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This shot to the left is of the home-built paddle wheel made from a 5 gallon bucket, galvanized roofing material, and a couple of mounted bearings.
The drive belt to the generators is a dryer belt that is VERY flexible. This helps over come the friction losses. It runs in the top grove of the converted bucket, using it as a large pulley.
Through experimentation it was found that 18 paddles provided the smoothest power from the wheel. Smaller numbers of paddles tended to cause a pulsating in the generator output and some paddles were ripped apart from the vibrations.
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Shot of both Hydro generators in action
The water source is from a river running for 1/2 mile on our land. The banks have a flood control levy on each side. We have a large irrigation slough that is about 6 feet lower than the water level of the river. This gives the siphon pipes about 4-6 feet of usable head to the wheels. The "tailwater" is returned back to the river about 1/4 mile downstream. The critters love the steady flow through the slough!
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