Mike Little

Hang in there Gunny! It is a learning experience most of all.

I am glad to see others persisting at this.

Being an electrical guru, I am sure you have considered that low amps is a result of wire size and the number of windings in the generator. I would say RPMs, but you have the flow. The charge controller could be oversized too I suppose.

How big is your wheel? What style is it? What is the cup capacity?

What is your RPMs without the electrical system connected?

What type of generator do you use?

Good luck! If you find the magic combination, I'd like to know. Thanks.

Yes, I have only diverted part of the stream with a dual screened intake connected to 4" corrugated line on the pond side. The line is buried in a kind of sideways question mark formation and connects to a sediment (sump) tank next to my wheel. The formation of the line pushes enough water to feed the wheel or my RAM pump.

In hind sight, PVC would have been a better choice since laminar flow would be more likely. Oh well, the line I am using has been in for 14 years. I have to snake it a couple of times a year to get the sediment out.

Truth be known, the water wheel set up came after my RAM pump system...the drive pipe serves dual purposes to keep costs down. If the siphon trick works good enough, I will use the excess water from the RAM whenever the RAM is not in use (which is most of the time). I only use it to water the garden.

Next steps are to finish painting my wheel and reinstalling it. Then I am going to try the siphon method to see if I can get increased flow to the top of the wheel. Meanwhile, I will continue to try and find a low cogging, low rpm, continuous duty PMG.

Fun, fun, fun...LOL.

There is only 30 inches of fall across my property. I can't raise the water any higher because a culvert for the residential road is in line with my property.

I do have a 2" ram pump that I can use to make the wheel over shot but I lose a great deal of flow from my breast shot feed line and there is little if any gain in rpms. The gain in height is countered by the loss of flow...

I am going to try an experimental siphon to increase water flow...I have my doubts though. I know that, generally, the output of a siphon has to be lower than the water level of the pick up end. However, some of the Greek and Roman devices I have seen indicates that a siphon may work if the line from the water to highest point is short, and small, while the down slope part of the line is longer and larger in diameter. I figure that the weight of the water on the long side will create more suction than the weight on the short side and keep the siphon flowing. Make sense? Or am I wasting my time? I am not educated or smart enough to do the math to prove my thoughts but I do have 20 years experience with aircraft hydraulics and 20 more watching and studying alternative power. I think it is worth a shot and will be reasonably cheap enough to try.

My stream runs enough water to fully flow trough a 1 ft pipe. If I could capture half of that, the water wheel would probably spin off the bearings. LOL.

BTW, I tested my brushed DC motor and only got 3.5 vdc with my 1500 rpm drill...believe I will look for something else in the 12 volt + range.

The wheel has been yard art for many years. I thought I might be able to use it for backup power but my thoughts are dashing.

My ram pump, 1.14 gpm, fills up my 100 gallon pond about 12 times a day. The pond is about 6 feet above creek level. I suppose I could bell siphon the pond to feed the wheel intermittently...not motivated or convinced this is worth while.

I will keep hacking away with it until I get something workable...or go broke / die trying. LOL.

Appreciate your interest and input...will take more pics after reinstalling the geared wheel.

Appreciate your suggestion.

I was getting ready to order a $400, 800 watt, brushless, low cog generator but had a gut feeling it is overkill.

I do have a brushed pmg motor out of a Slime air compressor...guess I will give that a try.

Heck, if it will charge a couple of batteries, that will be fine for my use.

Please forgive if I have posted in the wrong place. I am new to this website and I like what I see!

I am having a devil of a time trying to size a generator to my 4 foot water wheel...breast shot 24 cup @ 12" wide and 8" deep.

Can anyone put me in the ballpark on the maximum size of generator to use with my wheel?

I have 9-10 gpm flowing in to the wheel at the 2' level and the cups have been modified to hold a majority of the water until the cup reaches the bottom of the rotation.

At maximum water flow, the wheel turns at 22 rpm with no load on P204 pillow block bearings and a 3/4" keyed shaft. Flow dimenished over night because my inlet screens get clogged with debit and the rpm rate dimenished to around 15.

I have added a 72 tooth, #35 sprocket, to each side of the axle, which couples to a 10 tooth sprocket on the first level of gearing to give me 150 ish rpm.

I can not determine my final gearing until I know which generator I will be using.

Generators are expensive and I do not want to trial and error this as it will be cost prohibitive.

Thanks in advance!