Selfsufficientish.com

Hi Guys
I'd love a big water feature but can't justify the electricity use of the pump and the cost of getting it all wired in for something that is purely decorative.

Solar water pumps seem to be very expensive for the height that they will pump.

Is it possible to use wind to pump the water? I was thinking of having a holding tank at the top so that when it's windy the water would be pumped up into the tank and then released down the waterfall.

I am a complete DIY novice so it would have to be really easy.

Cheers
Zoe

there are some simple kits available using a small pv panel - the output of water varies according to the season, time of day, and amount of sun - you can get some large ones, but the cost is high!
Your way is a possibly viable alternative - you'd have to cost for quite a lot of water storage, the turbine, pumps etc.........first thing is to decide on the flow rate you need, then multiply it up over a day - then ideally assume you may have long periods of calm, so multiply that by around 7 - it's going to be a BIG tank!)...........

Gidday

Wind mills have been the sole means of pumping water for centuries in some parts of the world Do a search on windmill and see what you find.

Poundland sell water pumps that are designed to run from an electric drill ive had a play with one attaching it to a savonius rotor made from and old coffe tin and it pumped water quite well when the wind gusted.

So if you combined that with a header tank i should imagine it would do the trick.


I managed to buy a very cheap solar water pump on ebay.

The only downside was the auction said the seller was in ireland then when i won the auction i got an email saying it was being sent air mail from china

Gidday

Did you have a go with your search. I found this that might be helpful
http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/water/wind_e.htm

paradox wrote:Poundland sell water pumps that are designed to run from an electric drill ive had a play with one attaching it to a savonius rotor made from and old coffe tin and it pumped water quite well when the wind gusted.

So if you combined that with a header tank i should imagine it would do the trick.

Hi
This sounds interesting. I shall have to see if I can find a similar pump. I've seen them at DIY stores but they were a bit expensive. I haven't had much chance to look into this since putting up my first post 'cos the chooks have taken up far too much of my time. I will definitely look in Poundland and so on when I next go into town.

Cheers guys.
Zoe

hi zoe
i am a little confused by your post. surely if you cant justify the energy use for your water feature, how can you justify the energy use in manufacturing a solar panel or windmill for a water feature? solar panels in particular are full of all kinds of nasty metals, and even a simple home made pump is full of copper etc, all ripped from the earth, by miners working in conditions akin to slavery.

ultimately everything we purchase is made and transported to us using non-renewable energy and resources. i was going to suggest you build your own wind turbine from an old motor, but even that would involve using a battery (which also arent very pleasant).

i think that if people dont start asking 'do i really need this thing' we may find ourselves in a situation where only the very rich have access to necessities (through a combination of the effects of environmental degradation and peak oil). well, actually on a global scale we are the very rich, and a large portion of the world's population don't have access to the necessities.

Gidday

Well I suppose I had better just climb back in my cave after a herd day eating wild plants.

But those poor plants have feelings too Eh!

Hi Catalyst
You do have a point. Except that what I was really looking for was something that I could make out of recycled materials. And, if you'd read my post, you'd realise that I didn't want a battery as I was just going to pump the water when it was windy. No need to convert to electricity.

Still we are all entitled to a rant now and again.

Zoe

This might help... http://www.electronicpeasant.com/projec ... mpump.html

I know there's no windmill or wind power... Have you looked into the Archimedes Screw?

That could be combined with a windmill, though it needs to be at an angle...

http://www.monsterguide.net/how-to-buil ... mill.shtml

If it was to power a well and an attached water storage tank, windmills are an excellent choice, it its for a garden ornament, well, they arent.

DominicJ wrote:If it was to power a well and an attached water storage tank, windmills are an excellent choice, it its for a garden ornament, well, they arent.

Why not?

A storage tank and windmill can be sized to store enough water in the windy periods to last through the calm ones.
Without that storage tank, the fountain would only be on when it was windy.
Unless of course you had a raised storage tank attached to the fountain.

I suppose it depends on the size of the fountain, but even a small one can be expected to use several hundred litres per hour, even several thousand. Even if we say 100litres pre hour, a storage tank to store enough water for 10 hours would be 1 cubic metre.
Thats a tiny fountain.
I suppose its possible, it just seems like a lot of effort

However, one could likely use a pond as their storage tank.

If one had a pond they could also use a Propane Water Wheel to pump a waterfall on those windless sunny days...

----------------
Listening to Enya - Waterfall with
via FoxyTunes

I built a 7ft dia greenwindmill (www.greenwindmill .com) just for fun of it a while back from odds and ends i had laying around. I think it cost all of £7
Its quite a novel design but simple enough to make . Its suited to mechanical applications (aerating, pumping etc) than electrical generation as it doesn`t spin that fast.
I guess a large one could probably be geared up on the output to drive an alternator though.