Trinity Electrical Generator

Description

Conceptual Development:

Imagine a solar panel that runs an electrical water pump, that turns a water wheel, whose spokes are shaped to harness wind that passes through it.

It's a simple yet complex design project meant to generate a redundant electrical charge to power itself as well as (hopefully) generating excess power that can be used to charge batteries or provide electricity for other uses.

Project Logs

Collapse

In the beginning...
otter • 06/07/2014 at 07:02 • 0 comments

First thing's first. The hypothesis. From my limited reading and investigation thus far, I should be able to produce a sustainable generation of electricity with the combination of wind, water and solar power.
First: Solar Power
The solar power would essentially be there as a last chance backup. It would generate electricity (I'm looking at about 50W) to run a water pump. This pump in turn will run the water wheel, or step 2.
Step 2: The Water Wheel
The water wheel will effectively be the main focus of the generation. It will be attached to an axle that will turn an alternator which will in turn generate the electricity to charge a battery an/or power it's own water pump. The fallback for this is the design of the water wheel, which will be designed to function as step 3, a wind turbine.
Step 3: The Wind Turbine
The wheel basic design will consist of the paddle wheel set on spokes in the form of fan blades. This will allow not only the water wheel to function normally but to give it a bit of an extra boost when the wind picks up. This will be the third in the series of redundancies which will hopefully lead to the end goal of significant, sustainable electrical current generation.
I am in the process of determining how much electricity I hope to be able to generate from the project but as it is small scale for now, I am keeping my expectations low. A self sustaining system would be perfect for now. Optimizations could help improve that, along with scaling. But for now I would be happy to see any kind of result at all.

View project log

Discussions

Coley Logan wrote 06/28/2014 at 03:31

As a sculpture this sounds really awesome. As a energy generator it definitely sounds interesting. I've been wondering myself how well a water reservoir would work. One problem I see is that for wind the higher your blades the better it will work and for the water wheel the higher the water reservoir is above the wheel the better.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jon Sutton wrote 06/26/2014 at 00:34

I like the idea of the pretty, moving ornament.
I could be misunderstanding, but I think what you are describing with regards to efficiency is impossible. The solar panel > pump will have some losses and the waterwheel > generator will have some losses, I think you'd always get better efficiency by going straight from solar to power with as little as possible in-between.
Ignoring the wind component: The waterwheel cannot produce enough power to run a water pump to power itself (if it could you'd have invented a perpetual motion machine). What I'm saying is that you'd always have better efficiency with a wind + solar setup than if you were to add the water component you describe (unless you live near a flowing stream that can power the waterwheel)

Don't let this put you off, it'll still be a cool decoration!

A possible suggestion:
it would be cool if excess solar were used to pump water up to a reservoir that could then be used to power the waterwheel at a greater flow rate, potentially producing more power than solar alone. An empty tank is certainly cheaper than batteries!

Are you sure? yes | no

otter wrote 06/26/2014 at 01:47

Jon, your suggestion was the original idea. Try to take "some" of the electrical power from the solar to power the pump which would bring water to a reservoir to power the water wheel. (I have some drawings that i need to get onto the project that may help clarify the overall idea) I have been looking at the numbers and like you said, if I don't have a readily available water source, the pump will not be able to get enough water to continue powering the wheel. (I will post the numbers as well when I get them in a presentable manner) I have sort of branched the project to see if I could maybe do something with a semi-perpetual water wheel but right now that is just a stray thought as I haven't really researched it much at all.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jon Sutton wrote 06/26/2014 at 21:58

Ahh, it all makes more sense now I know you're planning a reservoir!

Are you sure? yes | no

Jake wrote 06/09/2014 at 22:37

A solar panel > pump > water wheel > Genny
Wind (from water wheel) > Genny

Why bother with the water wheel at all (the top process is very inefficient)? Why not just a solar panel and wind turbine? Assuming I understood correctly:)

Are you sure? yes | no

otter wrote 06/10/2014 at 15:51

Well, the original design for this was for a garden ornament. I like fountains and water wheels and the such and Wisconsin is a fairly agriculturally heavy state. The original idea was just a self charging water wheel with solar assist to keep the water fixture perpetually going without an external energy source. People off the grid still like pretty things, right? While toying with the design I thought, what if the water wheel had fan blades for spokes, the wind could then power it as well, which turned into this idea. The efficiency is still an unknown and is likely less efficient than just routing the solar collection straight to a battery array. I look at the water wheel as a way for the solar panel to increase its yield. Or at least I am hoping to see that it does. It will only take about 50W from the panel to run the water wheel and I am as of yet unsure how much electricity a smaller scale water wheel will generate, but even if I can squeeze 51W out of that wheel it means I have turned the solar power into even more energy than before. Which is what I am hoping to see. If not, then it will still look pretty in a garden =)

Are you sure? yes | no

Jake wrote 06/10/2014 at 16:26

Ah right, so it's more of a visual thing that powers itself than to actually generate electricity:)

Are you sure? yes | no

otter wrote 06/13/2014 at 16:57

Well that's what the design started out to be. Now it is becoming an experiment to see if I can increase the efficiency of solar power by combining it with other sources. IE: will the energy expended to power the waterwheel be more or less than the energy generated by it. If I can come up with a positive number (meaning the solar power powering the pump to turn the wheel creates more electricity than just the solar panel itself) than I will have, in essence, increased the efficiency of the solar power.

Are you sure? yes | no

Trinity Electrical Generator

Description

Project Logs

Collapse

In the beginning...

Discussions

Similar Projects

Solar nanofluid power & water desalination

PAM

ultraWAPI

Shower Saver

Trinity Electrical Generator

Become a Hackaday.io member

Just one more thing

Description

Project Logs Collapse

In the beginning...

Enjoy this project?

Discussions

Become a Hackaday.io Member

Similar Projects

Solar nanofluid power & water desalination

PAM

ultraWAPI

Shower Saver

Does this project spark your interest?

Report project as inappropriate

Send message

Remove Member

Project Logs

Collapse