Greetings all. My name is Cather, and I have recently bought a house in the middle of nowhere. THe property is on the bank of a river, and I have been trying to figure out if there is a practical way to get hydro power to act as either a supplement to grid power or as a replacement. I've been researching it for a couple of weeks now, but I've discovered that I don't even know enough to make sense of what I'm reading.
I have seen references to using streams for microhydro, although the impression I got was that the power generated wasn't in the ballpark that I'm after. This river (the Willis River, a tributary of the James River in Virginia, USA) is reasonably larger than a creek-- it's at least six meters wide. The depth varies with the weather-- I'd say it's about 1 - 2 meters deep on average, but it will sometimes rise another 2 meters or higher during flood season. I have no idea what the flow is in GPM, nor any idea how to find out. According to my latest power bill (9/16 to 10/16) I used 3290 kWh in a month. I expect that will be somehwat higher in the summer, although I should mention that I currently have three teenagers living at home, and they will more than likely be moved out before I can afford to do anything with microhydro. There are a few catches-- 1) The house is not on the river bank-- there are about three acres of woods between the house and the river. 2) The riverbank is a couple of meters above the normal level of the river. 3) When it rains heavily, the river has been known to rise above the bank and flood the banks. 4) I don't own both sides of the river-- the other side is a state park. 5) As mentioned, this is a future project-- I don't have the money for it right now. In fact, I'm pretty much broke right now. I don't even know what it is that I need to know. I was hoping this group could point me in the right direction? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
