“Greens” around the world are increasingly and increasingly protesting against the development of new oil, gas, coal deposits, as well as the massive use of internal combustion engines throughout the world, which cause the worst pollution in our environment. Celebrities from the world of fashion, theater, and cinema call for living more economically in terms of energy consumption. They install solar panels and wind generators on the roofs of their mansions (like actor Leonardo DiCaprio, for example).
More and more ordinary people also understand that something can depend on their behavior, and if at least one person finds an alternative to the internal combustion engine, then the world will become a little cleaner. Therefore, in villages, towns and in our country, where there is falling or running water, a certain pool of water on a hill, it is possible to make a mini hydroelectric power station with your own hands and, thereby, help both yourself and Her Majesty Nature. This is an alternative to a gasoline or diesel generator, which still runs on fuel and produces caustic emissions into the environment.
What if more than one person, more than one household decided to find an alternative way to obtain electricity? What if it’s a whole town, village, aul? Here the load on Nature will decrease significantly. And the consumer will have more money in his pocket for household needs, because electricity from a mini hydroelectric power station created by the hands and minds of enthusiasts is about three times cheaper than buying it from regular producers (CHPs, nuclear power plants, industrial hydroelectric power stations).
Finding the right water
Recently I saw a short video that showed how, in an ordinary Indian village, students from one of the Western colleges decided to build a mini hydroelectric power station. There is no electricity in that wilderness, young people are fleeing to the cities, but what will happen if you give the residents electricity? There is no river as such in the village, but there is a reservoir. A natural bowl with a huge amount of water is located slightly above the village level. What did the students come up with?
With their smart heads they realized that since there is no flow from Nature here, it can be created! By the hands of hired workers, a covered long pipe with a diameter of a meter was installed, and one end of it was closed onto a reservoir, and the other, below, went into a small and slow-moving river. Due to the difference in height, water from the reservoir rushed down through the pipe, accelerating more and more, and at the exit a rather powerful flow was already created, which rested against the blades of the mini hydroelectric power station. The pipe in which the water of the reservoir is enclosed runs down the hillside so picturesquely that it seems as if a huge python is slowly crawling from top to bottom and instills terror in the local residents with its size. You want to touch it with your hands, feel it, feel its power.
If something similar is being created in an Indian village, then why not try to do the same in a Russian village? If there is no fast-flowing river nearby, but there is a reservoir, then the construction of a mini hydroelectric power station is also possible. You just need to look at the terrain, but one thing is clear: the reservoir - be it natural or artificial - must be located higher than the place where the hydroelectric power station will be installed. If the height difference is significant, even better! The flow of water will run stronger from top to bottom, which means that the possible power of the generated electricity will increase.
It is not necessary to buy expensive pipes to organize an artificial water flow. You can make a kind of gutter with your own hands, and let the water from the reservoir accelerate through it. To begin with, it is better to take any available means, old pipes, albeit of small diameter for now, and build a trial version of draining water from the reservoir located above. This way it will be possible to measure the flow speed (I already wrote how to do this earlier). If there is a fast-flowing river nearby, then there is no need to build either dams, gutters, or artificially create a flow of water. Mini hydroelectric power stations in the form of a garland, propeller, Dardieu rotor or water wheel can be installed in such places without any problems.
It will be important to protect the structure. How? A protective screen made of mesh or a diffuser should be installed in front of the mini hydroelectric power station so that fragments of trees, or even whole logs, floating along the river, as well as live and dead fish, and all kinds of debris, do not fall on the turbine blades, but float past.
The simplest DIY mini hydroelectric power station
Almost everyone can create their own mini-hydroelectric power station with their own hands. Examples? To obtain lighting during a hike, many tourists use an ordinary bicycle, which they use to get around. On any bicycle wheel, they install jumpers made of pieces of, say, thin iron between the spokes and, first with their hands and then with pliers, bring the edges of the sheet behind the spoke, thereby fixing the jumper. The length of the jumper should correspond to half the diameter of the wheel, that is, cover the distance from the rim to the hub. In fact, it should be equal to the length of the knitting needle. It would be optimal to install four such jumpers according to the cardinal directions: North, South, West, East. Next, you will need a regular bicycle generator and a flashlight connected to it.
