<DrumBeat: June 18, 2007The Oil DrumLies, damned lies and BP statistics>

89 comments on Some Notes on The Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, Solar Ovens, And Small Wind

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Nate Hagens on June 18, 2007 - 12:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Not as such Alan. But they did have some old fashioned pull water out your well with a dutch style windmill.

I was trying to buy something called a sling pump to get micro-hydro from my river here, but I cant find any company that still sells them in the states.

Ever heard of a sling pump?

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musashi on June 18, 2007 - 12:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

http://www.riferam.com/

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Boof on June 18, 2007 - 12:40am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

= hydraulic ram ?
I used to live in the same district as this guy and I know the pumps works good
http://www.bamford.com.au/rampump/

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AlanfromBigEasy on June 18, 2007 - 1:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The best microhydro designs in the world (IMO) are at

http://www.mhylab.ch

If you would like help in figuring out what to do, let me know.

Best Hopes for more MicroHydro,

Alan

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MicroHydro on June 18, 2007 - 2:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Indeed. For those lucky enough to have land with a year round stream with the required flow and drop, MicroHydro is the gold standard for personal electricity generation. Low cost, low tech, and no batteries needed. For downunder:

http://www.platypuspower.com.au/

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wimbi on June 18, 2007 - 7:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Right. So here's my plan. Replace that hard to find hill and stream with a very simple stirling pump driven by biomass/solar. The rest of the microhydro is the same, you now have a biomass hill rather than a dirt/rock one. Your biomass/solar hill can be anywhere.

So, now you have it all. Except a really big hole in the ground which you use for hydo energy storage if you care to do a little digging.

BTW, a thermal machine designed to do nothing but pump water can be very very cheap compared to one made to do harder things like generate electricity.

The world is saved. I can now go down to New Orleans and happily eat myself to death as the gods fated me to do from the beginning.

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AlanfromBigEasy on June 18, 2007 - 10:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

http://www.arnaudsrestaurant.com/menu.html

http://www.nomenu.com/

Note the $38 dinner at the bottom, drink, tax and tip included in these. And the "Top Sixty" Ethnic restaurants (in a city of 250,000) This is the website of our "Talk Radio" food guy. #1 talk show in New Orleans, 2 to 5 PM weekdays,

http://www.neworleans.com/New_Orleans_Restaurants/

Best Hopes for Fine Dining in New Orleans,

Alan

This reminds me ....

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eric blair on June 19, 2007 - 9:08am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

with a very simple stirling pump driven by biomass/solar.

And where are you buying this stirling engine?

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wimbi on June 19, 2007 - 4:15pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hey Eric. By now I would have thought that everybody knows that I MAKE stirling engines. I don't buy them. The ones I want ain't for sale. Have to whittle 'em out with a pocket knife on the back porch.

This one looks like and actually is a piece of pipe. Inside are the usual parts. They rattle around when the thing is heated. You use the rattling pipe to pump water.

A very old idea. Very simple. Very cheap.

And why aren't they being made and sold? Damned if I know. Especially when really crappy and really expensive stirlings are being funded by VC's, apparently the ones with way more bucks than brains.

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eric blair on June 21, 2007 - 7:47am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hey Eric. By now I would have thought that everybody knows that I MAKE stirling engines.

And many of us lack access to machine tools or even the knowledge of how a cutting tool can work harden metal, how toi hand sharpen a cutting tool, how to work a cutting path, et la.

And why aren't they being made and sold? Damned if I know.

The nitrogen charged, made from pressed sheet metal, 1 hp unit was claimed to exist by http://www.omachron.com back in the last century.

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DelusionaL on June 18, 2007 - 8:53am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nate your sling pump appears to operate the same as an airlift pump. (Air bubble pump).
Looks like it has some advantages. Thanks
D

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Nate Hagens on June 18, 2007 - 11:11am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well a friend told me that would be exactly what I could use on my property here but each time I google 'sling pump' I get advertisements for ladies shoes..

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musashi on June 18, 2007 - 3:13pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Helps to click on links

http://www.riferam.com/sling/index.htm

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OKJeanne on June 18, 2007 - 6:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

We got our sling pump from Lehman's. They also have
ram pumps,etc.

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DelusionaL on June 18, 2007 - 10:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nate, air lift pump explained(somewhat)

http://www.maintenanceresources.com/ReferenceLibrary/Pumps/air_lift.htm

Wind mill driven air lift pump
http://www.airliftech.com/
My take is that there needs to be a below the water line tube that extends quite far below the air injection point, so the air will rise up the pipe and not bubble out of the bottom. This has to do with "lift" created pressure. Your sling pump would compensate for this lenght of tube via the internal coil.
You might try a ram pump- google has lots of hits. (and they are noisy)

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doug fir on June 18, 2007 - 2:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nate,

I was looking to buy a fish farm in Wisconsin 10-12 yrs ago, near Richland Center, and the place for sale worked with 2 hydraulic rams. Low head spring, perhaps 7 ft drop on land. At spring, water went by ram to house and barn, rest of flow and spring to fish raceways. Botttom of raceways had another lg ram for filling stock/gravity watering pond.

Nice place, no electric at all-Amish I believe. Not quite right for fish (raceways dumped into each other, compounding any disease problem). Wonder what happened to it.

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