what to look for in off grid land?

I got involved in a water wheel project for a friend here in our county once, and sorted out the numbers for him. It all depends upon a few factors. How big is the wheel? How much water flow is there, and the efficiency of your design. Water weighs in at 8 lbs per gallon. one horsepower is equivalent to right at 750 watts, Its also the amount of power required to lift 66,000 lbs one foot in one minute. You first have to figure out how much water each of the buckets hold when filled, how long it takes to fill them, and how many buckets will be filled during a minutes worth of operation. For simplification assume a 20 ft wheel holds 412.5 gallons of water at any given time and turns at the rate of 10 rpm while operating. 412.5 gallons times 8 lbs equals 3300 lbs times 10 rpm equals 33,000 lbs, then you multiply that by 20 ft, which gives you 660,000 lbs falling at the rate of 1 foot per minute. (The reverse of lifting the same weight 1 foot per minute.) Then divide 660,000 by 66,000 and you get 10 horse power, which converts to approx 7500 watts of power being generated.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

well I guess it worked then..i never worked out the numbers. I think the last generator was a 1500 w. running about full rate 24/7.

last battery count was about 20,,12v deep cycle. lots of storage.
one mistake was I never new the advantage of having a balanced battery system. or in short,,all the batteries the same. some were full and getting over charged and some were never getting charged to their capacity. as well as the difference between 10 yr old battery's and 10mo. old batteries.
have been working with people and alternate energy for about 20yr. have found there are many ways to do it,just which one do you want.
For my self. as many power supplies as you can hook up the better.
and yes,,the power company can still produce power cheaper than we can.

Any questions,,,,fire away

Most places you can't.

Good rule of thumb is if the stream is big enough to actually do much with, the government environmental controls on it are enough to stop you from doing much of anything ( like actually USING the water ).

Unfortunately, we don't live in the 1800's anymore.

Holy crap!! And I could assemble a big water wheel right out of wood and then repair it relatively cheaply over the years. I guess you'd need some reduction gears to make the shaft that attaches to the alternator turn more quickly, but everything else is a Home Depot project.

What would you do about the diversion circuit? If your batteries are full, you're going to have to set up a diversion circuit to channel the incoming power somewhere else. If the alternator is turning then it will generate electricity and if that electricity doesn't "go somewhere" then it will turn to heat and burn up your alternator. I guess hooking it up to a really big hot water tank would work.

you can now buy a 'dump sink' to take care of this,,and you will need it. I did not have the smarts to check a lot of things back then,,it worked and I was happy. I built mine from a old manure spreader,,ground drive. bolted angle iron to the sides of one wheel. about 10 ft of arm. used the 30in bull gear to drive the 6in gear and the generator would fly. to fix the mistake of balance..i filled the other wheel with concrete and made a so-so fly wheel. remember,,i was on the cheap here. lots of trial and errors . but I got it to work. now I have found there are better ways for a beginner to get started to see if this really what they want to do. and a lot cheaper.
to many people just jump in...never ask anything, never think anything through. I would not recommend anyone for this to be there first try at alternative energy.

as before any questions ,,,fire away

The wheel I helped with was not used for elec generation, It was set up to power a grist mill so we didnt deal with that problem. If it were me I would simply set up a "governor" controlled by the battery levels of charge. Think of an automobile generator with a voltage regulator. A simple gate valve to reduce the water flow as the batteries reach their full charge, and turn the water on when the batteries drop their charge. This way you have reserve power on hand at all times in your battery bank, but the wheel will only be turning when you are actually using power and charging the batteries. We sped things up and controlled equipment speed via a series of pulleys and belts. The wheel turned about 7 rpm under load, slightly faster... about 10 rpm when running empty. The various machines required different speeds of operation. Everything was belt driven, and using different sized pulleys off the main drive shaft allowed different things to operate at their required speeds.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

one thing that you will have with charging batteries this way, as they get closer to full charge, it takes more power to finish them off. so you would be better to keep the head speed up and push them to the top...by backing the speed down, you slow the input rate and the batteries do not get their full charge. is like the last few gallons of air in a pressure tank, you can hear the compressor really labor just before it shuts off.
have you ever had a system hooked up before ?

No solar or propane?

I kept looking until I found a property with a good spring. I started with a very small 12 volt solar unit. I have enough water and head that I added a micro hydro unit too. It runs along with the solar to keep batteries charged. I only have a 4 battery 24 volt system now. I have a small 12 volt refrigerator but most of the cooling is done in a springhouse. It has 2 vats that has cold spring water running through. The water pressure gives us hot running water through a solar water heater when the sun shines, and through woodstove coils in the winter. No water to pump....James

good deal,,next step is to start planning the next way to produce power. never to many ways. do you have animals?

Yes, goats, rabbits, chickens and pigeons. We don't use much power but it is nice to have a little, not looking for more...James

would you be ok with sharing you power source now.?

back to the original question, if you are looking to live without power, start accumulating the various "foxfire books" and read them, one and all. Those folks had no power whatsoever, for the most part, and did well for themselves. Lots of good pictures and instructions.....Joe

are you meaning no power at all,,or not hooked to the electric grid.?

what are the "fox fire" books? I'm very interested.
thanks

Not "fox fire", but "foxfire". One word. Google it.