Gareth Lewis

So on another note, if I wanted to generate 5kw/h of AC current with 10 or 20m head, is there an equation to calculate how many litres/gallons per minute I need

Yes I dont think this will help with my project although I do get the jist of it I think, although I dont get how you heat the water to start off with ?

Sorry - Marcos not Morcos

I understand that although I dont understand how Mr McKinlay can work out the ecuation in litres per seconds and get a figure in Watts (per second) and it does not multiply to per minute/hour although I do realise it would be very high in Kwh on that ecuation

Is there a better system, more efficient that would work with this amount of flow or head ?

Thank you Morcos, I understand your horsey theory, where as I dont understand how, when you calculate something in seconds (89.6) or minutes it does not multiply by the said number to achieve Kwh

Ok so our task here is to find out how much electricity can be generated over a day with 16gpm/1.12lps with a 10m head, a crude version for me would be a big tank/lake with a vertical pipe dropping the water by 10m onto the pelton(or whatever is best) wheel through a nozzle.

Im taking for granted that the 10m head pipe would have to be a certain size to accomodate 1.12lps, and could I start with a slightly bigger pipe and reduce the pipes diameter maybe on 5m to create more pressure ?

So in conclusion, if I have a constant flow of 16 gpm or 1.12 litres per second for a whole hour or even longer I will only produce 89.6watts ?

Water having a vertical fall of ten meters produces a 1 bar flow pressure.

16 gallons per minute is 67.2 litres per minute or 1.12 litres per second.

A Pelton wheel turbine is 82% efficient. For each 1 litre per second of 9 bar pressure water flow it produces 720 watts.

80 watts each one litre water flow per second at 1 bar pressure.

Pelton wheel outcome = 89.6


Mr. Peter McKinlay

Ok Im getting a little confused with all this now, with the above you say at the end that you have 80 watts each one litre water flow per second at 1 bar pressure, and you get this from 720 watts divide by the 9 bar.
Then because you have 1.12 litres per second you times that by the 80 watts to get the final figure of 89.6 watts

But surely this is still 89.6 watts per second and not per hour

Hi and thank you both for the help, the calculations help a lot, but im not sure if that is 86.9 watts per minute does that mean I can times that by 60 to get the watts per hour or in this case Kw/h ??

Im not sure if we are allowed to generate our own electricity here but im sure we'll do something as a class although it might not be as big as 5kwh lol

Hi, im new to this forum and was wandering if anyone could help me with my school project ?

I have been given a task to find out the best way to generate electricity with hydro electricity

Pelton wheel, Archimedes screw or turbine ?

We have been given a value of 16gallons per minuit in flow and a drop of 10m(straight down or gradually)

Can anyone help