A Water wheel (or Waterwheel) is a system for extracting usable power from the water flowing in a river or stream. Along with windmills, water wheels have being powering the milling of flour and other industry for hundreds of years. Waterwheels are still in common use in Nepal (25,000+), and India (over 200,000 waterwheels). Water wheels come in two main flavours: undershot, and overshot.
Undershot Waterwheels
Historically the undershot water wheel was the commonest as it is the cheaper and simpler to build. It was used frequently by the Romans and the undershot water wheel is sometimes known as a Vitruvian water wheel after the Roman engineer Vitruvius. In this system the wheel is simply placed over a fast flowing river. The water hits paddles which protrude all around the wheel and therefore turns the wheel. This system can only be used where the flow of water is very fast as little of the energy of the water (around 20%) is used. Click here to read our article on run of river hydro power. Read more
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