It's time to go hiking. You need to stop for the night by the river. Well, let the mosquitoes bite! But you will be able to make a video of the party and take photos around the fire. This is very picturesque! The water in the river must have a noticeable flow and then our camping mini hydroelectric power station will work. “Let there be light!” - said the mechanic and made a short circuit. No, this is not about us.
“Let there be light!” - said the tourist and lowered the wheel with iron jumpers a third into the water of the flowing river. The bicycle itself is placed on a small stand, or suspended from a tree or peg on the shore so that one third of the wheel is immersed in the stream. The water presses on the jumpers, spins the wheel, the generator converts the water energy into current and a mini-flashlight illuminates the parking area.
There is no risk that the batteries will be defective, as in the case of using a conventional flashlight, there is no risk that they will run out, and you do not need to take large quantities of them on a hike. The flow of the river will not disappear anywhere. Tourists most often prefer to stay in proven places. So, having once received an electric current through a mini-velo-hydroelectric power station at the place where they spent the night, they will remember this place and try to while away the dark time of the day here.
Negotiation difficulties
However, lighting one candle, figuratively speaking, is one thing, but lighting thousands, giving people light, as Prometheus did, is a completely different matter. A compact hydroelectric power station as a source of electricity, by its appearance in everyday use, can disrupt the established picture and state of affairs.
The largest monopolies are accustomed to the fact that they are the ones who produce electricity for small settlements; sales subsidiaries are accustomed to receiving money for delivering goods - kWh to the consumer. Where to fit mini hydroelectric power stations into this scheme? And not yet controlled by monopolists? I’ll say right away that it will not be easy to coordinate such a project with local authorities in Russia, just like any other new business. But the result is worth the effort.
In general, a compact (mini) hydroelectric power station means a station that produces power up to 100 kW. Craftsmen, working with their hands and heads, can quite easily build this useful thing in their town or village, even in a private household. But only if there are appropriate natural conditions and the desire to create something NEW, save money, that is, pay less for electricity in the future.
If you watch a video or photo of some mini-hydroelectric power plants, you will see that sometimes they look very strange. But for the contemporaries of Leonardo Da Vinci, his flywheels with huge wings also seemed at least strange, and with his daring experiments and ideas, the great Italian completely terrified many people of his time. So what? We don't remember those people. And Leonardo’s drawings and creations will live on for centuries. Build a mini-hydroelectric power station with your own hands, experiment, dare! Nature and descendants will only say “Thank you” to you!
Mikhail Bersenev
There are also craftsmen in Tajikistan, no worse than Indian ones:
It is at this place that We will try to make our new hydroelectric power station. Previously, on this pond, attempts had already been made to create a homemade hydroelectric power station from a squirrel wheel with a belt drive to a generator (by the way, it is shown in the photo at the end of the article), which produced a current of about 1 Ampere, this was enough to power several light bulbs and a radio in our small hunting lodge . This power plant operated successfully for more than 2 years, and we decided to create a more powerful version of a similar hydroelectric power plant in place of this mini-dam.
To manufacture a mini dam hydroelectric power station on the m you will need:
Sheet metal scraps and corners;
- Wheel disks (used from the housing of a failed Onan generator);
- Generator (it was made from two disks with a diameter of 11 inches from Dodge disc brakes);
- The drive shaft and bearings also seem to be from Dodge, we don’t remember exactly, so we removed them with our own hands from some other homemade product;
- copper wire with a cross-section of approximately 15 mm;
- some plywood;
- magnets;
- polystyrene resin for filling the rotor and stator.
Manufacturing process
We make the drive wheel blades from a 4-inch steel pipe cut into 4 parts.
We made a template that helped us lay out the hole. The side surfaces of the wheel are 12-inch diameter discs.
We make a template with which we mark the holes for the hubs (5 pieces), as well as the position of the angle of the blades. In such a wheel, if you look from the side, the water hits the top, around 10 o'clock, passes through the middle of the wheel and comes out at the bottom, at 5 o'clock, so the water hits the wheel twice. We reviewed a large number of photographs and tried to simulate the width and angle of the blades. In the photo above there are markings for the edges of the blades and holes for attaching the wheel to the generator. The wheel has 16 blades.
The template was glued to one of the disks - the future side surface of the wheel; we clamped both disks together. The photo above shows drilling small holes for positioning the blades.
We create a 10-inch gap between the discs using solid threaded studs and align them as carefully as possible before installing the blades.
