Strange dream got me thinking...

[Wulfonce]

I had a strange dream last night where I built a system to make electricity using the water line that comes into your house. Basically water in my area costs about $0.04 per cubic meter (264gals). Electricity costs about $0.13 per kilowatt on average.

Picture the water coming into your house traveling up to your attic via the existing pressure it comes into your house at. From the attic it travels down to the 1st floor powering water turbines all the way down. It ends up in a holding tank around ceiling level on the first floor. The holding tank being raised would give water pressure to the 1st floor and basement. Water upstairs would come from the main water line before going through the turbines.

The question is, could electricity generated from this system overcome the $0.04 per cubic meter of water it would cost to run it? Seems crazy, I'm even laughing as I type this, but non the less it still got me wondering.

Edit: waste water from the 2nd floor could also be used to power the turbines.

 

[shellies215]

Thread title should have been "Wet dream last night." The amount and pressure of the water just isn't enough to produce any useable amount of electricity.

 

[Zfishies]

LOL^

this sounds like inteption.

both ur project and ur dream.

mindbobling. yes bobling.

 

[Piscine]

I agree with the previous poster. It takes more electricity to pump the water to your house than you could ever get back out of it. If the water companies electric bills is higher than the amount they receive for water service, then water will cost more than electricity eventually. Not to mention the costs of upkeep and R&D on a system that could make any kind of usable power.

 

[Piscine]

You would need to be able to power a 1000 watt appliance for one hour using only 858 gallons of water, and that's just to break even. Then you need to figure in cost of production, maintenance, humidity control, and others.

Not feasible.

 

[Wulfonce]

You would need to be able to power a 1000 watt appliance for one hour using only 858 gallons of water, and that's just to break even. Then you need to figure in cost of production, maintenance, humidity control, and others.

Not feasible.

Good points.