I need help with this question about making power from turbines vs. waterwheels.?
I have studied a lot about producing electricity and I have found one book about it that the aurthur has a turbine set up in one of the northeast states. Vermont I think, but anyway, he has a nice looking set up that hasd 625' of head and uses 1 cubic foot per second of water and produces 10. 5 KW's of juice.
Now I fully understand that a 625' water wheel would be a hell of a job to build but that so far, is the only known site with the amount of water and the amount of head that I have found. I am talking about one that is, atleast suppose to be a fact.
But my way of looking at it is a cubic foot of water (62.4 lbs) on a lever that is 312.5 feet long (halve the width of the wheel) is 19,500 lbs of foot torque.
If you had that much per second and turned the wheel at one RPM you would continusly have that much tourque on the shaft from only the water that is directly at a horizonal angle from the wheel.
But you also have the water that is above and below the center so if you figure the weight that is making power how do you figure it.
What I am thinking is the water at the top is making no power but as it get closer to the center line it become closer to the full amount of torgue.
That means that if you start from dead top center (DTC) and go to DBC, the weight shpould make 100% of it's power on 25% of it time on the wheel.
In other words, if you have 1 cubic foot of water per second, you have 60 CFM > 25% = 15 CFM giving full power continuosly.
That is 15 x 62.4 x 312.5 = 292,500 foot pounds of torque.
If I am not wrong, one horse power= 5252 fpt x rpm.
Am I correct in thinking that 292,500 > 5252 = 55.69 HP????
Am I also correct that 55.69 HP x .743 = 41 KWH's of juice???
In other words the known power from the water and fall that is 10. 5 KW's of juice could be making four times the amount on a water wheel.
Nearly every book I have read on the subject says that a turbine was more effeicient than a water wheel, yet it takes less water with a water wheel to produce the same amount of power.
What kind of lolly gagging is that??
I completly understand that. The question is about the amount of torque and HP the wheel could make with the known amount of water and the size of the wheel.
I mean a 625 foot wheel has a 312.5 foot radiaus which inturn become a lever that is 312.5 feet wirh 62.4 lbs of water which is 19,500 foot lbs, when it is at a 90 degree angle from the center of the shaft.
Does no one understand what I am asking here????
There is 80,000 dams in America that could produce electricity.
The big companies say it isn't worth it and that is BS.