[BC] Link to a few hydro project pics

[Bill Sepmeier]

At 08:47 PM 10/30/2007, Harold wrote:


>Nice! So, it outputs about3.6kw? What do you do with the output?


The output will be used at the house, to replace what little grid 
power I still purchase after the 2kW solar system's done what it 
does.  I plan to use it for a heating supplement as well as to run 
loads not presently on the solar, like my hot tub, which needs about 
300kW/hrs/mo (about what the house buys over the solar 
contribution).  The hydro should deliver 1450kW/hrs/mo at the worst 
case, so there will be enough juice to everything.  If there's more 
than I need after all the losses I'll convert my Prius to plug-in, 
and then deduct the whole plant as a "Fuel Production Facility."

I'd grid tie it but the FERC licensing process is ludicrous for any 
sized hydro system, something that should be eliminated since large 
scale wind and solar don't have to go through it....

>Also, I'm interested in grid tied combined heat and power systems where
>you burn natural gas to generate heat for home and electricity to dump
>back into the grid. Anyone messed with systems like this?

Sounds like a natural gas generator with its cooling water tied into 
an in-floor heating system's return water loop.  In-floor heat only 
needs 130-140dF water, but who wants to run a generator all the time?

Teledyne used to build a "no moving parts" thermocouple system that 
could do this, too, but they didn't make a lot of power ... we had 
two of them at a 14,000 foot comms site before finally taking it solar...