CREATING ELECTRICITY FROM A WATER TURBINE

[Izak]

I am doing a project on hydroelectricity and would like to know if it is possible to get enough revolutions from a water turbine to be able to light a small light bulb. I have made a turbine, but I also need to know how to convert the moving energy into electricity and what equipment I would need. Can you help me?

[Louise]

I am doing a project on hydroelectricity and would like to know if it is possible to get enough revolutions from a water turbine to be able to light a small light bulb. I have made a turbine, but I also need to know how to convert the moving energy into electricity and what equipment I would need. Can you help me?

It is possible- many people actually have such turbines to help reduce their energy usage. Have you tried looking on google? I looked for "small water turbine" and "building a water turbine" and found a bunch of information. Basically, the shaft of the turbine is connected an alternator, which is easy to build. There are some instructions here:
http://www.re-energy.ca/t-i_waterbuild-1.shtml

which you should be able to modify to include the turbine you've already built. Everything it calls for should be easy to find, except for maybe the multimeter. Obviously, you should be careful if you use a power drill (googles!)- read through the instructions carefully before you start and get help if you need it.

You might be able to borrow a multimeter from a high school physics lab (or an electrician if you know one), if you cannot buy one (at radio shack or home depot for ~$15-20). You could do what you suggested - just use a lightbulb to check if you are generating electricity- but a multimeter would let you quantify exactly how much you generate. You could then vary the conditions (such as water speed) and see how the produced electricity changes.

The US department of energy has a very nice instructional website about coverting mechanical energy to electricity at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts ... icity.html

You'll see that power plants deal with the same question you have, and deal with it in a similar way as proposed by the first website.

Hope this helps!

Louise

[Izak]

Thank you Louise for your help. I will check it out. I appreciate your help.

[ghariman]

Hi Izak,

One of the fundametanls theory of the world is summarized in Maxwell's equations. In it lies the equations for the relation between electricty and magnetism. For your project purposes you can use the theory that is well known as "Faraday's Law of Induction":
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... arlaw.html

It states that a change of magnetic environment on a coil of wires will induce an electromagnetic force (voltage) on the coil.

In fact electric generators use this law in the basic form. All that is needed to generate a voltage is to change (with time) magnetic field acting on a coil of wires. So in a hydroelectric generator, you have water moving some sort of turbine that then moves magnets to change the magnetic fielf experienced by coils that will then generate voltage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_generator

Now obviously you want to do your project in "small scale" fashion.
So what I think you can do is buy one of those small electric motors (that they use frequenctly in toys). It looks like this:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/motor1a.jpg

Then you would open it up (I have done this before). Inside you will find coils and magnets. Now normally in these electric motors you would provide the voltage and then the magets will start moving and your motor will work. But for your project you want to do it the other way around. That is you will want to rotate the magnets around and you should see some voltage accross the two wires where you normally connect the supply to. If you connect a mini light bulb (like the one used in small flash-lights) then it should light up. You may need to rotate the magents very very fast to generate enough voltage to light a small mini bulb.
If you have handy a volt-meter then you can measure voltage instead.

Try going to a local electronics hobby store to buy the electric motor and the mini light bulb and some wires. Radioshack is a good place to go to.
Bulb: http://www.halted.com/commerce/catalog/ ... 1289115022
Motor: http://www.radioshack.com/search/index. ... igkw=motor

Good Luck !

[ghariman]

Hi again,

I found this science project that did it with wind power.
Exactly what I was talking below but here are the pictures:
http://www.otherpower.com/toymill.html#danf

Good Luck !

Hi Izak,

One of the fundametanls theory of the world is summarized in Maxwell's equations. In it lies the equations for the relation between electricty and magnetism. For your project purposes you can use the theory that is well known as "Faraday's Law of Induction":
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... arlaw.html

It states that a change of magnetic environment on a coil of wires will induce an electromagnetic force (voltage) on the coil.

In fact electric generators use this law in the basic form. All that is needed to generate a voltage is to change (with time) magnetic field acting on a coil of wires. So in a hydroelectric generator, you have water moving some sort of turbine that then moves magnets to change the magnetic fielf experienced by coils that will then generate voltage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_generator

Now obviously you want to do your project in "small scale" fashion.
So what I think you can do is buy one of those small electric motors (that they use frequenctly in toys). It looks like this:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/motor1a.jpg

Then you would open it up (I have done this before). Inside you will find coils and magnets. Now normally in these electric motors you would provide the voltage and then the magets will start moving and your motor will work. But for your project you want to do it the other way around. That is you will want to rotate the magnets around and you should see some voltage accross the two wires where you normally connect the supply to. If you connect a mini light bulb (like the one used in small flash-lights) then it should light up. You may need to rotate the magents very very fast to generate enough voltage to light a small mini bulb.
If you have handy a volt-meter then you can measure voltage instead.

Try going to a local electronics hobby store to buy the electric motor and the mini light bulb and some wires. Radioshack is a good place to go to.
Bulb: http://www.halted.com/commerce/catalog/ ... 1289115022
Motor: http://www.radioshack.com/search/index. ... igkw=motor

Good Luck !

[mus]

I am trying to build a generator for a windmill I am constructing, do you know how I could build one

[mus]

I am trying to build a turbine for a windmill I am constructing, do you know how I could build one

[Louise]

I am trying to build a turbine for a windmill I am constructing, do you know how I could build one

Hello again! What I meant when I pointed you to this thread was that you should look at the answers already provided, not ask your question again. I think the links and the discussion talk about both turbines and alternators. Several of them provide specific designs. If they don't help, post back here with exactly what you have done, and what you want to do, and we will try to help you. There are many different ways to build a windmill and we don't know what you are doing.


Louise