The wheel welding process is shown in the photo above. It is very important that the blades are made of galvanized steel pipe. Before welding, it is necessary to strip the zinc from the edges of the blades, since when welding, galvanized metal emits toxic gas, which we try to avoid.
The finished wheel of our future hydroelectric station, without a generator. On the other side of the wheel (opposite the generator), there is a 4-inch diameter hole in the side disk - for ease of screwing to the generator, and also for cleaning, so that you can reach in and remove sticks and other debris that water may carry inside.
The nozzle is the same width (10 inches) as the wheel and about 1 inch tall at the end where the water comes out. The nozzle area is slightly smaller than the 4-inch pipe on which the nozzle is mounted. In the photo above we bend a metal sheet with our own hands for a nozzle.
We put the wheel on the axle, our hydroelectric power station is almost ready, all that remains is to make and install the generator. The entire structure is movable. We can move the nozzle forward, backward, up, down. The wheel and generator can move forward and backward.
Manufacturing a generator for our hydroelectric power station.>
We make the stator winding and prepare it for casting. The winding consists of 9 coils, each coil consists of 125 turns of copper wire with a cross-section of 1.5 mm. Each phase consists of 3 coils connected in series, we brought out 6 ends, so we can make either a star or a delta connection.
And this is the stator after filling. (We use polyester resin to fill it) Its diameter is 14 inches (35.5 cm), thickness is 0.5 inches 1.3 cm.
We make a template from plywood - for marking for magnets.
The photo shows a template and one of the brake discs (future rotor).
We arrange 12 magnets measuring 2.5 x 5 cm and 1.3 cm thick according to the prepared template.
We fill the rotor with polyester resin, and when the resin dries, the rotor is ready for use.
This is what our almost completed hydroelectric power station looks like complete with a generator.
Photo from the other side. Under the aluminum cover there are two bridge rectifiers from 3-phase alternating current to direct current. Ammeter scale – up to 6A. In this condition, when the air gap between the magnetic rotors is reduced to the limit, the machine produces 12.5 volts at 38 rpm.
In the rear magnetic rotor, there are 3 tuning screws to adjust the air gap, so that the generator can spin faster as needed, hoping to find the optimum.
In their spare time, 17 people took part in the creation of the hydroelectric power station.
Let's start making fasteners; to do this, we first clean all the rust from the sheet metal and corners, prime and paint, this is of course not necessary, but it’s more beautiful this way, and it will look marketable.
Our generator with a water wheel is ready, all that remains is to install it!
It would be nice to build a splash screen for the generator that would rotate with the wheel, but we have never found a suitable material. Therefore, we decided to do this later, if the hydroelectric power station starts working.
Another photo of the generator with a water wheel. The nozzle has not yet been installed, it is in the back of the body and we will install it soon.
The photo shows the place where we want to put it. A 4-inch pipe comes out from the bottom of the dam, about a 3-foot drop. We only take a small part of the water flow.
This is our old micro-hydroelectric power station, which worked for 2 years, including winters. It was enough for 1 Ampere (12 Watts) or so. This is a squirrel wheel, with a belt drive to the engine from a computer streamer from Ametek. Belt tension is critical to successful operation and must be adjusted frequently. We hope we've built something better than this.
Here is our hydroelectric power station in place, we are setting it up. Finally, we arrive at the theoretically predicted parameters: the best result is obtained when water enters at 10 o'clock on the wheel rim and exits around 5 o'clock.
It's working! The output is about 2 Amps (1.9 to be exact). It is not possible to increase the current. The adjustments are not easy to make - each movement of the wheel requires a corresponding movement of the nozzle, and vice versa. We can also change the air gap and change the connection from star to delta. The result is clearly better for the star - the power is higher than for the triangle at the same speed. We ended up going with a chainring with 1.25 inches of clearance (quite a lot).
The machine can be made a little cheaper by using less powerful magnets and a smaller air gap... or it can produce more current with the same magnets, less gap and coils with more turns. We'll do this someday. In the meantime, the wheel produces 160 rpm at idle, 110 rpm under load, producing 1.9 A x 12V.
We had a lot of fun, it was a lot of fun, and the mini-hydroelectric power station works well. We still need a screen for the generator - the river is full of magnetite sand! Every few hours you have to clean the magnetic rotors from sand build-up. You need to either install a screen or attach a couple of powerful magnets at the entrance to the pipe.
