On Thu, 30 Apr 2015 21:21:04 +0100,
Bob Hobden wrote:

Have you thought of a Solar Powered Pump?

The answer is (surprisingly for myself) YES. The trouble is that I only
know what I could find on the Web, and on people with real knowledge.
For the time, I consider solar powered pumps too “exotic”. In our
sparsely populated area you will find about zero experience with this
technology.

Not sure what head they will draw
up but I know one gardener on our allotment site uses one to draw water from
the river that runs alongside which is at least 6ft down.

During the driest period that I have seen in Normandy (there weren't
many), the water level in our well was at about 4 meters (13.12ft)
below ground level. The total depth of the well is 7.40m (24.27ft). There
may be a lot of mud at the bottom which I should get out some day. Only
submersible pumps can lift water from a depth of more than about 7.40m.

The solar pumps that I can find information about, are meant to work on
shallow wells or, in deed, springs and rivers.

But there is another system which is a little more interesting: We often
pass pastures where water pumps are more or less continuously driven by
windmills and thus ensure that the kettle always has some water at its
disposal. But upon taking a closer look at the pump, it just looks like
any ol' hand pump and not even the rotary type. I will not go so far as
to install a windmill, though. We rather want a wind power-station some
day and be even more flexible that way.

A solar pump, however, could pump water from a voluminous rain-water
cistern. We won't do everything... ;-)

Michael

--
Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
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