Creating Electricity from water to create an eco friendly future

[lewysmoney]

So as my tech project for my GCSE I was given a problem. There isn't much point going into huge amounts of detail but essentially what I need to do is to create electricity from drainpipes. I do not know how to do this I know it would involve dynamos and such but if someone could give me a more detailed explanation that would be great

 

Thanks in advance, Lewys

Edited July 30, 2019 by lewysmoney

[Ghideon]

22 minutes ago, lewysmoney said:

I know it would involve dynamos and such but if someone could give me a more detailed explanation that would be great

What have you tried so far? Do you have a sketch of an idea?

 

(Homework help = I don't give all details)

Edited July 30, 2019 by Ghideon
missing quote

[QuantumT]

Drainpipes are made to lead water away as fast as possible, so if we attempted to gain energy from them, it would slow the draining, thus defeating their purpose.

[swansont]

2 hours ago, lewysmoney said:

So as my tech project for my GCSE I was given a problem. There isn't much point going into huge amounts of detail but essentially what I need to do is to create electricity from drainpipes. I do not know how to do this I know it would involve dynamos and such but if someone could give me a more detailed explanation that would be great

 

Thanks in advance, Lewys

Can you think of any similar existing way we do this, using other water sources?

1 hour ago, QuantumT said:

Drainpipes are made to lead water away as fast as possible, so if we attempted to gain energy from them, it would slow the draining, thus defeating their purpose.

Use a bigger pipe. Anyway, that doesn’t address the question

[Curious layman]

Hopefully these will give you a few ideas-

[lewysmoney]

Thanks guys for your help but I was more thinking about the drainpipes leading down from the gutter to the Drain

Also guys another quick question How do I turn rotational energy into Electrical Energy

 

[timo]

To turn rotational energy into electric energy you can indeed use dynamos, as you already assumed. Or better: Dynamo-like devices. The general term seems to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_generator. Essentially, i.e. from a physics perspective, electric generators move around magnets in the vicinity of looped electric wires ("electro-magnets"). This induces a current in the wires. Doing this moving around in a controlled way generates a controlled current.

Sidenote: I thought the general concept of a dynamo is a "turbine". But according to Wikipedia that refers to the moving part, only. Still, turbines are so closely related to electric power  generation that looking up that concept may be relevant, too.

 

[swansont]

Related: This just popped up in science news

https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/119694-electricity-from-rust/ 

 

[lewysmoney]

So what machines/tools would i need to convert rotational into electrical

[lewysmoney]

Hey Ghideon I havent tried so far because as you can guess I have a small budget I have bought a small dynamo to experiment with and done some sketches but i need to know in more detail what im doing

[Ghideon]

2 minutes ago, lewysmoney said:

Hey Ghideon I havent tried so far because as you can guess I have a small budget I have bought a small dynamo to experiment with and done some sketches but i need to know in more detail what im doing

A dynamo is a good start and would probably be my first choice for a cheap setup. I guess it is a dynamo intended for bikes? Those usually works well even in rain which makes it easier since water is involved in your experiment. 
A good start is to split the task in subtasks if you have not done so already. Like

1: Running water through some piping
2: Some device that will rotate in water and turn the dynamo
3: Dynamo connected to something showing that electricity is produced.

1: Do you have access to some pipe where you can pour water? 
2: This will be some kind of simple wheel that can be attached to the dynamo. 
3: Do you have the equipment to make the dynamo produce electricity if you power it by hand? You could use a few cables and a bike light or the lightbulb for a bike.
 

The above points hopefully triggers some ideas. In case you get stuck on the function or connection of the dynamo, a picture or reference would be useful.

[lewysmoney]

I was thinking a small turbine for water?

[lewysmoney]

If anyone has any clues or hints (but no answers) that would be lit

[Curious layman]

Don't want to be rude, but if you can't get any clues from any of the above, you'll probably end up working in a factory anyway so I wouldn't worry about it.

Maybe some more information on your part perhaps?

Edited August 2, 2019 by Curious layman

[lewysmoney]

Right ill type up a bit more info 

So I wish to make energy from the water falling down a drainpipe im not sure how to do this because I have never really done this before so I was thinking about putting a small turbine connected to a small dyamo?

[Curious layman]

Ok, and sorry for the first comment, work nights and haven't been to bed (but that's not your fault). I reckon you need to keep it as simple as possible, just something really basic. Try youtube as well. Or type in electricity science project and go on images for ideas.

Oh, and I work in factories for a living, and they suck mate, trust me. Your definitely on the right track with the effort your putting in for this project. Good luck with it 

Dont the pictures help, it seems really simple. Your idea seems fine to me. Is it the actual putting it together/ connecting it up you can't do? Sensei or enthalpy would be good to ask I reckon. I'll message them. They might just ignore me though.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Curious layman

[Curious layman]

7 hours ago, Sensei said:

"Creating electricity from water"

..people "create electricity from water" using dams...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam

Give him also these articles to read for a start:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropower

(also read sub-links in these articles)

 

 

From Sensei (thanks). Try these videos as well.

https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Create+electricity+from+water+science+project+with+drainpipe

anyhelp?

Edited August 2, 2019 by Curious layman

[Enthalpy]

I hope it's clear to the OP that the produced electricity will be expensive and in tiny amount. Electricity is obtained from rainwater, but in dams, where

1. Humans build no structure to collect the water. The water basin of a huge region does it for free.
2. The falling height uses to be much higher, like 100m or 1000m, not 10m.
3. Humans don't even build the water storage. They use an existing valley and add at some narrow part a tiny dam made of thin cheap concrete.
4. And the turbine and generator cost per watt drops from 500mW to 20*500MW.

So please understand this as an exciting school project, not as Mankind's solution to obtain clean energy. By extrapolation, I consider that efficiency isn't important here, one only wants to produce any observable amount of electricity, to light a LED for instance.

How the turbine is built: nice suggestions in the pictures here above. Choose for ease of fabrication. The obtained speed must also match the generator (in real life and size too). I already made half-way decent turbines, propellers and hydrofoils by arching thin aluminium foil cut with scissors, optionally obtained from a soda can. Mind your hands then!

The bicycle dynamo isn't an obvious choice, because it cogs strongly. A fast turbine may not achieve to rotate it, a slow turbine might obtain too little power from it. I have no better idea, so the turbine should be optimized for it.

Foresee some really convenient means to feed artificially the drain pipe. Many trials are necessary, so you must access the top of the pipe without risk and with limited effort to pour much water at once. Laying a drain pipe on a hill, preferably near a stair, seems best. Or put a hose from a house tap to the drainpipe's top, but the throughput will be limited.

[lewysmoney]

curious layman thanks for the help and dw its fine mate