day for food or it's WAY past bed times...Good times !
Suddenly I was stopped to know whether your father is living? It's so amazing that you got that father's workshop to use. I couldn't get one though my father had one. It was destroyed before I reach his hometown.
I've always fantasised about making a water wheel too, I don't know why that fascinated me when I was very young but I always liked the image and the idea of generating my own power and living somewhere quiet and out of the way.
Given that the video was posted yesterday and at my time of viewing had almost 40K views, I'd say people are interested. I know I certainly am, I believe I've watched every video you've made, over about the last 2 years or so. Great content you make, and very much to my interest and several friends and coworkers I've recommended your channel to. Really enjoy your video!
Hi i'm from Canada, and i do really appreciate your videos, First, i like to "see germany from the inside" . I watch a lot of "DIY"/Maker multi-project channels like yours. Almost all based in the English world. US, Australia, UK, Canada...
Keep up the good work !!!!
Great as always. There’s a guy from New Zealand you should check out. Marty is his name. He used a old washing machine to generate power. This would work great if this idea of yours doesn’t work as planned.
I was going to suggest the exact same thing.
I could smell the musty smell in your structure as I watched. Nice hydro generator! Looks like a good quality 3D printer. Look forward to your next mini adventure.
If you used a couple sheets of thin aluminum on hinges on either side of the water wheel as a flume, you could significantly increase the flow through and power production. I love camping in old abandoned structures so I really dig the camp site you made. Great job as always!
Wow from the thumbnail I assumed you brought a bunch of stuff to setup but you actually made it with everything you found there and totally transformed it. Amazing. nice job lad
Just discovered your channel… title instantly grabbed my attention. Love your passion for repurposing materials. Making projects out of other junk is quite satisfying to me too. Great channel and video.
An ideal breakaway in beautiful surroundings. Well done for taking time to correct the carelessness of others. Thanks for taking us along.
Great job on the video my friend. The water wheel was proof of concept and the shelter was good enough for your needs. No energy wasted. Excellent for in an emergency situation and a great show of using whatever u find lying around. 10/10.
You can also cool this middle spinning system with the running water maybe so it does not run hot 🔥 … but how … I don’t know … it’s only an idear 😜✌️🔥🍀
"famous last words" haha!! You are for me an example of succesful individual. It is a joy to watch your videos. A humble follower of your steps!
Happy to see you are making it out to the woods. Im a fellow tinkineer. Nature really brings peace. Good luck finding tranquility.
My Friend! Londonderry New Hampshire (USA) here. AVE likes your vids, and I like his, so I'll probably like yours as well! It's very cool talking about your childhood, because yours's and mine are very similar. If ya can't tie a knot, tie a lot was a phrase I told the boy scouts all the time. As long as it holds, that's the important part. I love the idea of a "portable" water wheel generator, because when I'm out in the woods, there really isn't anywhere to charge batteries and lamps. Super cool stuff.
When I was 8 I woke up one summer morning I woke up and started my day by getting my belt knife, straw hat, fishing kit(just a roll of line and some sinkers and hooks), grabbed my horse and came back a week later. The blackberry, muskmelon, and fish were fine pickings. My horse shared muskmelon with me and I picked berries to hand feed him. Roamed around the backwoods of northern Alabama that time. Found a kudzu covered collapsed house and found an old rusty axe head I ended up using with a straight stick and some of the fishing line to make a smokey fire to keep the mosquito away at night.
Now I'm confident that if I were dropped off anywhere in NorAm I could survive long enough to pack out to civilisation if something happened during a hike or hunting. It has little to do with a survival mind-set, it's more that I'm not afraid of being away from cell range or stuck on a trail.
I really enjoy this flavour of TPAI it's interesting to see another country and hear some old stories! Great stuff!
I also wondered about putting modern cans over a fire/stove. On the other hand, if you put some water in an inflated balloon, you can put a lighter flame directly underneath it, without causing damage to the balloon. Maybe the contents of the can cool the inner surface in a similar way. The lining should be able to withstand 100- 120°C since the cans get autoclaved in the factory.
That concerned me too. I always burn the can clean of plastic lining in a hot fire before cooking out of it.
Resonance. Man, its brilliant!!! Thank you so much for the hard work you put in to create these videos
Very clever water wheel. If you set one up, you may want to design it to float above floods. In the US, Esbit tablets have gotten expensive. I substitute tea light candles for the tablets. Good Luck, Rick
That’s a great idea! I noticed your wheel is picking up a lot of water and carrying it all the way to the top which maybe counterproductive. Maybe with shorter pockets (blades) it would be even more efficient and could fit even bigger alternator
I’m amazed at what you can find in the scrap yards, create, repair and put salvaged items to good use.
tovarish, an EXCELLENT vid, well done. i had an almost identical childhood, growing up in a similar environment and undertaking the kind of projects and adventures you describe, albeit, at 70 years of age, my childhood was set in the 1950's and 60's. perhaps, some day we shall meet up and swap further childhood adventure stories. i now live in London, UK.
