Installing solar pump in river??

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by andrew curr, Mar 26, 2014.

  1. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Anyone got any tips?
    I should be able to get 50% funding due to drought
    There are some large granite boulders in river fairly slow flowing!
    Need 18000 l/day
    40m head
    30m from pump to panels
    8)
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    While these guys are kind of expensive, I feel they make the best products on the market. I have one of the smaller pumps connected directly to 3 PV panels to pump out of my 10,000 gallon cistern to an elevated tank for gravity feed. It requires no batteries (operates when the sun shines) and is a precision piece of kit. You'll need a larger unit for your requirements but I think they'll have something to do the job.

    https://www.dankoffsolarpumps.com/
     
  3. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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  4. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Protect against sudden surge. My river rose over 15' in a single night.
     
  5. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Any ideas?
     
  6. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Andrew, Matto once put me on to this...

    Have you heard of the Glockermann pump. Basicaly a ram pump, but Glockermann came and fit a new prototype version at Mulloon Creek which works with even less parts and more efficient. Works well, but might not be ideal for your situation. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDfG6nhfdkA

    I haven't used one myself but the concept looks good and sounds like it could suit you
     
  7. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    I dont have enough fall (without doing somthing illegal)
     
  8. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    I dont really have enough fall

    unless i do somthing illegal!8)
     
  9. wanderingfree

    wanderingfree Junior Member

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    not knowing much about the laws in Australia, could you perhaps enlighten me as to what may be considered illegal in this situation? Or would we have to find a different medium by which to communicate? Shouldn't need to though, given that we would be speaking hypothetically.

    On a side note, may I enquire as to what water supply this would be providing (house water, irrigation...)? Depending on the lay of the land, location of river to house, etc, there may be alternatives to a pump.
     
  10. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Any tips???
     
  11. wanderingfree

    wanderingfree Junior Member

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    This may be tricky (at least for me) to try and explain just in text, given that it is somewhat secondhand information at this point (haven't yet had the chance to experiment with the idea).
    I assume we can look at this situation like that of a typical flood plain.
    Given that, it is possible to build out from the sides of the river two long and gently curving (concave to the direction of water flow, I believe) mounds, on contour. I want to say make them as high as required....

    However, if I remember correctly you need not make huge mounds, but simply need to plant up these lines quite heavily with species such as bamboo - I'm pretty sure there are some good species in both of your climates. Of course polyculture is best.
    This way when a surge comes the shape of the line as well as its contents slow the water somewhat, but importantly they act as a huge filter, picking up sediment, helping prevent precious nutrient sources from washing away. The fine sediment collects on the downstream side of the "filter", eventually producing rather hugely fertile strips to plant food forest for instance.
    Techniques such as this use nature to help define where and how and what pattern to use when planting, which leads to a more stable environment (at least one that can better tolerate extremes without totally collapsing). So you'd have to let go a little bit of the idea of, "I want a forest there and in that shape...", and planting it there...

    If you're interested, I can find this technique in better detail and _perhaps_ less rambling (I have a video of Mollison explaining this somewhere, somewhat better than I have ;)).

    Kind regards, I trust that at least provides food for thought.
     
  12. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    View attachment 2552 View attachment 2552 A Glockemann pump doesn't require much fall, you could run a long, larger diameter poly or PVC pipe like 150 mm diameter from a way upstream to provide the fall to create the water hammer in the pump to lift the water. If you put the pump on a pole fixed or pile driven into the river bed with a float and rollers up the pole like you see in the piers at boat marinas it would rise and fall with the river level. debris would be another thing though. I run a decades old Billabong hydraulic ram pump here from the bywash of a dam with only 2.5 metres of fall to pump 10000litres a day with 500 metres horizontal and a 40 metre head through a 150mm PVC pipe from the dam to the pump and only a 32mm poly delivery pipe. The Glockemann pumps are way more efficient and less noisy. They make a couple of different sizes with very little maintenance required.
    It won't work unless you have some fall to work with. it would be pretty silly to have to run 100m of 150mm PVC to get the fall. Solar would definitely be better and you could still mount the pump on an inflated car tyre tube or similar like a ship life bouy with some sort of rollers or friction reduction around a circular pile to allow for the river height fluctuations. See the pictures above of the rollers I was writing of.
     
  13. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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  14. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    The Oz government is now paying 75 percent of cost of pumps ,piping,installation!!
    Submersible pumps look great I dont understand why they are so expensive ;;;7to 15000$ (((unless while these subsidies are on evryone is ripping off the government!)
    I dont have enough flow at the moment to run a ram pump !
    Thanks for the tips!
     
  15. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Looks good !
    i guess it requires flexible pipe??
     
  16. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    The delivery pipe could still be black poly with a loop for extension and the electrical wire from the panels that spiral stuff like on a phone handpiece cord , both supported on slip rings on an anchored woven steel rope wire going from the top of the pile to a fixed point on the bank.
     
  17. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    sheep /cows

    airation of fish!! and trees
     
  18. wanderingfree

    wanderingfree Junior Member

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    i see, nice. i guess to really analyse the situation, I would like to see aerial map of the land including "borders", with contour lines preferably (to see what gradients there are over the site to work with)...but this would lead to thoughts that may or may not require pumping, which I am now realising is a little off topic.

    I can tell though that as things stand, a pump sounds pretty necessary, in which case I am somewhat out of my depth for the time being (so I guess my ideas are limited to minimising the need for a pump).
    I could poke around with the aforementioned ideas but they are tangential and therefore I suppose I should drop the topic for now, at least in this thread :)

    Though now I think of it, might it be possible to set up smaller pump systems, for instance one for each fish pond. They could pump water straight from the pond to a raised area close to the pond (similar to small silt trap ponds) designed to trickle the water over rocks and similar to aerate and drop straight back into the pond again.
    Also if you have ponds connecting to ponds you could do something similar to Sepp Holzer. The water outflow pipe is right at the pond surface, and he sets them up so he can hear a "thwip-thwip" sound as the water passes over and out. This is a sign to him that air is being pulled with, thus aerating the following pond. Doing this over several ponds gives him water stores to begin with, and good fish ponds later on. Hope that make sense.

    I apologise as it feels to me I am having difficulty verbalising these ideas. I can try to put some image together if necessary (darn, it's so much easier to express in person, with pleanty of gesticulation :)).
     
  19. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Google earth 204 strachan rd Wellington vale!!
    I do have a couple of those Sepp Holtzer monks ((Love em!!!) Alas they are above the water leval at the moment!!

    Great to see you are getting into this Permaculture thing!
     
  20. wanderingfree

    wanderingfree Junior Member

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    :) cool stuff. I wonder, can they be adapted with a float to always keep them at the right water level?
    Haha, yeah I've been into permaculture for a few years now, and have been into studying pattern and nature for long before then; happy to try and apply some of the ideas. Can't wait to have the physical opportunity...
     

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