Would it be possible...

[imported_goku]

As of this moment, water in my area is about $.05 a gallon. I was wondering, if water was at around 180LBS of pressure in our pipes, and remember there was no extra cost in this and while most pipes are around 50LBS of pressure, if one were to setup a way to generate electricity with the pressure coming from the pipes, would this be economically feasible? Yes you pay for the $.05 a gallon but it's possible that the electricity generated from the more than usual pressure may conterract the cost of the water in the first place.

BTW, how much does water cost in YOUR area?

 

[OdiN]

Not possible.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

wow...you have too much free time. Do a crossword.

 

[Caesar]

Originally posted by: goku
As of this moment, water in my area is about $.05 a gallon. I was wondering, if water was at around 180LBS of pressure in our pipes, and remember there was no extra cost in this and while most pipes are around 50LBS of pressure, if one were to setup a way to generate electricity with the pressure coming from the pipes, would this be economically feasible? Yes you pay for the $.05 a gallon but it's possible that the electricity generated from the more than usual pressure may conterract the cost of the water in the first place.

BTW, how much does water cost in YOUR area?

This is one of those times when a person should have a realization that he/she needs some life.

 

[Stuxnet]

lol

 

[markgm]

5 cents a gallon?! How much do you spend on water a month? I'd need a second mortgage!

Edit: Text That'd come out to about $1800 a person/year in water.

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: goku
As of this moment, water in my area is about $.05 a gallon. I was wondering, if water was at around 180LBS of pressure in our pipes, and remember there was no extra cost in this and while most pipes are around 50LBS of pressure, if one were to setup a way to generate electricity with the pressure coming from the pipes, would this be economically feasible? Yes you pay for the $.05 a gallon but it's possible that the electricity generated from the more than usual pressure may conterract the cost of the water in the first place.

BTW, how much does water cost in YOUR area?

You need to figure out the rate of flow from your water main...then you can put that together with the PSI you quoted, and figure out how much power/speed you have, optimize with a power transmision (you know...like a gearbox) to find the optimal speed to run you generator at. It would be a lot of work, but untill you did all that work, it would be difficult to calulate whether or not you could make any money...

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: goku
As of this moment, water in my area is about $.05 a gallon. I was wondering, if water was at around 180LBS of pressure in our pipes, and remember there was no extra cost in this and while most pipes are around 50LBS of pressure, if one were to setup a way to generate electricity with the pressure coming from the pipes, would this be economically feasible? Yes you pay for the $.05 a gallon but it's possible that the electricity generated from the more than usual pressure may conterract the cost of the water in the first place.

BTW, how much does water cost in YOUR area?

You need to figure out the rate of flow from your water main...then you can put that together with the PSI you quoted, and figure out how much power/speed you have, optimize with a power transmision (you know...like a gearbox) to find the optimal speed to run you generator at. It would be a lot of work, but untill you did all that work, it would be difficult to calulate whether or not you could make any money...

As of this moment, we have very LOW water pressure and to compensate, EBM gave us fairly large pipes maybe 1/2-3/4 in diameter.. But with a "new plan" that is in the talks but may or may not happen, they would use a water tower that is much higher than we are and would increase the pressure all the way to probably 180PSI or was it LBs of pressure (is assuming they're the same).

 

[IronWing]

Taking your numbers at face value you have ~130 psi to play with.

Using the numbers from this turbine: http://www.waterturbine.com/NewFiles/ppalhighheadtable.html

The 36 foot drop is ~ 15 psi so you've more than adequate pressure.
To generate 520W, sufficient for more modern houses, you'll need 144 gal/minute of water or 75,738,240 gals per year at a cost of $0.05/gal. Now I think this is almost certainly wrong and that the cost of water is probably 0.05 cents per gallon. But as I said I'll use your numbers so the water cost of generating a steady 520W using the first turbine I found is $3,786,912/year. Using the smaller cost for water yields $37,869/year. You'll need to figure out what size connection you'll need for that amount of water. I'll leave that to the pipes guys.