Off-Grid Youth Project

[thestreet]

Hi All

I am a youth worker and have in 20 years completed a variety of interesting roles. However, I feel that my current one will prove to be more challenging than any of the others.

We have a 3.5 acre field and woodland we will be building a variety of businesses on the site to encourage young people to have a go and to teach them new skills. It's a sort of back to work project by creating your own work! The site is going to become a large playground!

As part of the overall ethos of the project we want to stay off-grid totally (apart from the phone line and broadband). We have started with a purchase of 4 solar panels and 2 second hand batteries. We have an inverter and a generator. We will be building a water generator by using the sites steep slope. Basically we will build a funnel out of a tarp and then channel the rain water collected through a series of ever decreasing in size pipes until they hit the water turbine at the bottom of the hill.

But we will need help on this journey. So if there are any folks out there from Cornwall or anyone with ideas as go along please do feel free to share.

Thanks for reading.

Rich

[inetdog]

We will be building a water generator by using the sites steep slope. Basically we will build a funnel out of a tarp and then channel the rain water collected through a series of ever decreasing in size pipes until they hit the water turbine at the bottom of the hill.

Please calculate the amount of water that a tarp will collect and then look at the flow rate in gallons per minute (gpm) that the turbine will require.
Unless you plan to run utility water onto the tarp or pump water back up using your solar panels to drive a pump, I think you will end up able to run the turbine a few minutes after every rainstorm.

And although going "off-grid" for electric power sounds environmentally friendly, I don't think you have taken a realistic look at the cost and where that money could be better used to support your program.

[russ]

We will be building a water generator by using the sites steep slope. Basically we will build a funnel out of a tarp and then channel the rain water collected through a series of ever decreasing in size pipes until they hit the water turbine at the bottom of the hill.Rich

Rain water? Must rain a lot there to make it worth while. Your hill will not be big enough to be of any use. I have to dig out a couple of links for you.