Good question. I always wondered the same about rain water and a down pipe, until i watched a Youtube video about it and designing a more efficient pelton wheel.

It seemed that on the video, if i remember correctly, the most they could generate was 5w without the wheel slowing down too much. I assume the same is the case with the chimney?

@chris-in-kemnay I think i watched the same video about the rainwater driving the wheel at the bottom of the pipe. The bottom line appears to be that it just wasn’t worth the effort of setting it all up for what would be a very small return in watts 3 - 5 watts. I have a small slow running burn in my garden that I was thinking if i sorted it out it might be able to drive a hydro fan ? Its not deep unless theres been rain off the mountain but its always running and it has a few metres drop from the start to the leaving my property and going into he sea about 50 metres away. Now if i could get a 100 watts from that all the time it would be worth at least seeing it if would work. I can build heads of water into the burn if thats needed. So many ideas so little time haha 

I would so love some hydro power 🙂

@chris-in-kemnay I’m going to have to find something that would work with small amount of flow i have, I’m thinking how can i work out the flow rate and what would be the best way to capture that energy 

I watched a building alaska  programme.  The guy ran his led lights in the house from a small hydro plant in a stream with almost no drop and no real speed of flow.. he captured the water meters away in a 50mm tube and narrowed it just before the turbine wheel which was enclosed inside the top of a 25 gallon drum . It looked very interesting.. the point was that you didn't need that much flow or drop the have enough momentum  to power the wheel. The weight if water in the tube and the  size of the opening just before the wheel  increased the force  of the water from a trickle upstream to a jet at the wheel. 

@chris-in-kemnay, I'd love to learn more. We have a pond that's fed by other ponds and subterraneous water, and there's a fair amount of water that pours into it... I wonder how much power we could generate from that. I think I'll get some books and do some reading.

Staying on the subject of hydro, a few years ago we have afternoon tea at Pale Hall. The place was powered by (and still is) hydroelectricity on 1920. How cool is that? https://myhomefarm.co.uk/hydroelectricity-at-pale-hall

I think I saw that on youtube as well, very interesting. I was thinking like the garden hose - the more you squeeze the higher pressure you can create. Let's say in a chemney we can get the same effect - sun light heating the walls creating pressure difference to drive air up. Not sure if this would be enough to drive the blades of a blower into rotation power even when there is no wind. Am I making any sense?

I think the density of the water would drive the turbine more efficiently than the less dense and more compressible air. Talking about Hydro generation, did anyone see the news today? Nova energy and EV charging at Cullivoe pier in Yell Shetland, only 6 miles from where I grew up! there's a nice youTube video with an M3.. I'm not sure how long they charged for, but its only a 7kWh charger.

Hi Everyone,

You may be interested to know that at the moment wind is providing 3.6% of total generation and coal is providing 6.7%.

Please checkout the site detailed below.

GRID.IAMKATE.COM "https://grid.iamkate.com/"

National Grid: Live

Shows the live status of Great Britain’s electric power transmission network

Another useful site is

CARBONINTENSITY.ORG.UK "https://www.carbonintensity.org.uk/"

Carbon Intensity

National Energy System Operator have developed a Regional Carbon Intensity forecast for the GB electricity system.

basically pulling the same data as the National Grid When to Plug In app. Slightly slower than IAmKate.com, but allows for regional analysis.

Right at the moment, where I am is currently only getting 0.7% from wind and is up at 64.4% from gas, leading to a grand sum total of 293gCO2/kWh which is pretty rubbish. Ho, hum....

Posted by: @derek-m

Hi Everyone,

You may be interested to know that at the moment wind is providing 3.6% of total generation and coal is providing 6.7%.

Please checkout the site detailed below.

GRID.IAMKATE.COM "https://grid.iamkate.com/"

National Grid: Live

Shows the live status of Great Britain’s electric power transmission network

 My area is 40% coal and 609g CO2/kWh 😮.