Hi Gents,

Did a bit of quick engineering this morning,

from a site assessment at a mountain farm yesterday

which has a large spring fed steam passing by.

Occurred to me that the calculator may be useful for others in similar situations.

It's only an adaptation of the Irrigation Calculator that I posted on another thread last year.

Plug your variables into the yellow cells,

Notable results come out in the blue cells.

The Example results in the case of the farm at hand:

5,000 liters per minute

50 meters fall

in 300 meters pipeline distance

12 inch PVC 8.5 bar Pipe

27 kW Electric Output.

Sorry, I didn't attach the Excel Calculator

HydroPower Calculator 20101005.xls

I remember seeing a project, a few years back, where the local council pulled the funding on a hikers retreat in Cumbria in England. It meant they had to become self sustainable. They tapped a small brook with a second-hand 3in. high pressure fireman's hose. They even built the generator from scratch. 100 mt fall over 1500 mt distance. The pressure was enough to light up the whole place, all 6 rooms, kitchen, fridges, computers, outside lights, everything.

But those situations are rare, unless you live around a reservoir I suppose.

Regards.