I can't tell you how much your childhood home reminded me of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas.
Really liked the vibe of this video! the music., cinematic shots, voice-over etc. Also the "story telling", the way you introduced it and explained the different steps of everything 👍
That's a nice little micro-hydro generator. You've clearly done your research about the various waterwheel types and are aware of the strengths and inefficiencies of the different types. On the generator front, I dont have personal experience with the hub generators you used. However, can I suggest you try stepper motors (perhaps from that 3D printer you re-purposed) as they produce a high voltage (3-6v or so, depending on a few factors) and they are brushless. I think direct drive at those water speeds would be sufficient to produce a meaningful output. And, even though they are not outrunners like the hub generator, even something like a Nema 23 looks like it could easily fit inside the octagonal hub space you allowed and still enable you to protect the wires from water ingress to an extent. All the best and keep up the good work!
I love your videos they are truly a joy to watch. The problem that I see with this is that you're spinning the hub and not the axle. if you spun the axle you would get higher rpms. so with that with gearing or pulleys the motor would spin faster and produce more energy not to mention you could have a different pulley system to adjust for other variables.
This has been a great weekend. For whatever reason, TH-cam unsubscribed me from your channel and I haven't been getting notifications. I subscribed again and I got to watch one of your videos with morning coffee on Saturday and Sunday morning! Great Videos, too!
I do like the water wheel. You can easily make a lot more power by adding a pair of flaps to the front legs. Make them about half as wide as the machine and the funnel effect will increase the volume and speed of the water flow dramatically. You will probably need to anchor the machine though. I wish you were near Georgia (in the United States), I could show you all sorts of things for building and surviving (comfortably) in the outdoors and You could teach me about designing/fabricating electronic circuits and systems. I can fix broken two way radios and amplifiers but don't know anything about those 'ardrino' things and their various uses. I also don't know how to do the 3D printing thing and I can see the usefulness in that, as well.
It sure would be cool if you could purchase the property with the dilapidated building remains. You could put up a little cabin and have a getaway (and with your Folks place nearby, you would have a place to store stuff so it didn't get stolen when you weren't around).
I sure enjoy your films and projects. I get ideas from them for my projects. Take Care and keep the videos coming. I think that it is important for you to know how much people enjoy your work. -John
Found your channel a couple of weeks ago, and have been bingewatching all your videos, great work man
I will look forward to the larger hydro unit. The camp out was cool. It is also nice you got to do something you have wanting to do for a long time. Cheers.
It's amazing how much the forrest in that part of Germany looks like the forrest in Pennsylvania. It makes sense that so many Dutch settled here in PA, it probably reminded them of home.
Dutch countryside looks very different, it is completely flat.
Awesome, looking forward to the larger generator. It is also something I’ve have been thinking of building/experimenting/learning. I’d like to someday soon find a piece of land that has a creek through it.
Censored
I love the spaghetti western music! And the way you cleaned up the old property was brilliant. Maybe, just maybe, the next group that visits will respect your hard work. Willing littering really makes me want to take a few Valium. It’s so freaking avoidable on these stops that motocross guys take.
Hey guys! There is now a follow-up video to this episode online: th-cam.com/video/Bj3PtkeMqOA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=hxP7-ft_Wui_grTc
So, your childhood dream about a "Wasserrad" eventually became a TH-cam video we all can enjoy decades later.
Never give up to fore fill your dreams. :)
i grew up on a farm and building a camp in the woods takes me back to my childhood....nice video
Serious regards to you for cleaning the forest area! You did an amazing job! As an Engineer, I came to see your water wheel generator, you did a great job of explaining and documenting your process. Overall I am just quite impressed with you and your video. I hope you get to use your backwoods shack often in the future! Best regards, PTG
It looks like you made a pretty respectable shelter out of the old abandoned building. Hope your overnight stay was enjoyable. I enjoyed the video and like the diversity you use between building things and take interesting trips through Germany. I'm still hoping to one day find a scrap yard near me that is similar to the ones you visit. Around here you can sell scrap if you have it but aren't able to look through what others have scraped and buy that material if you want to.
Watching your content reminds me of an old US show called "The Colony" which was a post-apocalyptic survival type of thing. Great stuff both!
Nice shelter spot you will be surprised how strong and long lasting construction like this can be ,i build something similar 6 or 7 years ago in forest when I was starting my adventure with bush craft surprisingly it's still standing some parts have collapsed but i have not expected it to last so long
I think that was brilliant. A couple of different "genres" in one. I think people don't realize the value of YT videos for immediate use and, for later, after your brain has had time to digest the content. Thank you.
