About batteries... Avoiding them? Needing them anyway?

I said I was going to write another topic just about this, to keep my other topic into its main purpose: use of a steep land.

While reading, I have found Walter's point of view and think it is a good start for the topic...

Walter Jeffries wrote:Personally, I would suggest avoiding going the battery route. I don't like batteries as they are chemical based, wear out and are expensive. If you need a lot more power then put in a pond as the energy reservoir and draw it down when needed letting it fill backup when you don't need the capacity.

At the moment I rely on grid totally, so I have nothing ready for any own power production.
Is it possible to be off batteries totally?

Yes for direct hot water... sun drying, warming through windows, wood heat...
What's about wind and hydro for example?

Xisca Nicolas wrote:
Is it possible to be off batteries totally?

People were off batteries totally 150 years ago... so I'd have to say yes.

Hydro is the least likely to need them to even out the power supply.

An AC system must be big enough to start the fridge or the washing machine. And there are some peaks use in the day.
So you can or you cannot do an AC system, and I do not know how much availability of water for how much power is needed, yet....

That is why I wait for the answers in the other post. I talked about the vertical distance between top and bottom, and the flow of water.
The strength of one can compensate the other, but I do not know how to calculate this. (and I leave this particular aspect for the other post about my project with my water pipes for irrigating).

Here's an online calculator online calculator:

Voltage comes into play too. My possible watts is 45-90 depending on head which we have a few options for.

Great when I can use it, because now I do not know how to get the flow (gallons per minute)!
What is the flow of a 2" pipe?

Is it the same when my water tank is full or half empty?
(it is a big tank, so I suppose water is "pulling"!)

You need to time it. Is the pipe already set up?

Don't know whether the technology is available on a small scale, but you might be able to use wood, other biomass, alcohol, or biogas to power a steam engine or wood-gas burner and run a generator when needed for peak loads......

Cj Verde wrote:You need to time it. Is the pipe already set up?

Yes, it is my watering.
Sure I can open and measure.
There is no way to calculate according to the diameter of the pipe?
Or does it depend on how much the water is pushing out?

Yes, any system can compensate another.
What is interesting about the hydro, is to have an easy method to know what power we could reach!
Then one can decide for a battery or any complementary method.

A battery is good when you have a regular flow 24/24 and 7/7!
Then one can generate little energy but keep it.
So you can even use a weak pressure of water.

When you can decide WHEN you put on the turbine
then you put it on WHEN you want the energy.

Then the great thing would be to know what is needed to make the washing machine work with the micro-hydro alone.
Sure the pressure should be stronger, and I want to have an idea of how much water (head and /or flow) is needed...

flow depends on pipe diameter, how much head (vertical distance between reservoir top surface and outlet) and how *long* the pipe is too - if it falls 10ft in a horizontal distance of 100ft, the flow will be less than 10ft in a vertical pipe, other things being equal. I guess it can be calculated but the practical answer would be to fill a bucket or barrel of known capacity and time how long it takes.

bigger pipe: better flow, as the ratio of volume to surface area inside the pipe is better - even if the pipe reduces in size at the end. This aspect is down to friction. There's another quirky one about the maximum flow in any given size of pipe is when it's not actually full of liquid (that's how come the bath water makes that funnel thing) which is again the relationship between area and volume. That's before you take bends and turbulence into account, too. Flow of water in pipes, mathematically, is not a simple topic.

It is true that some people would rather eat a bug than use batteries, and there are also others who really like having some energy stored up.

Batteries can be avoided with the right waterpower site. In fact, such a site is one thing that should be looked for in seeking a place to homestead.

The system at our ranch in BC had a battery free system and worked very well. Its story is told both in Serious Microhydro: Water Power Solutions from the Experts and Microhydro: Clean Power from Water.

The place had a gravity irrigation system that produced 49 psi at the house. We added a microhydro turbine to the existing system and produced up to 3200 watts of power. Lots for everything, really. The irrigation system used about 200 gallons per minute, and the power system used 400-500 gallons per minute, well within the capacity of the pipe.

Cheers,

Scotty