Alternative Energy Forums

My fiancé's land has a wonderful spring on the "back 40" here in Montana. It is a high pressure artesian (?) spring that shoots up approx. 20′-25′ from a tiny, natural head. Flows all winter and forms a nice ice castle. It has gushed fr generations. I think it could be tapped and a converter placed to produce energy. Has anyone seen this. No flow, just pressure straight out of the ground. It’s pretty but going to waste.

Jeff L.

Wow, that's really cool! It could easily be tapped, is it hot or cold?

gref

Water power is the product of Head (pressure) and Flow (volume). The artesian well appears to have some head pressure to shoot into the air, but you will also need flow to achieve any useful power.

To know how much power is possible, you’ll need to measure both head and flow. In this case, flow measurement sounds easy - just take a 5-gallon paint bucket and time how long it takes to fill. (e.g. if it takes 5 minutes, flow is one gallon per minute.)

Measuring head pressure may be more difficult, unless you can somehow get a pressure meter harnessed to the well. There may also be some math that might get you there, by measuring the height of the fountain relative to the flow.

If you’re interested in learning more, I suggest reading a short primer on how hydro power works (with formulas for determining potential power) at http://www.canyonhydro.com/guide/index.html

Mike

Found this discussion on the Other Power forums:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/3/17/163256/778

gref said:

Quote:Wow, thats really cool! It could easily be tapped, is it hot or cold?

Cold.

Jeff L.

Dear Jeff L.

This might be your lucky day to find such a device that help you satisfy your curiosity. Dr. Jonathon B. Rosefsky he can be reached at this web site: http://www.hydrocoilpower.com/ he is the one person who can help you be successful in getting energy out of your artesian well.

A simple micro hydro could be applied. Depending on the flow rate gpm or CFS you can compute the power from the pressure of the exit flow. It might be fun to try and measure the head pressure. You say 25 ft altitude for the geyser from your artesian. You'll need some physics or just cap it temporarily with a pressure gauge on a board or pipe in place and measure the max pressure before it stops flowing (if you can).

Try this in warm (hot) weather, you're going to get wet!

Then measure how much water flows out by filling a barrel and timing the time to fill. Divide size of container by elapsed time and you have flow.

Have fun
Jess

Power in kW is computed from:

Head in ft (.433 lb pressure per foot h20)

x

Flow in CFS

Head(ft) x Flow(CFS) /11.8 x (72% efficiency of typ hydro) = kW

JessW

See the hydropower calculator at --
http://www.DoradoVista.com/DV_Hydro_Power_Calculators.html