Powering An Old Mill - 1.5 Kw Lake District Overshot Waterwheel Project Part 1

This project actually started over two years ago now. The owners son contacted me about doing a survey for a potential hydroelectric system at his fathers property and paid for a consultation for a birthday present. We discussed many options in the consultation. I did want to go with a cross flow turbine initialy but the nature of the main river is that it has a very high flood line and in times of high water the turbine would be flooded or it would have to be sited high up and then the head the is gain from using a turbine is lost. We then decided I either a screw turbine or waterwheel. The waterwheel was the preferred option for the owner because of the nature of the property and the lower maintenance. I made a 3d model of the site and desiged an overshot waterwheel and trough system. the trough itself has to take a few turns in order to get the of useable head so it is not a perfect solution but one that can be fine tuned later on once we get the wheel installed. The wheel is fed by a wooden trough and the wheel itself is mounted in the leet on some concrete pads. the wheel drives a 20-1 gear box and a permanent magnet alternator and is going to be grid tied once everything is earthed and safe. Once installed the expected output will be in the range of 1.5 -1.7 Kw but im sure there will need to be some fine tuning after installation to get things working just right. while I am building the waterwheel the customer, family and friends are working on the feed trough and spillway on site. I would like to give special thanks to Rob from Extreme CNC plasma. without them this project would not be possible. The inc plasma cutter made by them was use for just about every part of this wheel. Next week I will be going to install the wheel and start the initial testing.