Deep water... [RE-wrenches]

[Gary Higbee, Solutions from the Land]

Hi Wrenches,

Thanks so much for the input for my 425' deep, "big water" client.

Yes, the most important element in this system is conservation, and we're
not going to be economical if we're using compact fluorescent bulbs in the
home while we're gushing water all over the land! Good point about strongly
stressing this.

I do see wind as a possibility, though this is hilly terrain, he's down a
slope, and he wants something installed very soon (i.e., doesn't want to
wait for monitoring).

My client just plain wants lots of water, though he's backed down from 5,000
gallons a day, thank goodness. We're still at a couple thousand gallons or
so in the summer. At this point we're leaning towards as large an AC pump as
his generator can handle for summer use--pumped into a 5,000 gallon holding
tank on the hill. I'm not thrilled with this, but his budget doesn't allow
2-3KW of PV's at this time, he's already got a decent generator, and he
still wants quite a bit of water. My biggest concern is that if he puts in a
2hp electric pump (which would probably be most efficient in loading up the
generator) it probably wouldn't be practical to run the pump from inverters,
assuming there was enough array for it. I could see the possibility of
adding a Sunrise for general domestic use in the non-irrigation season,
though this would go in under the big AC pump, and should probably be done
at the same time.

In one sense I'd like to go with the largest AC pump a SW4024 or 4048 could
handle, even though it would be run from a generator most of the time. At
least then we'd have a possible upgrade path. I'm not excited about the home
computer crashing whenever the pump starts, though! So it seems that either
we've got two big SW's (too expensive), two big DR's (generator-control
lacking, less efficient motor operation), or detaching the irrigation
pumping from the household stuff (our likely direction).

This is an interesting example of where my personal philosophy is
challenged. My client--a wonderful guy, and retired firefighter (hmm, could
this be related to wanting lots of water?)--wants to "green" a harsh place.
It's hard to imagine using so much water in this particular place. I suspect
that once the propane generator bill starts mounting this will further
promote water conservation (drip lines, mulching, sticking with
drought-tolerant species). I suspect that the system will adjust itself in
time (a Permaculture perspective, perhaps). For now it looks like we'll
detach the pumping from the household system, and I'll try to keep some
future options open.

I am steering toward the most efficient AC pump we can find--maybe one of
the new Grundfos models. Any of you have experience with any of the newer,
efficeint "soft-start" models?

Again, thanks!

Gary

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Gary Higbee  (ghigbee at efn.org)
             (541)607-1818
    Solutions from the Land--solar,
  wind, and hydro site analysis, design,
            and installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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