Off Grid Via Slow Moving River?

einstein writes "I live out in the middle of nowhere, and I lose power at the drop of a hat. My house is right next to the Susquehanna river, and all the kinetic energy going past my house makes just want to go off grid. Most homebuilt hydro power is lower volume/high speed. What would be a good, unobtrusive way to generate electricity from a high volume/low speed body of water? I'm between two large hydro dams, so the water level is fairly constant, but does tend to fluctuate 4-6ft in the winter due to ice floes and melting snow. I think maybe a miniature version of one of the recent submerged tidal generators might work... Does anyone have some suggestions on how I might go about this project?" More than a few people have done this before.

Comments

Stay on-grid while generating power

[Anonymous Coward]

If you manage to generate your own power (wind, water, solar, whatever), stay on the grid because YOU can feed the grid, and the power company (usually) has to credit you. Yes, keep some of your own power stored up in batteries, but sell the excess and pay off the costs of setting this up.

Re:The Romans

[mikewas]

Probably easier to build a dock, floating or fixed. A dock is something that the local officials will understand so any permits or approvals should be easy. Then attach the paddlewheels.

John Ashcroft

[EventHorizon]

We need government approval to think? Damn. That's worse than 198

[MESSAGE CENSORED FOR YOUR PROTECTION]

Re:Legal ?

[gleekmonkey]

How is it more 'irresponable' to use water as a source of energy rather than wind or sunlight? I wasn't under the impression that waterwheels were perticularly damaging to the environment.

On the positive side, if everyone by a river did build one of these things, there would be less need for coal powerplants - THOSE are destructive to the environment.

Re:Township Approval

[SatanicPuppy]

There are watershead and pollution issues involved as well.

The state environmental regulatory groups (EPA EPD DEP, whatever) monitor this crap because whenever you take energy from a river system you cause an increase in things like sedimentation--in addition to whatever kind of pollution your system leaks into the water.

Big power companies get away with it because, well, because they're big power companies, but it's very possible that you'll have to pay some liscensing fees and/or get some kind of water permit/pollution fees.

Stupid Romans

[fm6]

The party line in all the history books I've read is that the Romans had water mill tech, but it only accounted for a tiny portion of their flour production. The Roman economy was based on plentiful slave labor, so finding way to do things with fewer people (in this case, hand-powered versus water-powered mills) was not a big priority.

If you know of references that rebut the standard historical theory (wouldn't be the first time), please post links or titles. I'd want to read them

Anyway, it's my understanding that water mills began serious development during the "Middle Ages". Modern Western culture is descended from the great cultural renaissance of the 15th century, and we've inherited their prejudice against the "Middle Ages", that 1000-year period after the fall of Rome where Western progress supposedly ground to a halt. But this period was when people started playing with technology seriously, and thinking about ways to use it to make life easier -- and to get rich. In short, it was the period that gave birth to the techno-geek!

Re:Stupid Romans

[fm6]

...convince me about the middle ages were a time when tech was taken seriously.

When you put it like that, it's impossible to view the middle ages as anything but a regression in human progress. But when you do put it like that, you're reducing 1,000 years to a simplistic idea. That's a lot of history. Consider how much change the Western world has gone through in just the last couple of centuries, and how many different attitudes there were towards these changes.

The right way to think about the middle ages is as a long period of history shared by a many diverse peoples. Their scientific and technological accomplishments may seem puny by our standards, but they were crucial to human progress. Improved crop rotation, use of wind and water power, the beginnings of chemistry... it's a long list.

You want sources? Well, I'm reading Western Europe in the Middle Ages, by Joseph Strayer. This book argues a lot of the things I just said, but it's not primarily about science or technology. I think you'll find the arguments I just made in any history of the middle ages written in the last 20 years. I mean serious history, not the watered-down nonsense they put in standard secondary-school textbooks.

Re:User/pass for Home Power's site (no!)

[barc0001]

Do not use that username/password.

Home Power is a very small grassroot-ish site. I've been dowloading their current issue for a couple of years now. A few months back they stopped just having a link to the issue on the front page and went to registration. The reason they need the registration is to prove how many unique visitors download and read the mag for their advertising rates on ads inside the magazine. If they can't prove their readership size, their ad rates fall. And they're not some big megacorp, they're already on a shoe-string budget. If you want to read it, sign up. They've never abused my info, and the magazine is awesome for the depth of info provided.