[Qcks]

so i had this thought alooonnnnggg time ago.

A person could make a mini turbine.
The turbine could be constantly charging a bettery in reserve, or assisting with the lighting (which would reduce the cost of running the tank.).

It could also help maintain a tank, especially if used in tandem with a baterry back up, during a black out.

I don't know if i should elaborate though.... not sure how useful it'd be.

any way i'm a little

so....

[CSeaSee]

I'll bite...
Go ahead! What's the idea?

[Poseidon]

What fuel would this turbine burn? Lately Natural Gas is more then electricity.

[BubbaWPB]

The drain from the overflow could power the turbine.... hydroelectric power.

[Qcks]

well...

just a sec, i'll post up a rough sketch.....

but
really quickly....

the basic idea would be a small turbine that would run off the bottom of a tank. Hydrostatic pressure increases with the depth of your water column.... in this case your water column can be considered the distance from your sump/refugium, to your main display tank.....

*Cough*

sorry, what i meant was this. The "turbine" would use the force of the water exiting main tank as a way of spinning, and thus generating electricity.

*cough*

sorry got carried away for a second...

[showfish]

Well, if you ever get it off the ground, let me know. I will buy it, for what I'm spending on my electric bill after all these hurricanes down here, I could probably buy a small utillity company.

[icemark]

The amount of power that could be generated from flow like that would be enough to run maybe a moon light or small powerhead, but no much more than that.

Remember a very very very good motor only has efficency of about 40/50%... so half the power is lost to heat and friction.

[Qcks]

Every thing i've read in engineering periodicals actually state that electrical motors are even less efficient then 40%, further, most water pumps don't put the movement of the motor directly back into moving the water so i suspect that there will be some loss in the efficiency there too.

course having said that the idea was to decrease electrical bills, and possibly, passively charge a battery backup for your Aquarium. any way....

[BubbaWPB]

Hey Qcks, are you any relation to Rube Goldberg?

[Qcks]

not that i know of, course ask my grandma and she could probly find some obscure relative.....

ummm...

just got done with this, remember this is just a rough idea at this point:

[Qcks]

oh.... you don't need image tags...

if you want to open in paint right click save target.... u guys probly already know that bit...