jamius.com

There are obvious ways to improve this design, but I like that it is simple and apparently accomplishes what the guy wants to accomplish. The first improvement would be adding a battery so the energy generated while the light was off would be saved. I think it was Einstein that said to come up with the simplest solution possible, but not simpler. Hey, if you meet your goals, it's all good.

I've also been eagerly awaiting Jamie's turbine creation.

I think that the spoons deal is a good first step or proof of concept for a particular design, but the energy lost through the splashing and turbine design makes me cringe. Water wheels like those described by CaptnAwesome have their own downsides: large footprint, large construction, big foundation. My Engineery senses draw me toward the spoons design, with more refinement, similar to what is described by this product:
http://www.watermotor.net/indexflash.htm
But it would need to be DIY, of course, cause their dealeo is expensive! They have great information on how to calculate the available power for different terrains, and their drawings point to a design similar to the spoons generator, although the casing will keep the splashing and noise to a minimum.

If you build your pressure line with enough drop and minimize losses (bends in the pipe or small diameter), you should be able to generate as much power, if not more, than you could with the large Water Wheel. The installation can be very clean and low impact on surrounding terrain.

I'd like to see if a small, repurposed Turbo Charger could be implemented into a micro-Hydro project, since it will have high efficiency bearings and a very accurately balanced turbine.

I like the idea of simplicity, so the Tesla turbine sounds good to me. The more parts you use, the more opportunity for waste. So, in general, look to the simple first.

jkster107 wrote:I'd like to see if a small, repurposed Turbo Charger could be implemented into a micro-Hydro project, since it will have high efficiency bearings and a very accurately balanced turbine.

That'd be really cool, but I'd assume it'd rust... fast. The housings are made of cast iron. I'm sure you could put some kind of coating on it, but still, it's iron. It'll rust eventually.

The turbos would have to spin REALLY fast though, and what would be on the receiving end? It'd have to be some kind of compressed air generator.

I like the idea of picking up a turbo unit off a car or truck engine in a junk yard for cheap and adapting it to the water turbine project. The fuel side of the turbo will be water tight, and converting the exhaust side to some sort of magneto/generator arrangement strikes me as exactly the sort of thing Jamie is good at.
There should be some serious pressure after reducing the diameter of the pipes as they go down, enough to spin the turbine no prob.
A variety of sizes should be available, I have not researched it, but if there is such a thing a a turbo unit for a v12 diesel from a big rig, I imagine it's on the large side.
I also happen to know that if you give iron a coating of canola oil and bake it in the 350-400 range for an hour or so, it is next to impossible to get off. Which may or may not be a cheap way to coat the interior of a turbo unit.