Based on materials from the site: Otherpower.com
Since electricity tariffs have recently begun to rise, renewable sources of electricity are becoming increasingly important among the population, allowing them to receive electricity almost free of charge. Among such sources known to mankind, it is worth highlighting solar panels, wind generators, and home hydroelectric power plants. But the latter are quite complex, because they have to work in very aggressive conditions. Although this does not mean that it is impossible to build a mini-hydroelectric power station with your own hands.
To do everything correctly and efficiently, the main thing is to choose the right materials. They must ensure maximum durability of the station. Do-it-yourself home hydro generators, whose power is comparable to that of solar panels and wind turbines, can produce a much larger amount of energy. But although a lot depends on the materials, everything does not end there.
Types of mini hydroelectric power plants
There are a large number of different variations of mini-hydroelectric power stations, each of which has its own advantages, features and disadvantages. The following types of these devices are distinguished:
- garland;
- propeller;
- Daria rotor;
- water wheel with blades.
A garland hydroelectric power station consists of a cable on which rotors are attached. Such a cable is pulled across the river and immersed in water. The flow of water in the river begins to rotate the rotors, which in turn rotate the cable, at one end of which there is a bearing, and at the other - a generator.
The next type is a water wheel with blades. It is installed perpendicular to the water surface, submerging less than half. As the flow of water acts on the wheel, it rotates and causes the generator for the mini-hydroelectric power station on which this wheel is attached to rotate.
Classic water wheel - a well forgotten old one As for the propeller hydroelectric power station, it is a wind turbine located under water with a vertical rotor. The width does not exceed 2 centimeters. This width is enough for water, because it is this rating that allows you to produce the maximum amount of electricity with minimal resistance. True, this width is optimal only for flow speeds up to 2 meters per second.
As for other conditions, the parameters of the rotor blades are calculated separately. And the Darrieus rotor is a vertically positioned rotor that operates on the principle of differential pressure. Everything happens similarly with an airplane wing, which is affected by lift.
Advantages and disadvantages
If we consider a garland hydroelectric power station, then it has a number of obvious shortcomings. Firstly, the long cable used in the design poses a danger to others. Rotors hidden under water also pose a great danger. Well, in addition, it is worth noting the low efficiency indicators and high material consumption.
As for the disadvantages of the Darrieus rotor, in order for the device to start generating electricity, it must first be spun up. True, in this case, power is taken directly above the water, so no matter how the water flow changes, the generator will generate electricity.
All of the above are factors that make hydraulic turbines for mini-hydroelectric power plants and water wheels more popular. If we consider the manual construction of such devices, they are not so complicated. And in addition, at minimal costs, such mini-hydroelectric power plants are capable of delivering maximum efficiency indicators. So the criteria for popularity are obvious.
Where to start construction
The construction of a mini-hydroelectric power station with your own hands should begin with measuring the speed indicators of river flows. This is done very simply: just mark a distance of 10 meters upstream, pick up a stopwatch, throw a chip into the water, and note the time it takes for it to cover the measured distance.
Ultimately, if you divide 10 meters by the number of seconds taken, you get the speed of the river in meters per second. It is worth considering that there is no point in building mini-hydroelectric power stations in places where the flow speed does not exceed 1 m/s.
If the reservoir is far away, you can build a bypass channel If you need to figure out how mini-hydroelectric power stations are made in areas where the river speed is low, then you can try to increase the flow by organizing a height difference. This can be done by installing a drain pipe into the reservoir. In this case, the diameter of the pipe will directly affect the speed of water flow. The smaller the diameter, the faster the flow.
This approach makes it possible to organize a mini-hydroelectric power station even if there is a small stream passing near the house. That is, a collapsible dam is organized on it, below which a mini-hydroelectric power station is installed directly to power the house and household appliances.
Mini-hydroelectric power station - Leneva's dam-free hydropower unit - with a river flow speed of 1 m/s, a mini-hydroelectric power station installation with dimensions of 1.5 * 0.7 * 0.6 m produces 11 kW.
Mini-hydroelectric power station - Leneva hydropower unit:
Mini-hydroelectric power station - hydropower unit Leneva N.I. uses an original method, not previously used in any existing structure, of generating energy both from a water flow of any kind (rivers, streams, tides, sea waves, etc.) and from the movement of air masses. In this case, the natural flow is used, without preliminary transformation (construction of dams, canals, pressure pipes).
