Update photo progress.

Its been awhile since I posted any pics on the my woodfired water boiler project for home heating. Here is the boilerhouse showing the summers progress. Pretty much all the brickwork is now done. I still need to fit the windows in and build a door. Finish the roof and add the firewood chute from the adjacent wood shed are after that.

Progress at the boilerhouse.

Heres a new photo for all of you. As you can see Its comming along now. I still have alot of work to do on the north and east walls. Then its a door and a window along with finishing the roof.

Test run of my first water wheel.

I placed the water wheel I built into the streambed to test it out. Work out very well with only a little head pressure to turn it. I will need to make a proper raceway for it to achieve usefull power. But its fun to watch it turn endlessly.

Here is a short video of it in motion. Quality is poor, from my cell phone. I will get better vids soon.

Green energy from my creek.

One of my many 'other' projects is this water wheel ive been building. My plan is to put it into a water chute I will build in my creek along with a dam. If I can get this to work reasonably well, it should have enough power to spin a small generator. Depends on several things how well it will function for me.
If I can build enough head pressure at my dam to move the water down the chute forcefully.
What kind of speed will the wheel turn at and with how much torque?
Will it do as well once under load from a generator under load as well?

Specifics:

36" dia wheel

28" wide

1.5" output shaft dia.