71–80 of 94 posts
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You are misunderstanding. He runs each wire in a separate, sealed insulating cable pipe. These would most likely be 1-1.5 mm wall thickness PVC.
Am I right then in assuming each wire's insulator provides 600V isolation so two side-by-side would provide 1200V isolation, and the PVC is additional on top of that?
I cannot even imagine the legal sh!tstorm that would ensue from attempting this here in the PNW, the environmental impact looks quite significant.
No way you'd be able to just DIY it either - some of the permits will require licensed contractors.
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The author mentions solar in a later post: > Another restriction is that there is no power at this place. Bringing power here would require a 350 meter long transmission line through dense forest, or else installing a solar panel, battery and regulator. Due to the low head available between the intake dam and the forebay, a picohydro system to provide some power is hardly feasible. Solar power is quite restricted too…
I remember hearing this is a (common) misconception, and that solar panels will still be at somewhere around 50% efficiency even under heavy clouds. Maybe they weren't as efficient yet back in 2009.
On a direct-sun day, they generate 4 kilowatts, but under heavy cloud I'm lucky to get 500w
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In Europe there are a lot of small streams that used to house mills before electricity made those redundant. Most of the earth work is alread done, you would just have to change it from a stretch of fast-flowing water to power a mill wheel to a small drop to power a turbine, and add the turbine and electronics. In some places there might even be ancient still-valid permits you could aquire if you buy the original mil…
As you mentioned, this is possible but often followed by lots of regulatory things. I had a look into it for Germany and the easiest way is to buy an old mill and retrofit new technology for power generation. On the other hand, older mills are often covered by the protection of historical monuments and can therefore not be altered as you like. This should really be looked into before buying anything as it will be an…
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At some point he was using 2/3 of the creek.
For a short stretch. The water goes back in at the end. It's a completely environmentally sustainable system.
- decreasing the amount of water available downstream.
- changing were the downstream water ends up.
- changing the speed of water downstream.
- changing the variability in the stream’s deficit the downstream.
- making it harder/impossible for animals to move along the stream.
I would think this does do the last, and, likely, also the next to last.
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Yeah, at first I assumed Gabriel had a digger. Then it slowly dawned that he probably didnt.
I don't think I've ever seen someone so well shreaded from labour before. Usually it's the sort of in-shape-out-of-shape guy, or thin and wiry. Gabriel looks like he's off the set of 300 or something.
Wow I am absolutely sucked into this website, I want to scroll it forever. God I'm so jealous, albeit I'm only 24, but I really want to learn how to do all this stuff and move out to somewhere far away.
The website might be packed with information, but still I find it disappointing that the author starts by describing a controller while leaving the reader totally in the dark about what its function is. Also, but this may be forgivable given the target audience, I'd prefer to read a little introduction about what a microhydro plant really is, and its principle of operation.
The associated article on creating an electronic load controller for his microhydro system is also very interesting: https://ludens.cl/Electron/picelc/picelc.html
quite an inspiration!