This method of extracting the power of the water flow is the most beneficial from an environmental point of view, since it does not at all disturb the natural bed of the river, occupying from 1% to 10% of the area, thereby not interfering with the free movement of river fauna and flora, unlike existing hydroelectric power stations .
At a river flow speed of 1 m/s hydropower unit Leneva N.I. dimensions 1.5*0.7*0.6 m produces 11 kW.
Design of the Leneva hydropower unit:
Mini-hydroelectric power station - Leneva hydropower unit is a system (two rows) of rectangular blades (flat plate) whose axes divide them into two (1/2) unequal parts, the larger of which is always (due to the action of the flow) located behind the axis further downstream. This ensures minimal rotation around its axis and, consequently, minimal turbulent turbulence.
The axes of the blades, with their upper and lower parts, in turn, are fixed on the upper and lower, closed in rings - PRL chains (or on any other flexible element). The chains transmit force through sprockets (impellers) to two vertical shafts, from which the mechanical energy of the moving medium (water, air, etc., etc.) through a flexible coupling and intermediate shaft is transmitted to the shafts electric generators. The installation shafts through sliding (rolling) bearings are rigidly fixed to the frame of the hydraulic power unit, which has 2/3 closed side walls and a blank bottom wall, which does not prevent the flow of additional water from the surrounding flow through the top and 1/3 of the side walls of the hydraulic power unit.
It is rational to place at least three in one frame block installations of mini-hydroelectric power stations.
The position of the blades in relation to the main flow is regulated by fixed guides for the chain and movable ones for the larger side of the blade, and by changing the distance between the movable guide for the blade and the fixed guide for the chain, we set the required angle of rotation between the blade and the direction of the main flow from 0 0 to 45 0, thereby achieving the optimal operating mode of the hydropower unit or stopping it completely. Thus, the flow acts on the blade virtually perpendicularly, at 90 0. One of the shafts of the hydraulic power unit has a tensioner that regulates the tension of the chains. The blades must have freedom of rotation on their axes, and the axes must also rotate freely when attached to the chains. Between the blade and the place of attachment to the chain, rollers must be installed on the axles, which will roll along fixed guides, thereby keeping the chain constantly in a perpendicular position relative to the direction of the main flow.
The sizes of mini-hydroelectric power stations are not limited. Determined by the required power and size of the river. As an example, let’s take: width – 1200 mm, depth – 700 mm, length – 1250 mm, i.e. volume – 1 m3. It allows you to place 3 installations with 17 blades in each, which, in turn, have a width of 150 mm and a depth of 500 mm, i.e. each area is 0.075 m2. Since two blades will always be on the turns, then the total working area of one hydropower unit installation is 1.125 m2, the sum of 3 mini-hydroelectric power plant installations in one frame (1 m3 of flow) will be 3.375 m2!!!
The shaft rotation speed is only 30-60 rpm.
It is this design of the hydraulic power unit that allows the most complete use of each cubic meter of the flow of a moving medium, the resulting centrifugal and centripetal accelerations, which significantly increase both the speed of the flow and the effect of gravity of the flow of a moving medium, in our case, a river, divided into sections.
The material consumption of one kilowatt of mini-hydroelectric power station, depending on the materials used for production, will vary from several hundred grams (plastic, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene) up to 2-3 kg (steel) per 1 kW of installed power.
Description of the operating principle of mini-hydroelectric power stations:
Hydropower unit Leneva N.I. creates in front of it a small backwater of 10 centimeters at a flow speed of 1 m/sec, and behind it - a vacuum, and therefore the water falling from this backlash affects the blade at a different speed than in the surrounding flow. If there is also a vacuum at the outlet of the mini-hydroelectric power plant, the flow increases its speed under the influence of centrifugal force and the gravitational constant! This is not difficult to see in the photographs presented by the outgoing flow and the breakers it creates. The hydraulic power unit works like a pump.
Advantages of the Leneva hydropower unit:
– increased working area of the hydropower unit. In the installation of a mini-hydroelectric power station there is not a single blade that would not work at any given moment or would interfere with the work of the others. The blades are arranged in two rows, each of which is a working one. When turning, the blades also work,
– the form of installation creates a modular design of the hydropower unit, which makes it possible to build larger ones hydroelectric power stations from miniblocks for small, medium and large consumers,
– the working blades of the hydraulic power unit are located in relation to the moving flow at an optimal angle of 45 degrees. Thus, the mini-hydroelectric power station not only does not stop the movement of water, taking away all its energy, but also provokes the emergence of additional forces that significantly increase the power of the water flow, and, accordingly, our own
If there is a small river or stream not far from your country house, you can independently build a low-power hydro generator for your home. A homemade hydroelectric power station will allow you to receive free electricity.
