Build your own solar-powered water pumping station by Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM In the last issue, there was an excellent article by Dorothy Ainsworth on water pumping using mechanical windmills. In this issue I will address another form of "free" water pumping. There are many remote applications where a solar-powered water pump is more cost effective than installing a conventional grid-connected AC pump. I recently designed a solar-powered pumping system for a local farmer wanting to pump water from a lake up to a watering trough for cattle in a distant fenced field. Basic system description These solar applications made economic sense because the location was too remote to run a long power line. By adding a storage tank and increasing the size of the pumping system, excess pumped water can be stored, which can continue to supply water during the night or when it's cloudy and the pump is off. Low voltage DC pumps designed to operate on solar power are not designed like 220-volt AC water pumps. Pump controller Pumping basics Solar module sizing Piping head loss
10 Awesome Gadgets To Reuse Water We like the concept behind this. Small space apartment dwellers would appreciate the utility of having a washing machine option in their bathroom (we know we would). But then again, the toilet in the concept photo above looks like it's giving a piggyback ride to a reject from The Transformers. The "Washup" concept is a sustainable and space saving water consumption device that reuses wasted water from the clothes washing cycle for toilet flushing later (hopefully not at the same time...do your load before dropping it). We just worry we'd accidentally lose socks in the toilet while loading and emptying the machine above. Ingenuity gets an all new meaning in designer Andrew Leinonen's simple yet very powerful Filterbrella concept. With most nations facing water crisis, recycling used water becomes more important than ever before. Perhaps inspired by Britain's constant drought warnings and reminders to 'use water wisely', an inventor has come up with a combined washing machine and shower.
Backpacking Water Filter Hydration Pack With a backpacking water filter, you don’t have to worry about hauling clean drinking water. Fill your hydration pack with contaminated water, and drink filtered water while you walk. What an ingenious idea! If you enjoy hiking and camping, you’ll love this. It’s also perfect for emergency water. Backpacking Water Filter Here is a complete filtering system in backpack form. $55.00 Backpack includes Bladder and Filter Features: Complete filtering system - no additional parts requiredAccepts water from floods, lake, rain, well, tap, river or streamFilter cleans with a clean, damp clothExtend shelf life by shaking filter every 3-4 months (to loosen media inside and prevent packing) Once in use, filter will last about 75 bladder refills2 pouches for spare filtersComes in camouflage, blue, black, and red Replacement 2”x 3” Ceramic Filter This filter is designed for use in our portable products. Ceramic elements may be cleaned 100 or more times with a soft brush or damp cloth. Water Bladder
Building a biological DIY greywater system (with no reedbeds) October 16, 2012 | Natural Building, Water Harvesting + Reuse | 37 Comments | Author: Kirsten Bradley Our criteria for building the greywater system for the tinyhouse was pretty simple: cheap, made from readily available materials, and effective. We also wanted to use the outputs to irrigate a grove of important fruit trees, as water is very precious here, especially in a dry year. After many, many hours of research on systems involving reed beds, infiltration trenches, fancy UV zappers and all the rest, we decided, on the advice of permaculture and greywater specialist Ross Mars, to keep it simple, and let the biology do the work. To summarise the approach (and Ross Mars’ general take of domestic greywater), we decided that the intermittent trickle of water coming from our bath and shower would be best dealt with in a living and dynamic system, rather than in a series of reed beds or trenches. What Ross suggested was a very simple system. >> More posts on appropriate technology
6 Dangerous “Urban Survival Myths” About Water As with everything in survival there are a lot of rumors floating around about what works and what doesn’t. When it comes to staying hydrated and water survival, there is no exception. We’ve found a number of the most prevalent urban myths and dangerous rumors that have been passed along and decided to address them here. 1. Running water is safe to drink Don’t count on it. with between the source and reaching your location could be suspect. 2. NO, This can actually lead to further dehydration due to the process your body has to go through to heat and melt the snow once you eat it. 3. NO NO NO. 4. NO, this should be treated before drinking. 5. You can drink urine 1 to 2 times in an extreme emergency but remember, urine is how you pass waste products out of your body. 6. This is not necessarily true. and fibrous and the water contained will not be abundant. There are probably more rumors out there that are not addressed in this article. You might also like:
Washing Machine Greywater Resources Pantyhose filter For those of you attending our Wednesday night greywater workshop at Good and for those of you who can’t, here’s a list of resources for using your washing machine as a irrigation source: The New Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems by Art Ludwig. Ludwig’s open source Laundry to Landscape system. 1″ polyethylene tubing–an alternative to PVC pipe. Oasis Biocompatible detergent, the only laundry detergent we can find that’s appropriate for greywater use. A selection of three way diverter valves. A local Los Angeles source for drums, the Apex Drum Company: www.apexdrum.com. A description of our greywater fruit mini-orchard. Our greywater surge tank version 1.0. A liquid fertilizer of the type that you could add to your greywater surge tank during a wash cycle to fertilize your garden. Oaktown’s Greywater Guerrillas, another source for inspiration.
