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Question:

can i run a 40kvh generator on a water wheel?

I want to know if i can get a 40kvh generator (witch is usually ran by 4 cylinder diesel engine) to run with a water wheel and some poulies??

Answer:

Water wheels generally turn rather slowly or would fly apart and pulleys would likely be needed (large on water wheel and small at generator shaft). The generator may function well only within a specified range of RPM. Try to determine the rated speed of the generator (or determine the rated RPM of the diesel engine above idle(?) and any gearing or pulley ratios to the generator. That may indicate in advance how practical your match will be. Perhaps the generator can slowly charge a battery (with a given water supply and water wheel) but may not support full load as on the diesel engine. Work out an estimate on paper (including battery and voltage regulator?) before turning actual nuts and bolts.
I assume you mean a 40KVA generator which on the whole is quite large for a simple water wheel installation. If you look at Hydro electric installations they usually start with a large dam that stores a huge a mount of water from a river. The height of the water creates a large pressure at the bottom of the dam where the water is relaesed through sluices to turn massive generators. Compared with the natural flow of the river that would not be able to turn relatively small generators. So waterwheels in a river can produce electricicty but a 40KVA may be too big
If you mean, 40 KVa generator,you may be able to run it by a water wheel, but you need a water discharge head of 50 to 100 ft. Most developed hydroelectric power have discharge heads of 300 ft.
(Assuming kvh is a misprint for kVA) If you can (1) get a big enough water wheel (40kVA 40 000 Newton-metres per second: you would need about 4000 kg of water per second falling through a height of 1 metre to run it at full capacity, increasing the fall or reducing the maximum load will reduce the required flow rate) and (2) ensure that you can get the generator to spin at 3000 rpm (to get 50 cycles a second) then yes.
If you mean 40kva, then you are talking 30 horsepower. That's bigger than most of the huge waterwheels that used to power the industrial revolution era cotton mills. If you happen to live at the bottom of a huge waterfall you might have a chance, but the engineering would be something else,

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