I am also a newbie, this being my first post. I would appreciate some perspective on what would be the most sensible type of piping for a penstock on my potential site. On my property is a small, year-round spring-fed creek running at an estimated 100 - 300 gpm, depending upon amount of added flow from local runoff after rains (...it rains a lot here in Western Washington). I estimate the available gross head (I haven't surveyed it) at 60 ft. The run of the penstock pipe would approximate 600 - 800 feet. I would like to extract as much AC production as I reasonably can from the site, as my state and utility encourages net metering, and my house uses a lot of power, even though I have installed geothermal heat pumping. My question is this: the stream is in a fairly steep, heavily wooded ravine, and the going is tough because of the irregular terrain and brush. Because of the expected difficulty of installing and properly bedding a 4 or 5" PVC pipe, I wonder if (1or several) 2" or larger polyethylene pipe(s) would make sense instead. I am afraid that the joints on the PVC could fail from the stress of the uneven terrain. Since freezing isn't an issue, I think poly pipe could just be laid on the ground (with necessary tethering). Would this be more appropriate given the difficulty of the terrain, or would PVC be cheaper and acceptably rugged? Thank you so much for your advice. Respectfully, Tim Crawford Montesano, Washington, USA
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