Restoring a Water Wheel! Hydro Power?

I'm Maya and I'm learning to transform a Riverland in central Portugal into an offgrid sustainable Homestead let me show you something very exciting we found this old system and restored it and it's actually working we suspected that this lower water tank had something to do with the water wheel so when Dave was still here we started to clear it out yay this is going to be the future rainwater pool we just found another sh shoe third shoe on this property so if you don't know Dave yet he was here for a very productive week in the summer never been in here much for fresh water W I can't see the end Jus I just there oh you got some little Oaks yeah protect them and you don't have the r with the r yeah that was my [Music] hand okay I need to get some buckets that we can put into the [Music] [Music] trash Rubble metal and garbage [Music] for yeah hopefully you're going to be an expert rep pointer did you say you when you left here last time and you went to work did you say you did some architecture architect trades went through and through a couple years at college and straight out to work that's nice yeah I much prefer working actually [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] for [Music] cool I'm only in an apartment so it's not my apartment so this house yeah I've missed having projects yeah I understand that it's so relaxing so satisfying especially things like that like taking away BR look so much better so quickly there's a pipe in the pipe really here's a pipe coming out of of the top going down into this Basin so let's clear it up to see what's behind it is more drainage and things on this property than you might think I think so too but it all burned pipe in the pipe that probably goes to the water wheel do you think so I think so because there used to be a pipe there's a pipe you see that one yeah yeah there mhm M that' be so cool to have that going it opens cool it's a big disc it's an old school disc so if you put that in there that that's so cool I love it get now [Music] oop these ones are really nice to make your own surface Gathering true it holding yep it's holding [Music] yay so cool yay I hear it it's coming out I can have a water wheel this pipe in the bottom leads all the way to the water wheel well almost to the water wheel the pipe is a bit short really good slope I don't know how it all looks like it slopes actually wo I'm so happy it works perfectly I have leftover pipe I'm going to get a piece is there anything a rake can't do what was it you said on your uh your tea bag this morning it said um don't just work live so we've done some work and now we're going to live off is it the next step is to clean the wheel of all the [Music] [Applause] brambles one of them is quite good it's like three pieces of metal just welded in well but it works so well right yeah yeah they've done it well there it is this one's got like a tube something in a big block or something but you let go of it it's perfect so whatever they did it worked there's just random bits of metal welded in but I mean I've scraped out a lot of rubbish oh thank you so much but I haven't found a hole yet it's just worms and sludge and yeah there's just nowhere for it to go have to move them out the way a bit chain goes from there to there and then this wheel goes from here the little generator that's there ah there's these will turn hi wow you're so big you even have a face I think that's a cigal they have them in Spain the Cals and they're the things that make the really loud crickety noises at night really loud one ah you're putting the hose into the FL the PIP Dave did all of this while I was editing look how easy the wheel is spinning it's really well made now this is full power looks so nice now that's going to take a long yeah we put some leftover concrete here yesterday that's welded that welded on that's yeah but that was B and bolt there but then you but then you two boys having fun my neighbor Sher also came over to figure out how this used to work DC and nothing smashing up minus but yeah maybe it could be AC could be oh ah there we go 1.6 volts but I thought we turn I thought it was I thought we turned that and it did turn it did turn maybe that's that's what it is yeah cuz you move yes oh that's neutral try again gear then neutral then gear the neutral but yeah you're losing a lot from there aren't you going to need that no you never need it would you it it Carries On Running just with that you can hear it St in the air there can't you as well it it runs fine just with that that yeah like the Rainy period if we get two weeks of rain like we do I struggle with the solar if you got two weeks of rain and this is full time that will be topping up the solar and you lose that struggle yeah Sherry just came over to continue we're going to try to fit the chain that we bought for the water wheel and everything smells so good the fall days are so beautiful in Portugal hi Sherry hi you want to hold the link and little bit need them you want to join the link on here it makes it easier now we can't lose it it's there and it's on perfect so perfect so now what we want to do is adjust the tension here yes and this whole engine and everything slides that way okay you right holding that oh my God okay should I cut the brambles Daniel now would make it a lot easier wouldn't [Music] it your balance is a lot better than [Music] mine now can see the two big wheels this one was one that turned wasn't it the other one didn't turn how free that is how many years it's been 15 I think so yes we hold the underneath but [Music] ready wow okay shouldn't you going do it more than that this one here there yeah out like that it's not in here it's not in is it not in it might be actually just it's a very worn chain oh not that wasn't a good idea we'll tighten it up first before we do that okay yeah look at that something's moving I you can reach it from there kind if we put the B on it this is a little test this a test lamp oo I see a little I think it needs to go faster that's faster isn't [Music] it oh you changed gear if I can change gear again shame yeah it's okay doesn't it okay it's working not perfect but it's working now there's a little bulp here oh it looks so cool before I can let the rain fill the pool up I need to seal it to make it [Music] waterproof [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] sun is coming today is supposed to be the last day with over 30° so let's enjoy it the last summer day looks pretty weird let's give it the second coat I use an elastic mortar the cool thing is that you can apply it very [Music] thin [Music] [Music] this drawing clumps is so much fun so interesting you can really see where the second coat was applied cuz this stays light gray and the other part needs a second coat maybe it's also going to be fine for this winter yay the tank is filling up and the fren strain works so I'm very very excited to see how much water is going to be in that tank at the end of this rain the tap is leaking a little bit but it's fine should I turn on the Water Wheel I'm going to turn it on now it's filling up the pocket so the generator was on here this motorcycle gear box as well we didn't even have to change the belt the generator just needed some clearing up and the shaft needed a new chain and that was all we just needed to make this pipe longer it was already connected to the water tank so it's super amazing system I hope to be able to put a better generator here and connect it to my solar system but of course there's less power than in the river if this wheel would be in the river it would have been amazing but you got to take what you have I plan to put almost all the rainwater from the roofs in there so this wheel would run all the time and would fill up the battery when it's raining it's actually not as old as the mill or the houses I met a guy and he said he helped to build this so it was like probably 30 maximum 40 years ago but all the components were still here we're still [Applause] working and now it's stopped ah it seems to stop always because of the generator it's not so easy to spin come on little light shine for us yeah let's go full power so with full power full speed it works that it doesn't stop seems like the worst of the storm is survived I'm actually feeling a little sick and temperatures have really dropped so it's like 10° in the cabin right now as it's also 10° outside was all a bit shocking how hard the storm was and actually one of the trees cracked so this tree cracked right there and is now leaning on the other one I really don't know what to do it's quite high up there luckily it's not close to the cabin or the houses so it can't harm anything oh wow the BS were here again they made such a mess look at this soil the river is so pretty now it's so clean let's try the water wheel in the night this is so cool you don't see a lot I hope you can see anything at all I'm so grateful for this working system that I found on the land thank you so much Dave and Sherry keep you updated about the connection to the solar system

Channel: Maya Feliz

Views: 270,854

Keywords: living off-grid, off grid, tiny house, permaculture, how to, outdoor, aussteiger, auswandern portugal, portugal, solo cabin renovation, cabin life, wood cabin, van life, alternative living, vlog portugal, eco community, self sustainable, homestead, renovating, adventure, wilderness, life hacks, diy, farm life, daily vlog, mindfulness, relax, yoga, peaceful, find peace, happiness, q&a, diy shower, stone house, natural building, stone wall, eamon & bec, hannahleeduggan, project kamp

Id: 7z4MJ6tcPW4

Length: 19min 36sec (1176 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023