Water wheel electricity in 1915
 

I was searching through Project Gutenberg tonight, looking for something interesting to read, and I came across this: Electricity for the farm by Frederick Irving Anderson

I've only read the first bit of it, but there it tells the story of a farmer helping out his neighbour by installing a dynamo on his rarely-used waterwheel, and setting up the house with electric lighting, heating, cooking, etc. Which were all fancy new things back then.

What strikes me is how simple it is. Obviously such an installation wouldn't be up to any modern code or anything, and houses nowdays use up quite a bit more power than back then of course. But if you're lucky enough to live on a riverbank, or have a stream or spring on your property, it might be a good read.