Micro Hydro Generator Question

[Off Grid Miner]

Hi there. I do mining in a remote wilderness area. I have a camp where I have a travel trailer, work shed, water storage tanks, satellite internet and t.v. Currently I run everything with gas generators and two batteries in the travel trailer.

This is my third season mining and I would like to get away from using the generators if possible and either go with hydro power from the creek that flows through my camp or with solar panels. I have a water use permit for the creek already in place under my mining permit so using the water for a hydro generator is allowed under my current permit.

I have been doing some reading on using alternate power sources and have seen from most of the videos and descriptions of these systems mention using a charge controller, battery bank, and an inverter with the power sources ie solar or hydro.
In my travel trailer where I use most of the power I have some items on DC battery power like some of the lights, the propane furnace fan, the fridge light etc, and then the rest of the electric outlets in the trailer are 110 volt and are wired to the convertor that is wired to shore power plug that can be hooked to a generator for a power source.

I understand that if I go with solar power I will have to wire the panels to a charge controller then to the battery bank, then to the inverter because I will need to have some stored power for when the solar panels aren't collecting energy in the dark time periods.
But if I go with an AC current micro hydro power source I will be able to be collecting energy 24 hrs a day so I am wondering if I can avoid having to charge a battery bank and just wire the hydro turbine generator straight to a breaker panel in my trailer? And since they make the hydro generators in AC then does that mean I can avoid the need of an inverter too if I go straight to a controller and breaker panel? If the creek has enough water flow to support a 30 amp generator then that would be enough for my camps electrical power needs. If that is possible does that mean I would have to still have the hydro generator wired to a controller, then to the electrical breaker panel? If so does the system still have to dump extra power if I'm not using the full 30 amps it's producing? If so, does the controller take care of dumping that extra power into a heat ballast, or something like that, or can I create an extra power dump that will go to a water tank heater or something like that? Just trying to figure out the most straight forward way of hooking it up. If I can use the AC 30 amp hydro power 24 hrs a day and avoid the battery bank and inverter that would save me a bunch of money. If something happens to the hydro power I will still have my generator as back up.

Sorry if I'm not making sense. This is all very new to me so I'm not quite getting how this works with getting the power straight to a breaker panel and having to deal with the extra power that is created from the hydro generator that is not being used up.

Am I understanding things correctly that when we use on the grid power in our homes from the utility company any extra power we don't use goes back to the grid somehow? If so, is that what I also have to do with the power coming from the hydro generator by dumping the extra power somewhere?

[Bruno Motta]

hallo
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udos46

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Miner,

You're correct that with solar panels you would charge batteries, and then use an inverter to create 120V AC from that (or power things directly from DC).

Normally that is also how small hydro turbines work. They produce "wild AC" of varying frequency and Voltage, this goes through a rectifier to make DC, and that then charges the batteries.

There may be small hydro turbines that create a stable 120V AC "grid". I don't know any, but it's entirely possible that they exist. It would involve some type of governor either through mechanical or electronic means to keep the Voltage and frequency stable. One consequence would be that your loads can never exceed the output of the hydro turbine. For most that will be a problem (and for most people their loads then to vary greatly, even if their energy use is modest), that is where batteries come in to provide a buffer between energy produced and used.

While hydro is a great source of power, it can be expensive unless you build your own turbine. Solar PV has become relatively cheap, and is very reliable. So, depending on how far north your camp is, do consider solar power.

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

Off Grid Miner said:

"Sorry if I'm not making sense."

You're making a lot of sense and those are good questions.

Hydro is great if you have the potential. Can you tell us more about you're water source like what your head is, (how far in elevation the water falls and your GPM's (gallons per minute)? Will it freeze in the winter?

Should you have good hydro potential, the easiest is, Hydro alternator to rectifier, then Controller probably with dump divert to dump load, and then to battery bank. Maybe the dump could be after the battery bank. Then the inverter.

Batteries "clamp" or control the voltages to match what you want the system voltage to be.

Example:

A small windmill. You charge a 12 volt battery system and that battery system clamps down the varying high and low voltages of the windmill to 12 volts. Then with a 12 volt DC inverter you get 120 volts AC.