Something Good Co. in collaboration with the Sustainable Solutions® Research Project

University of Rhode Island 300 Lippitt Hall

Kingston, RI 02881

INSTRUCTION

MANUAL

HPR 411 Fall 2011

© 2011 University of Rhode Island

Something Good Co. in collaboration with

Sustainable Solutions® Research Project

Engineers: Holly Tran

Ada Genere Jillian Rainvlle Maguire Miller

This following are steps to creating a water wheel for educational pur-poses. Further educational materials may be found via

http://hpr411hydropower.yolasite.com/

8. Bolt the containers to the both lids. 9. Slip the completed wheel on to the thin PVC pipe. 10. Slip on rubber washers on the PVC pipe on both ends to keep wheel in place when spinning. It should be a loose fit to allow the wheel to spin freely. 11. Place the wheel and axle on to a supporting PVC stand or other made stand. OPTIONAL PROCEDURES To attach a bike generator to water wheel, take out the rub-ber sealing bands from under the rims of the two 5-gallon lids. Zip tie these bands to one lid circumference to create the track for the generator. Affix the generator so that when the track spins, it rotates the generator’s notched knob, re-sulting in the illumination of the bike light.

sample bike generator

notched knob of bike generator

Materials Needed:

(2) 5-gallon bucket lids (4) 32-ounce plastic containers (1) long thin PVC pipe (2) PVC pipe stands —optional (2) rubber washers (1) bike generator set —optional (10) zip ties Sand paper Scissors Nuts and bolts Assortment of power tools/tools

Procedures: 1. Cut out one hole from the center of each lid fitting to the size of the

thin PVC pipe. 2. Cut off the rimmed top from the 32-ounce containers so that when the containers are placed on the lids, they are flush against them. 1. Sand edges from cut pieces are

necessary. 2. Once the four plastic containers

have their rims removed, place them on the lid in a fan arrange-ment, with the open parts all facing the same orientation. Make sure to avoid having the containers touch the area where the long thin PVC pipe will attach for the axle.

3. Mark the spots on the containers where they will be bolted to the lid and where the bolt will fall on the lid itself.

4. Mark the other 5-gallon lid accordingly.

5. Drill the marked holes for the containers and lids.