You don’t need direct visibility between the top and bottom. You can stand at the bottom next to the pipe, release a balloon to any convenient height so that it is visible to someone standing at the top–even if it’s up in the air higher than the treetops. Have a surveyor take a reading on the balloon at that point–both its location and elevation. Then just subtract the length of the balloon’s string, and you know the elevation of the stream.
Then the surveyor at the top of the canyon can run a traverse (measuring lines and angles) from the point where he measured the balloon, to the point where the pipe begins. That gives him the location and elevation of the top of the pipe.
I envy you Mangosteen. I have a small spring on my property, but no matter how I look at it, It’s just way to difficult to run hydro off of it. And even if I could, the gain would be tiny. It would be a tremendous amount of work for basically - “That’s pretty cool”.
I think that flow in gpm (you said the pipe is already there. measure it with 5 gal buckets). And static pressure at the outflow should tell you what you need to know. The turbine manufacturer should be able to tell you if this measurement would work and size it accordingly.
If you don’t have it, I recommend The Real Goods Solar Living Source Book I can’t find my copy, people keep borrowing it. You can find it at Amazon (no direct link because it might violate posting rules. I have no affiliation with it). Anyway, it’s chock full of info on Solar, wind and hydro energy for the home owner with examples. It also has info on where to buy the stuff. It’s great fun to just page through with diagrams and pictures.
OK, I’m going to try the balloon method.
Thanks for the book recommendation.
We’re going to use solar as a back up, because we’ll be off grid. Hydro is what I like best because it produces power 24/7/ 365. Solar only works at most 12 hours a day and that’s when its sunny, but if there is a drought, it would come in handy. Last year we had over 200 inches of rain, so the stream runs pretty well. We use a catchment tank to store the rain water as we are not connected to the county water system.
a magazine that would be of use to you.
home power
they have had a number of articles on microhydro as well as other energy production and conservation. ads for vendors of doing all that too.