water pumping

[fir tree]

thank you to the person on here who in a thread several months ago recommended usuing a papa pump to some one else i read it did some research and have fitted one in the last week ,it works better than i expected.I am sorry Icannot rember who it was but thank you.

Due to its sucess i am now intrested in usuing it and others to make up a pumped hydro electric scheme (small scale)but am having diffculties in finding good information out on the gennerating side any good links with pricing would be good
i can get about a seventy five foot drop on the water but not sure of how much total water i can get but was thinking of a stored set up so that i could get more electric?am i wasting my time on this?

thanks fir tree

[Exfarmer]

From your post , it seems to suggest , you are going to pump water up a hill, to let it run a hydro electric generator

[Ranger]

From your post , it seems to suggest , you are going to pump water up a hill, to let it run a hydro electric generator

I'm assuming hes talking about a hydraulic ram pump, which has massive losses but uses no electricity.

great wee pumps in the right situations.


To the OP, if it is a ram pump you've got, I have heard of them using these in china to produce electricity, but that may be on a larger scale, so doesnt help you much.

[fir tree]

correct i am already pumping water up hill for no cost other than the initial pump costs ,it works on a similar principle to a ram pump but is a modern version/variation.the reason for my thoughts on pumping it uphill are to get a greater head on the water and i can also move the point of genneration as well to amore suitable /acessable site.The pump appears to be inefficent to some as it can only pump up to 20% of the water passing through it which seems a waste of water ,but as it is running down hill naturally to get water up hill for no energy cost is great i think. I seem to be able to find out about diy schemes that will run a few light bulbs or ones that run small towns ,the 1st is to small for what i would like the second is out of my league.ideally i would like to provide enough electric to run a dairy farm thats why i was thinking of storing it and using it twice a day .water volume is my potential problem ,i think but need more information
thanks fir tree

[Agri Design]

There was an article in the Scottish Farmer a little while ago about "What makes a good micro hydro scheme?" click for article it was by Richard Haworth, Technical director of Glen Hydro

It suggests

As a conservative, rough rule of thumb, net head in metres x flow in cumecs x 6.5 = approximate electrical output of turbine in kW (1 cumec = 1000 l/s). So a scheme with 60m net head and an average flow rate of 0.1 cumecs (100 l/s) would mean an electrical output of around 39 kW.

Hope this helps give you some ideas.

David
Agri Design

[Jack_Caley]

correct i am already pumping water up hill for no cost other than the initial pump costs ,it works on a similar principle to a ram pump but is a modern version/variation.the reason for my thoughts on pumping it uphill are to get a greater head on the water and i can also move the point of genneration as well to amore suitable /acessable site.The pump appears to be inefficent to some as it can only pump up to 20% of the water passing through it which seems a waste of water ,but as it is running down hill naturally to get water up hill for no energy cost is great i think. I seem to be able to find out about diy schemes that will run a few light bulbs or ones that run small towns ,the 1st is to small for what i would like the second is out of my league.ideally i would like to provide enough electric to run a dairy farm thats why i was thinking of storing it and using it twice a day .water volume is my potential problem ,i think but need more information
thanks fir tree

Interesting situation, lends itself to ingenious solutions.
We do not know the layout as you do, but you have obviously given it some considerable thought.
It was an old established technique to divert water flow to provide instant head, as for instance water mills. I saw a great example in France recently. I have seen a system in Silver City, Arizona, a similar one in New Zealand from the 1800,s, so it is not new.
What you do is intercept the flow and convey it more or less horizontally to gain head.
Is that possible in your setup? Then you utilize all the flow instead of losing water with a ram pump, which is admittedly cheap.

Jack Caley