Our boyhood adventures are very similar even thought I am 15? Years older and grew up in northern Canada. Also thank for build the generator I have been thinking about such a thing for years but have not gotten around to it. Really great video.
What the hell is with people and littering? I live in the big city and it pisses me off all the time. You have inspired me to stat cleaning it up and not just letting it make me mad.
Nice construction.
An observation if I may.. Rather than make the curved water catching channels dead end as yours is, consider leaving them open so water can flow straight through and react with the opposite side. This is called a Banki or crossflow turbine. Very good low water head height performance can be realised with this design. They are very common for small hydro power in Germany and in many other countries. The air blowing cousin of this type of turbine is the squirrel cage fan.
G
Full disclosure, I’ve been thinking about doing such a thing for years also. As the creek at my place is flowing again after being dry for a few years, your video might inspire me to do a video of my own waterwheel build in future.
It sounds like your childhood was similar to mine in Montana and rural Washington state. It would be interesting to see a meter reading as to how much power the water wheel could make.
Cheers,
Dwayne
I love your videos.. Please continue.. I am a person who believes we need to go back to be self sustainable. Your videos should be watched by all young boys that's going to grow up to be useful to their nation or society. Thank you very much for making the effort to create this content.
I'm really impressed with how well your little water wheel prototype worked. I was sure it would be a complete failure. Shows what I know!
I also enjoyed your bushcrafting. I think it would be fun to see more of that.
Excellent video as always! The water wheel was really cool, I've never seen those dynamo hubs before.
It's great to see someone take the time and effort to pick up someone else's trash. Bit thumbs up to you!!!
I enjoyed watching you revisit that old location, and clean it up for an overnight stay. Would be fun tonsee what you can power with your printed waterwheel...
A generator is just a magnet passing a coil, think of a ring of magnets around the outer diameter of the wheel, the more magnets the higher the frequency!.. limitation is the size of the wheel, no belts, no chains, no gearboxes, no friction, just a few stationary coils on the frame, and stationary magnets attached to the sides of the rotating wheel.. just an idea.. great project keep it going..
There is a New Zeland guy whose channel is Marty T and it has his home made hydro set up.
I really enjoyed this episode. The intro was so unusual I was excited to see what you might be doing, and I was not disappointed. The poncelet wheel is brilliant and the improvised bivouac looked quite comfortable in the end.
Totally fascinating! Your Waterwheel design was intriguing and well made! The LEDs were totally satisfying
Your philosophy is admirable as is your social conscience!
I'm looking forward to your next project!
All the Best from Poland!
Awesomeness!
In the drawing of the Poncelet wheel, there is a channel in front of the water wheel with a hydrofoil that pushes the water down to a specific level.
Given the extruded aluminum the support structure is made of, I wonder if an adjustable hydrofoil could be 3D printed and placed in front of the water wheel.
I’m not hydrodynamics expert, but it seems to me that a hydrofoil would even out the flowing water and produce a more laminar flow, for a more steady output.
Also, a hydrofoil might perhaps make the placement of the water wheel easier, as the hydrofoil could compensate somewhat for less than ideal conditions.
Realizing, the more complex it gets, the heavier it becomes, additional engineering could be employed to take advantage of the surrounding environment.
Particularly in reference to downforce and keeping the water wheel in position, so that a greater force could be exerted on the wheel, and the whole thing doesn’t wash downstream.
For example, a wire or mesh basket that can be filled with stones and used as an anchor.
Or perhaps additional hydrofoils along the side that are shaped to provide downforce, that double as walls to the water channel, to help the front hydrofoil control the level of water flowing past the water wheel…
Anyway, I really appreciate your videos and all of the time and effort you put into them.
That is not a hydrofoil, it is really acting as a nozzle. Rather than holding the frame and wheel down, it will tend to lift it off the bottom. However, it will increase the velocity and concentrate the flow exactly where it is required, and will increase the output greatly. Note that in the original drawing, the water does not flow through the vanes, it flows in then drops out again. I suspect this one has shallow enough vanes that the water would flow right through, if it weren't for the inside ring to keep this from happening. Any excess energy will dissipate when it hits this ring, losing some energy. Believe it or not, even the large, professionally built runners used in hydroelectric dams are all somewhat experimental - all the modelling in the world won't necessarily show what will happen in real life, at full size.
A cone on front will magnify the force and get more out of it. Brings more water into the middle. Would also need a flotation device to keep it level to the water height as it rains. for any long term use anyway.
Thank you, enjoyed it a lot. Was a bit surprised that your car's trunk was not full of tools and materials and you had to buy them
I have some land like that, and a litter problem, too. I kept picking it up and finally placed a steel barrel there, with a trash bag in it. People actually started to use that and I was pleased. Then someone stole the barrel.