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If you connected that to your turbo, you could get yourself a Zwift Tron bike pretty quickly 😉. Fascinating thread btw, watching with interest.
Good bodging and innovative use of plant pots there!
I guess you have grander plans in mind but just thinking of power simplistically here -
I counted 24 revolutions (looking at the blue pot) in a 21s ~interval when it was up to speed.
The plant pots look around 750ml and there seems to ~3 with water going down at any time.
With the 700c wheel you're probably getting a useful drop of max 50cm.
So, I reckon this is giving you:
3 (kg) * 0.75 * 9.8 (gravity) * 0.5 (height) * (24/21) (t) = 13w absolute max :).
Not worth connecting to an alternator but it's plenty to charge your phone with a bike dynamo! 🙂
(This does ignore the effect of the water's momentum when it hits your buckets but I don't think this is a big error and I rounded everything else up)
Assuming no planning/regulatory issues I think you potentially have a good site.
A lighthearted comment: I saw some series on Youtube with millions of views- one guy spent months building a damn, chute and a few iterations of wheel. In the end he was getting 5w usable power and people loved it in the comments. As an (wannabe) environmentalist though I have to point out the concrete he used alone probably ate all the carbon emissions benefit and ignoring the youtube cash the project would be almost a pure financial loss 🙂 I've got half way through his new series (new house, bigger head) and he has hit 6w.
The message is clear- try to be a Youtube star rather than save the planet or your electricity bill 😀 OR do calcs and planning first to make sure expectations match reality 🙂
Aye, could get maybe 6-7 m of head from top to bottom of the garden but don't want to take that water out of the beck and pipe it across, hence the waterwheel, minimal ecological impact, if I can get it to power a heat store in winter with solar thermal for the summer could be a winner (wont pay economically but to offset the oil we currently use for heating and hot water potentially environmentally worthwhile)
Late to the party, but there was an episode of a programme called Its Not Easy Being Green that featured a DIY waterwheel. Possibly online somewhere?