Water Flow Generator: Innovating Water Faucet Use
Water Flow Generator: Innovating Water Faucet Use
Water Flow Generator: Innovating Water Faucet Use
American
c Society for Engineering Education, 2019
Water Flow Generator: Innovating Water Faucet Use
Alejandro Hervella, Yifan Guo, Minh Duc Dinh, Aleksei Pavlov, and Bala Maheswaran
College of Engineering
Northeastern University
In the past decades, people are using more electricity in their daily life; therefore, it is crucial to
develop methods to produce energy from day-to-day doings. Considering our average daily use, the device
was designed to harness energy from water flow using fundamental physics concepts. Hydroelectric power
is considered as one of the cleanest alternative energies but is still not widely and efficiently used by most
of today’s energy enterprises. This paper presents a water flow generator that produces electrical energy
from the day-to-day water use at home. The flow generator design is a micro view of the hydroelectric
power plant combined with the idea of using rechargeable and energy storing devices. This will help
to generate electrical energy to support some of the devices used daily by people. The prototype generator
is based on the minuscule hydropower generator and will take advantage of water flow from faucets.
This study explores the practicality of converting water flow energy into electrical energy with a mini
generator design using simple physics concepts. Effectively harnessing water flow could recover a
significant amount of usable electrical energy from simple, everyday actions with minimal impact to daily
operation. This design shows promise for the future of off-grid energy generation. The skills learned from
this fluid physics based project were invaluable, as research, design, trial and error, as well as technical
writing are all important experiences within engineering education. This generator not only provides
scientists and researchers with more valuable information about alternative energy, but is also capable of
educating the everyday person about the basics of engineering and physics, as well as the importance of
renewable resources from daily activities.
Figure 4: Nozzle
government population census website. Using an
estimated population of 327 million people3, with
each using on average 13 gallons a day, about
4.25 billion gallons of water runs from faucets on
a daily basis in the US. The data shows that water
flow from typical faucets generates an average of
about 3.5 volts2. Knowing that our generator is
designed to be 10 watts with a max of 5 volts, and
using the equation
Nonetheless, it can be seen that after pulling away That means within the course of one day, the US
from the faucets, there is still a significant voltage could generate about 3.72×105 kilowatt-hours
that steadily decreases, occurring at around 20, with half of the faucets available. Multiplied out
15, and 100 seconds in figures 6, 7, and 8, to the time span of a year (365 days), the US
respectively. We realized that this is due to the could save over 1.35×108 kilowatt hours. This is
fact that the generator’s circuit board has a extremely significant and would be shared
capacitor installed, which in turn is actually a throughout the population on an individual level
very helpful feature. The addition of a capacitor and household.
allows for voltage to be generated even if there
are short breaks when the faucet is not running, Conclusion and Implications
so that charging devices will continue to receive This engineering product brings a new way of
power during these short intervals without using renewable energy in our everyday
running water. activities. During market research we figured out
that some prototypes have been already existing.
Analysis However, we decided to stay with our idea and
The amount of energy that could be saved from try to innovate an existing model.
utilizing this design was calculated using
estimates and statistics obtained from the US
After making the working prototype, there were 2) U.S. Department of the Interior, & USGS.
several new advantages to this innovative project. (2016, December 02). Water Questions &
The design works with both powerful and weak Answers How much water does the average
faucets and water fountains. In addition, the
person use at home per day? Retrieved April
rubber nozzle connector makes our device very
flexible and universal in size and simplifies the 19, 2018, from
attachment of the device to the faucet. https://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-
Furthermore, the generator that we made was percapita.html
very cheap in manufacturing, even in the 3) U.S. Census Bureau. (2018, April 19). U.S.
prototype stage. Therefore, the mass production and World Population Clock Tell us what
of this design would be extremely cost effective. you think. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from
https://www.census.gov/popclock/
Upon completing the design, future
4) Maupin, M.A., Kenny, J.F., Hutson, S.S.,
developments were speculated, including
integrating the generator inside the faucet and Lovelace, J.K., Barber, N.L., and Linsey,
increasing the efficiency of the system. K.S., 2014, Estimated use of water in the
United States in 2010: U.S. Geological
To sum up, this project was a successful Survey Circular 1405, 56 p.,
combination of simplicity, outstanding https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/cir1405
engineering and design, and it has high 5) 10W Water Turbine Generator Micro
commercial potential in the future.
Hydroelectric Power Generator DIY LED
Power Charging Tool DC 5V: Automotive.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their sincere (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2018, from
thanks to Dr. Donald Goldthwaite and the First https://www.amazon.com/Water-Turbine-
year Engineering learning and Innovation center Generator-Hydroelectric-
lab Assistants for their support. We’d also like to Charging/dp/B01N63BGCX
thank Erin Dooley for technical and teaching 6) Gaines, C. M. (2012, July 06). Water
support.
Infographic: Alarming Statistics About
Wasted Water in Our Communities.
References
Retrieved April 19, 2018, from
1) U.S. Department of the Interior, & USGS.
https://www.watercache.com/blog/2012/07/
(2016, December 2). Hydroelectric power:
water-infographic-with-water-waste-
How it works. Retrieved April 19, 2018,
statistics-from-leaky-pipes
fromhttps://water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks
.html
Appendix 1: Data Collection via Matlab and Arduino Software
figure(1); figure(6);
plot(x, y); plot(b3, s3);
title('Time vs Voltage of Waterflow title('Strong Power Faucet - Time vs Voltage
Generator') of Waterflow Generator')
xlabel('Time in 10th of Seconds') xlabel('Time in 10th of Seconds')
ylabel('Voltage'); ylabel('Voltage');
figure(2);
plot(x2, y2);
title('Time vs Voltage of Waterflow Arduino Code for Voltage Reading (in serial
Generator') monitor):
xlabel('Time in 10th of Seconds')
ylabel('Voltage'); void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
figure(3); }
plot(x3, y3);
title('Time vs Voltage of Waterflow void loop() {
Generator')
xlabel('Time in 10th of Seconds') int data = analogRead(A3);
ylabel('Voltage'); delay (100) // prints every 100
milliseconds (10th of a second)
figure(4); float volts = data * (5.0 / 1023.0); //
plot(b1, s1); received range for 5 volt port is 0 to 1023
title('Weak Power Faucet - Time vs Voltage Serial.println(volts);
of Waterflow Generator') }