Home hydro power

• Using hydro power at your home can be both

an effective and sometimes even profitable
venture for providing your home with power
as it can help reduce your energy costs, while
at the same time providing you with a
supplemental income if you can successfully
produce enough electricity to sell excess back
to state grids.
 Where is it applicable?
• While it may not be the most appropriate
form of power generation for everyone as it
requires a constant source of water flow for
operation it is an excellent option for those
living near rivers, streams or waterfalls as
hydro power can provide a cheap, virtually
inexhaustible source of energy for you and
your home.
 How to develop
• Since older times when traditional water
wheels have been used to power machinery
along streams and rivers there have been
many advancements in the usage of a hydro
power generators for home application that
you can personally benefit from. Unlike
traditional waterwheel style designs
homeowners can now establish personal
hydro power generators in three common
forms to generate electricity:
• - Impulse Turbines
- Reaction Turbines
- Submersible/In-Stream Turbines
• Impulse water turbines operate by first
collecting watcher at an upstream location
and channeling it through a tube to a turbine
at a lower area..
• This channeling effect allows the water collected
upstream to be accelerated and forced through a
smaller aperture which can then provide the
turbine with additional driving force and increase
its electrical output. With an impulse turbine
most people can realize high output from a single
water turbine engine with relatively little water
flow to supply it with due to the fact that even a
small or low-speed water flow can be effectively
channeled through the tube system in order to
generate sufficient propulsion
• The setup also helps ensure a constant energy
production level year-round from what may
not necessarily be a strong water source to
begin with, making it an excellent option for
homeowners near small streams or seasonal
water flows.
Reaction Turbines
• Rather then pulling water from an upstream source or
being immersed directly into a river flow reaction
turbines operate by drawing water from a collected
basin and pulling the water flow through the turbine to
create power. After water is initially collected in the
basin to be fed into the turbine by using a river or
stream’s natural water flow an output pipe on the
opposite end of the turbine placed back into the water
source in order to create a suction effect to more
forcibly push water through the turbine and generate
higher levels of electricity.
• These are extremely efficient forms of power
generation as the suction effect can create a
high volume output that in many cases is
sufficient enough to power a small household
with one single unit. The only drawback to this
form of water turbine is that you must have an
adequate area and be able to successfully
channel the water flow into a basin to be used
to draw source, something that can be very
difficult in some areas.
Submersible or In-Stream Turbines
• Unlike the previous two designs in which
water is actually first extracted from a stream
or river and then fed into a turbine to
generate power submersible or in-stream
turbines operate directly in the water itself
and utilize the water’s natural flow for power
generation.
• This may be the easiest setup to begin with, as it
does not require a lot of other engineering or
construction to develop a draw source to power
the turbine, however for efficient power
generation these also require a strong river or
stream to power them regularly. For this matter
submersible or in-stream turbines are only really
efficient for areas with high-speed water flow
that can be constant throughout the year,
otherwise an impulse or reaction turbine may be
a better option.
• If you’re thinking of developing a hydro power
generation option in your own home consider what
may be available to you in your area and what natural
factors you can take advantage of. While it’s true that
some power generation sources may be much more
difficult to initially set up than others at the same time
they may provide you with a better overall power
generation option in the long run, a consulting with
professionals in your area that specialize with hydro
power generation would be a good bet to do before
getting started in order to make sure that you can fully
utilize any water source near you to its fullest extent.