Thursday, August 5, 2010

Windmill and No Wind

We were talking to a farmer recently, who had bores/wells equipped with windmill pumps around his large farm. He was looking for a solution that allowed him to keep running his existing windmills and still deliver water when the wind wasn’t blowing. He had sheep that required water and on long wind-still periods his tanks got low or ran dry. This meant he needed a back-up for his windmill pump.
We looked at options and the design of the windmill pumps and worked out that he could actually fit a Brumby Pump to the tail of the windmill pump (underneath the windmill pump/jack pump).
In doing that, the windmill pump could draw water through the Brumby Pump and carry on as normal. However, when the wind wasn’t blowing, he could simply attach a portable compressor to the Brumby Pump and controller and push water through the windmill pump to keep his supply going and his sheep watered. At the same time, he would have a back-up for the windmill pump when the buckets/seals wore out and it stopped pumping. He could run the Brumby and carry on doing other things until he had time to remove and repair his windmill pump, which can be very in-convenient – especially at seed or harvest time.
It is a simple set-up. As his bores are a long distance from power, he could just bring a diesel driven compressor to the site when the need was there.
The same can be done by operating just a Brumby Pump off a windmill compressor. In this case – when the wind doesn’t blow – a diesel or petrol/gas compressor can be connected into the air supply line and the water supply will go on.

For more info on the Brumby Pumps, go to www.brumbypumps.com.

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