On 'Mountain Men' (History Channel), they're showing how Eustace has water powering the generator that runs his house.
There's a stream that flows all winter, and he has a 6" pipe that diverts a little of it to his generator. (I think it must actually be a turbine.) I have to wonder how much electricity it produces since the pipe diameter isn't all that big, but I guess it's a function of both the pipe's capacity and the water's velocity, so there's really no telling.
In this episode, it froze up at the intake so he's dealing with the problem.
I'd love to do something like that with the new house. The only trouble is, I'm building it near the top of the property, and even though there's a stream I could tap, I'd have to put the turbine someplace way downhill. I guess that just means running an electrical wire back up the hill to the house. I'm not sure how much loss there'd be.
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