Toilet Water Turbine

I have a kernel of an idea. It's not quite congealed yet and some experimentation would have to be done. The idea starting forming after watching several programs on TV and my unfortunate encounter with the Maytag repair man.

1) I saw a show on ancient technologies where the ancients of Rome or Greece used water wheels to saw marble slabs, turn nine mill wheels at once, and power a row of several 100-pound sledgehammers to crush stone. There is a lot of power in falling water and we currently don't harness enough of it. Smaller water dams originally constructed for flood control only are now being retrofitted to be electric power generating stations.

2) A house flipper wanted to rehab a house using "green" technologies, i.e., recycling the ripped out waste materials, using energy efficient windows and appliances, and using environmentally friendly products. This house is supposed to use half the energy requirements than before the rehab. An energy saving house is good, but why not make an energy *generating* house?

3) The Maytag repairman said in three years or so, I would not be able to replace my extra-large capacity washing machine. The only choices will be front loaders that wash 16 pairs of jeans with a cup of water. Dang! I will be forced to conserve water and energy whether I want to or not.

So, all that got me to thinking about what natural resources we have here in the United States that are currently untapped. How can we create energy without crapping out the environment or depleting our natural resources?

Answer: Water plus gravity.

Water is sloshing to and from my house every day by gravity only. Same with my neighbor's house and every house in the city. Once the water falls from the top of the water tower, gravity alone moves it along through the city until it returns to the sewage plant. Millions of miles of fresh water and sewer pipes with running water. That's a lot of potential energy.

Why can't I put a little tiny generator on my fresh water supply line and my outgoing sewer line so that every time I flush my potty, I generate electricity? Just a little bit, mind you, just a little bit. But just as a few drops eventually make a flood, a few sparks will eventually make electricity. I could generate with the water pressure filling the tank; the water falling from the tank to the bowl, from the bowl to the sewer pipe; then several places along the sewer pipe until it reaches the street.

If I could generate a little bit of power with the water running through my residence, think about what the city could do with the water running through their pipes. The downspout on the city water tank is six or eight feet across. Consider the amount of electricity that bad boy could generate. Water is running through that pipe all day every day. It's about as large as the outlet on the dam. Doesn't it have the same potential? I wonder how fast that thing lets out water?

Maybe it goes too slow because it also has to maintain pressure through the system. However, as the size of the pipe decreases, the velocity of the flow increases. (Learned that on Water Works of the Ancient World, The History Channel.) Could a smaller, alternate pipe be diverted to a turbine that would generate electricity?

Power Potties may be economically unfeasible now, but in a few years, they may be a required installation for all new home construction. That and the front-loading, 16-jeans-in-a-cup washing machine.

Just a thought.