Off Grid Micro Hydro - The Dream System!?

We're happy to see that our machine is giving you too much power and hot water to boot. They are tough machines for sure.

Good simple system two points though.
1. The bearings sound worn out
2. Its good to have both nozzles as this creates a balance of forces on the shaft giving less stress on the bearings. Running with both nozzles makes your bearings and shafts to last longer.

Anyone who's ever worked on any kind of industrial equipment will tell you that your bearings sound like they're about to go out. Bearings running at those speeds for 15 years are probably close to failing. Replacing bearings is cheap compared to what they destroy if they fail catastrophically.

In rural Alabama, I met a guy with a large pond, elevation of about 5 feet, who had a couple of large hydro-electric generators. He provided so much electricity that it ran 5 homes and had enough remaining to sell back to the power company. They periodically sent him a CHECK rather than a bill. It was amazing how much power he could generate from so little 'fall' (altitude was basically flat). He could do this because his pond was so huge and he had enough water flow.

We heat our house (Off Grid) with hot water using PEX Radiant Floor Heat.
Our wood stove has a tank and serpentine as well as a smoke stack tank that absorbs the heat. We store this in a big 750 liter tank that supplies hot water to all of our showers and bath and kitchen as well as the floor heat.
As I told you before we have ONLY SOLAR now and yes the problem is where we live in Chile we do not have enough sun in the winter and TOO MUCH sun in the summer with our 10kw system. So we would like to supplement our solar with a small hydro system. Smaller than the one in this video as we only need to keep our batteries topped off. June 21 is the shortest day of the year here where we are in Chile. So we have to plan our consumption around that fact.
Love this solar system. Thanks for showing the INTAKE since that is always the weak link in any TURBINE system. We may go with a water wheel system for this reason if we ever get there. Thanks for the video. Jim in Chile.

I lived off grid for years. Surprising how little hydro you actually need. Started off with two 5000W diesel generators. By year two we were down to on Honda 750W generator just to charge batteries.

If the dumped hot water was directed into a green house that energy would be further consumed ultimately becoming food - loved this whole system thanks for the vid and the channel

Awesome! We ran that same unit at a property here in Washington. 90 feet of head 45-55 psi fed by 2 from fish ponds gave us more power than we needed most days. When our kids move out we're definitely doing it again. Nothing like working to live instead of living to work.

Viktor Schauberger will be so proud of this young man.
Well done

Your living the good life!! The balance of natural living and use of a technology is commendable and enviable. I wish I had a off grid homestead and location such as yours. Keep it up!

Hi Gridlessness family ! I just want to say you guy's make me smile and feel great. I love watching your videos ! Please don't ever stop !!!!

That was great and being a pipefitter by trade I have always thought about this. There is another option with the hot water heater to that you may want to consider a circ pump. You could run hot water base board heat as well which you would be using the waste heat from the heater to also heat your home plus you would always have instant hot water in your home. Hydro power is the way to go it runs day and night never quits.

You might want to replace the bearings every few years, they'll still run for years, even when the bearings seal has failed because it's water cooled, but it's much quieter after you have put in new bearings and seals, but we forget to, because we get used to the noise over the years and think it's normal, but once you do replace them, you will be so amazed how smooth and quiet it runs, and it's not from the cavitation of the water vs impeller, making the noise, that's only when the impeller is pushing the water 😉 like a boat 🚢

One system I viewed used a cordless drill to open and close the intake valve to control the output rather than dumping it. It was pretty slick.

We love your channel and how innovative you all have been and become. Inspiring!

This was really important to show others what is possible. Thanks so much for showing us.😊

Great video! You guys covered it well. I would have loved to see a series that covered the building of the system from beginning to end. Maybe it's something you'll do on your property?

Love all ur videos u guys put out , ur family is living THE best life , thank u so much for sharing ur journey 💫

Running for over 15 years is unbelievable masterpiece of alternators engineering

Thanks for sharing all your great ideas and builds. Appreciate you guys