How Much Energy Does A Garden Hose Create

GOLDZILLA

Most who live in the country require electricity to pump their water, and most who live in town pay metered rates for their water. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with unmetered water this might be a good idea.

Saul Mine

Assuming a ten foot drop, you need 1 gallon per

second

to generate 110 watts. That assumes 100% efficiency. A cubic meter holds 264 gallons, so you can light one bulb for 4.4 minutes.

EDIT: I made a mistake in the arithmetic. One cubic meter of water would power a light bulb for 37 seconds.

Last edited: Apr 27, 2010

phideaux

No need to pump the water to the roof.

Just put the water wheel at the bottom of your gutter downspout.

Obviously not very useful in Phoenix, but Seattle, etc...

Rusty Shackelford

1. Put a 1 cubic meter tub on your roof (or build a structure to hold it)
2. Run a hose up to the tub with a toilet float to keep it filled
3. Let the water run down a tube
4. Put a water wheel in the flow

Electricity for your house.

Fail to see how this would be a net gain of power.

newmisty

1. dig a hole and put an anaerobic digester in it.
2. bury the digester and put organic wastes in there (food waste, grass clippings, leaves etc)
3. let the anaerobic digester produce methane
4. connect the digester to a natural gas generator (you can convert a gasoline generator to run on natural gas).
5. when you need electricity you simply turn on the generator, OR if you have a utility that gives you credits for the energy you put into the grid you simply turn the generator on and backfeed into the grid in order to turn your meter back.
6. to increase methane production, grow algae and feed it into the digester. Algae is the fastest growing biomass in the world.

This method can work for ANY household, even urban houses as long as you have space for the digester.

Here is a guy who has it setup IN HIS HOUSE, just to show that it CAN work.

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 26, 2015

Rusty Shackelford

The methane idea is somewhat plausable. However, most digesters produce a very dirty quality of methane that does not burn very easily. Years of wastewater digester work has taught me that. It works only supplementing high quality methane. Plus the explosive nature of a digester can have some nasty consequences if being operated by someone that does not know what is going on. I have seen WWTP digesters that have accidently exploded. Not a pretty sight.