Laundry To Landscape Graywater Systems; Design & Parts Complete information from the original inventors by Art Ludwig We originated the Laundry to Landscape Greywater System and published it unpatented into the public domain in 2008 for the good of all. This site has the most up-to-date, reliable, and complete information, and is the source of much of the info replicated on tens of thousands of other pages on "Laundry to Landscape." Please help the quality of information on this system and support our continued research by "liking" and linking to us, getting our instructional DVD or book, and encouraging organizations that have not done so to credit us as a source of original information on this topic--thanks! New Greywater Book and Video Set: The New Create an Oasis, Builder's Greywater Guide, Principles of Ecological Design, Laundry to Landscape instructional DVD $51.80 ($13 savings) Laundry to Landscape Instructional Video Produced by Art Ludwig, published by Oasis Design, 2010. 90 minutes Digital Download—$14.95 Choice of resolutions. Parts
How To Build A Greywater Filter For $30 Or Less My wife, of course, likes to take baths. My son is afraid of the shower so he takes baths. I try to conserve water wherever I can and even take a 5 Gallon Bucket into the shower with me to collect the water when it’s heating up, and while I’m lathering up (5th paragraph down in the post). In a way I am a bit hypocritical in the sense that I have a pool, and pools aren’t eco-friendly or promote water conservation. I’ve been trying to think of ways to offset the extra consumption of water due to the pool – which leads me back to the bath water. Our entire yard was cemented over a long time ago. I bought a 5.5GPM pump a while back from a used electronics store and I have lots of marine batteries to hook it up to. 5 gallon bucket – can be bought at a hardware store for under $5, but most people already have one laying around a 1 1/2″ pipe connector – male and female – for the drain hole. Here are the step-by-step pictures of the project as I constructed the filter. The parts list Pinterest
Homemade Water Filter: Make A DIY Bio-Sand Water Filter Bio-sand filters are super quick and easy to build homemade water filter systems and they are very effective at filtering dirty water and making it safe. Watch the video for details. A homemade water filter like this would be great for filtering and purifying water stored in rainwater catchment systems. Below is some additional information from Wikipedia on the effectiveness of homemade bio-sand filters Bio-sand filters remove pathogens and suspended solids through a combination of biological and physical processes that take place in the biolayer and within the sand column. Filtration process Pathogens and suspended solids are removed through a combination of biological and physical processes that take place in the biolayer and within the sand layer. Mechanical trapping. Removal of contaminants Turbidity Results for turbidity reductions vary depending on the turbidity of the influent water. Heavy metals There is limited research on removal of heavy metals by biosand filters. Bacteria Viruses
How To Get Water From a Drilled Well When The Power Is Off May 1, 2013 | Steve Belange | Topics: Homesteading, Jan/Feb 1999 | Comments Most homesteaders get their water from private, drilled wells. Most private wells use electric pumps. Ordinary buckets wont fit in a (commonly) 6″ well casing. We thought the solution to this would be a “well bucket” that fits drilled wells as small as 5″. By then I had put together a homemade one, from parts available at the local hardware store. Then we discovered that neither one would work in our well. The well bucket on the left took weeks to arrive and with shipping, cost more than $50. What now? At the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair last summer, an anonymous visitor dropped a sheet of plans for an interesting-looking simple hand pump on the table at the Countryside booth. It consisted of an off-the-shelf foot valve and some PVC pipe and fittings. We uncapped the well and inserted the pipe and foot valve. To pump water, we grasped the top of the pipe, and plunged it up and down. Figure 1