Traditional Water Wheels for Power

These magnificant all steel wheels are precision crafted from top quality laser cut steel with all welded buckets.  
Tight tolerances result in a well balanced true running machine, essential for long bearing life and smooth power delivery.
Available in Overshot, Midshot, Undershot or Poncelete to suit sites from ONLY 18 inches (45 cm) hydraulic head.
Wide use of heavy guage steels, reinforced where appropriate also available in Stainless or *Aluminium.
Highy desirable for projects requiring an aesthetic touch with true energy production, contact us for an initial feasibility visit.  

Power wheels, custom built, from 1m diameter

Power wheels, the overshot in particular, benefits from several often overlooked design features. Operational reliability and ruggedness are very high in a practical installation, the overshot tolerates heavily silted waters, flood debris, rocks, rubbish and outright vandalism. The high rotational inertia and increased static torque create a self cleaning mechanism that breaks tangled fishing lines and carrier bags. Fish and all aquatic life are completely unaffected and water quality may be slightly improved.

The overshot and midshot wheels are very much more efficient than often stated, indeed the overshot is the most efficient energy extractor for limited applications.  We make hese to any size; Our Ultra Ultra low head midshots operate in impossibly low head situations finding great  favour with utilities and agencies for continuous small or transient high power demands.

We have solutions to address the specific needs applicable to domestic, water, communications and  environmental  management. Our special purpose team can engineer power solutions for all load demands, try our team of hardened optimists before giving up on your project ! 01525 874226

We consult, supply and install ...  

Retrofitting EXISTING WHEELS for power generation

Where an existing wheel is in good condition with good quality bearings the transition to electrical generation is obvious and if you've been told wheels are too inefficient then let me assure you, an overshot like this will exceed 80% at most flows, difficult even for the best turbines ...
 
This is Garys' 130 year old 6m (25ft) overshot wheel and we've engineered a completely enclosed speed up gear drive to the induction generator. This is the proper long term way to do things, no chains, belt or angle drives. It is quiet, modern and needs little maintenance.

Inside we're about to fit the power export cabinet, Gary's attaching the wheels water flow actuator which the cabinet controls. In operation this system automatically connects and disconnects from the grid and adjusts power output to match water availability. This high availability site will be making 32MWhr annually.

To my immense delight this wheels beautiful proportions precisely match my  4x1!

Work in progress ..  new lease of life for this Giant 6m waterwheel to generate electrical power. The 100kg generator is being (carefully) coupled to the 350kg gearbox ...