It may not save a significant amount of money, but realizing that you have your own power source is worth a lot more. There are cases when there is no central power supply to the house. Then even very small amounts of electricity can be very useful.
Sources of electricity for a small hydroelectric power station can be:
- Rivers or streams.
- Elevation differences on lake spillways.
- Drains for technical purposes.
Compared to other devices for generating electricity that operate from a renewable source, hydro generators are the most complex. If you decide to build a mini-hydroelectric power station, the first thing you need to do is measure the speed of the river flow. The easiest way to do this is to determine how many seconds it takes for an object to float 10 meters. If the speed is less than 1 meter per second, a productive hydroelectric power station will not work. But if you artificially narrow the channel or make a small dam, the flow speed may increase slightly.
Microhydroelectric power plants require a certain amount of water pressure - the stream, falling on the blades of the hydraulic turbine, starts the generator. Operating on this principle, the installation generates electricity. The power of the water flow depends either on the natural difference in water levels (diversion), or on the artificial narrowing of the channel using a dam.
To generate some electricity, the elevation changes must be approximately 1-2 meters and the water flow must be 90 liters per second. In conditions of hilly terrain, mini-hydroelectric power stations are simply irreplaceable. The installation process is quite simple and does not require special knowledge and skills.
Depending on the design and principle of operation, several main types of home-made hydroelectric power plants can be distinguished
- Garland. It consists of a cable that is stretched from one bank of the river to the other. There are fixed rotors on it that rotate due to the flow of water. In turn, the rotors rotate a cable, one end of which is connected to the bearing and the other to the generator shaft.
- Water wheel. An important detail for a homemade hydroelectric power station. The wheel has blades that are perpendicular to the surface of the water. The water puts pressure on the blades, causing the wheel itself to rotate.
- Propeller. An excellent option for mini-hydroelectric power plants if the river bed is more than 10 m wide. The propeller rotor is installed in a vertical position. The propeller has small blades, approximately 2 cm. If the river flow speed is more than 2 meters per second, it is recommended to choose other blade sizes.
- Rotor Daria. It is a vertically mounted rotor that rotates due to the difference in pressure on its blades.
These types of mini-hydroelectric power stations are united by the fact that their construction does not require the construction of a dam. The dam is a high-precision and expensive object, the cost of construction of which is several times higher than the cost of a homemade one. It should be noted that the power of mini-hydroelectric power plants must correspond to the needs for electrical energy.
Hybrid hydroelectric power plants
If your needs require more electrical energy than a home hydroelectric power plant generates, the best option is to install a hybrid power plant and a diesel generator. But this design has several disadvantages, including:
- High noise level and no risk of environmental pollution.
- Their operation requires significant material costs. The price of electricity generated using such equipment will be approximately 20 rubles. per kW/h.
- With regular shutdowns of diesel generators, their service life is significantly reduced and the generator efficiency drops significantly.
The optimal solution when installing a hybrid power plant is to use diesel generators as a reserve. They will be turned off if the required power is provided to the consumer. As soon as a homemade hydroelectric power station stops producing energy of the required power, the diesel generator turns on and makes up for the lack of electricity.
Advantages of mini-hydroelectric power stations
- During the construction of the mini-hydroelectric power station and during its use, there is no disturbance of the natural landscape.
- The installation of a mini-hydroelectric power station does not deteriorate the quality of water: it retains its natural properties.
Weather conditions do not affect the operation of the power plant. - There are absolutely no problems that are observed in large-scale energy: the construction of expensive structures or flooding of the area.
How to increase the efficiency of hydroelectric power plants
If you need to slightly increase the amount of electricity generated, you can increase the flow by creating a height difference. The simplest solution to this problem is to install a drain pipe into the reservoir. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the diameter of the pipe itself, because it will directly affect the flow speed. The smaller it is, the greater the speed. This method allows you to install a mini-hydroelectric power station even if a small stream flows near the house. Using high-quality materials when creating a mini-hydroelectric generator, you can successfully operate this equipment for home needs.