Waterwheel for electric

[lailr]

Does anyone know how to maek a creek a source of power? Like on a waterwheel?

[bart]

i'm not affiliated in anyway with them but Backwoodsmen magazine had an article in the newest issue about portable power and had a diagram of a floating waterwheel.

[waitnc]

Cool, I'll check it out. thanks

[hubste5]

Does anyone know how to maek a creek a source of power? Like on a waterwheel?

Any progress? Did you dig up any good nuggets on creek power?

[jmk]

A water wheel isn't that terribly hard to build, the hardest part will be the support structure, which should Ideally be concrete and set as deep as reasonably possible.

Concrete does set underwater, infact it's best to cure concrete underwater, but moving water will wash it away. Sonotubes are reasonably cheap and can be had at most home chepo's lowes, etc. I would recommend if you're going to set anything in water to get a roller and a can of DIY bed-liner for the outside of the tube to hold it together while the concrete sets.

Two large posts can be used to support a relatively simple paddle wheel, which can be made from scratch, or you can modify a giant wire spool for the job.The shaft should be metal, preferably stainless steel or aluminum, then you can weld a pulley onto the shaft. A bicycle sprocket would work, but the chain would rust. The wire spool will probably last a year or so before it rots apart, more if you coat it with something, DIY bed liner comes to mind, or rubberized undercoating. If you can weld, then aluminum or stainless is the way to go, if not, maybe that synthetic wood decking crap?

I'd use some kind of belt drive to power a bunch of alternators.
They can be had cheaply at most auto junkyards, you won't need an inverter if the only usage is lighting, 12 volt lights are plentiful, old headlights can be salvaged at a junkyard. Interior dome lights are cheap and don't use much power either. LED's work off direct current anyway, and are enormously power efficient.