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Water Powered Motors
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Water Motor |
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Each small fast flowing stream
offers a wealth of clean, free
energy just waiting to be used. Putting unused small waterpower resources to
work would have a major positive effect on rural poverty. |
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Many of the machines vital to
productivity and human comfort can be run just as easily with waterpower as
by an electric motor. The equipment for these small high speed turbines is
neither complicated nor expensive to produce, but was simply not available.
Yet for many rural people, small scale water-power is the only practical
local source of mechanical energy, now and forever. |
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Although waterpower was humanity's
only reliable source of energy for running machinery for thousands of years,
it was abandoned with the advent of centralized electricity generating
systems feeding long distance power lines. By using modern micro-turbines,
local waterpower resources can once again be used for what it does
best…drive machines. Most machines found in workshops are driven by electric
motors of 0.5 - 5 hp. Small efficient turbines can easily produce this
amount of power from a surprisingly small quantity of water falling a short
distance. |
Unlike electric motors, turbines
cannot be damaged by hard use and cost nothing to operate. Since such a
turbine was not available, we decided to design one at Campo Nuevo. The
Campo Nuevo 'Water motor' is the result
.At our demonstration site, the 'Water motor' produces ample power to run a
variety of machines. Water pressure is obtained from a source l8.3 m. (60
ft.) above the Water motor.
Apart from woodworking, we also are using the 'Water motor' to charge
batteries and run an air compressor. The Campo Nuevo waterpower
demonstration site is located near the village of Coroico, about 3 hours
east of La Paz. This area produces coffee, citrus, bananas, and other
tropical products. The inhabitants are indigenous Aymara speakers, generally
impoverished and under great economic pressure. Many are being forced to
relocate to a high, desolate over-sized village called El Alto, near La Paz,
Bolivia's capital, just to survive. We would like to help these people to
remain in their communities and maintain their ancient and unique culture
and economic independence. The productive use of this area's enormous
waterpower resources would help to do this.
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Our focus has been to promote the use of
small scale hydropower here in Bolivia. This
was to include expanding our demonstration site and giving classes
locally. More specifically it was to design and test a small turbine
suitable for directly driving machines with waterpower. The resulting
turbine we call the Campo Nuevo Water motor. To the best of our knowledge it
is the only turbine incorporating an on/off switch for power control. This
one feature makes it suitable for driving machines directly. |
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Low cost was another Water motor
design goal and our machine may be the lowest cost per horsepower available.
Other features are compact size ( 16 x 16 x 32 cm), high efficiency (80-85%)
and simplicity (one moving part).
In operation the Water motor
responds instantly to the power control switch, just as does an electric
motor. We have tested the Water motor for a period of months using it to
drive a variety of machines. These include a table saw, joiner, grinder,
abrasive disk, and drill. We have also used an air compressor, electric
generator and grain mill. The Water motor can be installed easily and at low
cost, as seen at our demo site. |
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Little fall or volume of water is
required to produce ample energy to run these machines. Low pressure, low
cost plastic pipe is adequate. The flexible connections between the pressure
pipe and turbine also simplify installation. The result obtained from our
turbine encouraged us to design a somewhat larger model with greater
capacity and power output. This allows substantial power to be obtained from
even less height, by using a greater volume of water. This was the first
model Water motor entirely made in Bolivia. We cast the turbine wheel from
recycled auto piston aluminum. |
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