free unlimited water for the garden

[Colly]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking ahead about my new garden for next year and the amount of watering I am probably going to have to do as the ground was bone dry and like dust when we arrived early August.

I have a small stream at a much lower level than the garden and was thinking what a pity that a: it was too far away and B: a lot lower than the garden to make it viable to carry water from.

I then did a bit of googling and came up with something that seems too good to be true....A Hydraulic water ram pump that has only 2 moving parts needs no electric or other form of power except for the flow of the stream and can raise water to a point upto 10 times the head of flow.

Here is a youtube video which gives an idea



<<modded by admin only to make youtube work>>

It would seem that given a reasonable flow of water, which I have, and a decent drop, I'm sure I must have at least 4 feet then I could pump water a couple of hundred yards up a hill maybe 40 feet higher.

I may well give this a go and try making one later this year and was wondering If anyone here had already tried or seen one.

Food for thought?

[Deleted]

www.clemson.edu/irrig/equip/ram.htm

[Pasha]

interesting read pandj cheers ears

[Colly]

Thank Pandj,
It is an interesting read isn't it, I already have it printed out, it was actually that article that made me think of trying to make one up myself.
They are available to buy but the idea of building one myself appeals to me.

I would be interested to know of anyone who has actual experience of one.

[Deleted]

Just have a go Colly.

If you need any techy drawings doing just ask Ali.

Fascinating project and shouldn't cost too much.

If you try it be sure to let us know.

[Madame Moorhen]

Just be warned that during drought times i.e. this year you are not allowed to take water from natural sources like streams and rivers... so think about that before installing expensive equipment and watch the government websites about drought restrictions! I would first of all install some water butts and/or IBCs to get as much rain water off the roofs as possible.

Finistere is still under some drought restrictions as of yesterday..... this changes all the time so needs to be watched every week or so.

www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Point-situation-secheresse.html

[Tigger]

That was a major conderation for us when we bought our property in Huelgoat.

Thankfully our house has a well that provides water for our 2 acres and our garden without us having to make use of the stream at the bottom of the main field.

All we did was drop a submersible pump down it and at the flick of a switch we can water the garden, land, wash the car, supply the animals and for about 50 Euros had it tested and could use it for the house supply and supply our gites too.

One of the first things we bought were numerous water butts and tanks to ensure we have sufficient water all year round as we fill these from the well as they are right next to our veggie plot and the well hatch is in the cellar and other than lifting the lid to drop the pump down we never have to touch it. Simples!

[Pasha]

That's brill tigger --

and a real saving in money too--

Like the idea of this pump too--will be handy when our plot is up and running--can take water from my lakes--during the dry part of the year --peeps from surrounding plots take water from it as they need--

same for us is good drinking water-- we only need to go down 16/20 meters --pop in a pump and the water is fantastic --

Here in the city we have to buy drinking water because the tap water is not always that good--

[Ali]

On pandj's request I've completed a tekky drawing of this project (without wind) to demonstrate a few concerns I have with this 'non-powered' water pump project.

The very nice chappie in the video (who has obviously done well for himself due to the rather large swimming pool in the background) has no stream so has lifted a water barrel 6ft in the air to create 'pressure'.

If a stream has little current/flow how would this produce enough pressure to lift a quatity of water from said stream without lifting the stream 6ft into the air?

My other concern is that from this type of pump only 10% of water that is pumped gets to it's final destination, the rest goes onto the floor near the 'snifta' (Played the word 3 times and am still sure he called it a snifta valve)

I veer towards Tiggers sub pump - for the outlay at least all of the water is collected and that doesnt leave 90% wastage....

Equally for the little sprinkle the nice looking chap did actually get at the end of his pipe what about a lightweight fish pond pump?



More theories anyone?

[Colly]

Ali
Many thanks for the tech drawing I assume it is scale 1 to 50 ?
To answer your concerns, you are right in that it does need a head of water but as by definition all streams run downhill there will always be a head of water as the inlet for the supply pipe is taken from the highest point of the stream and the pump placed at the lowest available point, in my case maybe 4 to 5 feet below it. This should enable the water to be lifted 6 to ten times that height so in my case 25 to 40 feet above the stream.
As for the 90 percent wastage it just goes back in the stream so doesn't matter.
The beauty of it though is that it runs continuously without any cost whatsoever so the fact that it may be only a trickle doesn't really matter as if it was put into a holding tank it would always be full!