Planning exercise- water

[1Admin]

OK for the sake of working out our planning muscles ;) Looking for ideas for the following:

Someone is planning on putting in a solar well. The problem is that the flow rate on the well will be low- think around a gallon a minute. Their won't be the "pressure" that a normal AC well has. Due to topography and various other factors, the well has to be situated in about the center of an area that has a small orchard just down from it, another orchard to the side of it, a garden area about 20 yards to the other side of it, with another garden area further below the small orchard. Their is not that much slope to do it via gravity for anything more than MAYBE some drip irrigation emitters for the trees.

Their is more growing area and dwellings slight above slope from the well spot that it would be nice to supply also.

Once the well is in and powered by solar, what else would you need to do to obtain a system with the least possible daily "hands on" work?

Like to hear the ideas!

[eeyore]

I have not really studied this out, have not really have not studied it much at all.

What about either using the solar pump to fill a tank (preferably taller then wider) then either use the same pump (once the tank is filled enough) to pump to the area you want, ideally up higher and then use gravity to do the rest. If worse came to worse (and you had the money) use a second pump that was activated by a float to fill the higher tank. If it (solar pump) will pump it out of the ground it should pump it up the hill.

The idea behind the taller tank, is that you tap into the tank at higher levels, so that you could use gravity to water the stuff closer. Or maybe build it on a platform of some sort to gain height.

[All Talk]

I have not really studied this out, have not really have not studied it much at all.

What about either using the solar pump to fill a tank (preferably taller then wider) then either use the same pump (once the tank is filled enough) to pump to the area you want, ideally up higher and then use gravity to do the rest. If worse came to worse (and you had the money) use a second pump that was activated by a float to fill the higher tank. If it (solar pump) will pump it out of the ground it should pump it up the hill.

The idea behind the taller tank, is that you tap into the tank at higher levels, so that you could use gravity to water the stuff closer. Or maybe build it on a platform of some sort to gain height.

Yes, this is the right idea. Just like municipal water towers. Assuming the pump can lift a gallon a minute up through the ground, presumably it can lift it an additional ten feet or so? Build a sturdy platform (big filled water tanks are heavy) as high as you need to to get "slope" in all directions you wish to irrigate. You make it sound like the plot's slope is minor, just a few feet perhaps? In which case you don't need the platform to be too high (the bottom of the tank just needs to be higher than the highest ground you want to gravity feed.) You really don't need much slope to gravity feed out of the tank -- a couple three inches per 50 feet would work fine for irrigation.

In this case, i would recommend a tank wider rather than taller. Your pump needs to lift to the TOP of the tank. The bottom of the tank is what determines your gravity feed.

If there is frequent rain in your area, why not leave the tank open on top, or even build a bit of a catch-basin around the top edge, creating two sources (that compliment each other what with rain being associated with cloudy days and all). If you do this, it's another reason to use a wider tank per volume.

[1Admin]

I'm afraid an elevated tank isn't an option for this one.

Rain is infrequent and their is already a few catchment devices with more likely to come. This is good clean water from the aquifer so if possible it would be kept separate from rainwater.

The irrigation includes some generic Rainbird type sprinklers, which do require some pressure to work.

Their is another well that currently feeds the house and irrigation system. That well uses standard AC though, which is what we are trying to completely do away with.

[GAGLOCK]

Have you seen a Brumby pump? Eliminates a high amp well pump (ac or dc) and uses a small air compressor to lift the water. Not suitable for driving sprinklers since the water comes out in spurts but could pump water into a submerged or ground level tank then distribute the water as needed via 12v pumps. I don't know if there are reliable 12v air compressors but you could run a small AC one off an invertor easy enough. The video it shows it in action in Ecuador. May or may not do what you need but worth watching.

Which solar well is going to be used? Is the flow rate due to water levels or the limitation of the solar pump?