Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Tvo post- Re: An Easy Formula for Estimating Wind Power, Mar 2002

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Rob <becida AT comcast.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Tvo post- Re: An Easy Formula for Estimating Wind Power, Mar 2002
  • Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 20:48:56 -0700

Return-Path: <bounce-homestead-227727 AT listserv.unc.edu>
From: "tvoivozhd" <tvoivozd AT infi.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: An Easy Formula for Estimating Wind Power
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 00:52:45 -0800
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-homestead-227727P AT listserv.unc.edu>
Reply-To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>


----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Clancy" <clanl AT earthlink.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 2:29 PM
Subject: An Easy Formula for Estimating Wind Power>

> The only decision left to make is how to transfer mechanical power down
> a 108 foot shaft. A drive-shaft that long is too unwieldy. One option
> is a pump that's driven only on the up stroke, and then I could just
> connect a rope to a piston that's connected to the windmill (Lehmann's
> happens to have a device that converts from circular to back-and-forth
> motion).
>
> A more high-tech option is to drive a compressor and use compressed air
> to run an air-injection pump Air-injection pumps are impressively
> simple; air is injected and the water is forced upward. The only model
> I know of is the Stauffer pump, made in PA. But the whole setup
> requires a pressure tank and various pressure-activated valves.
>
> I'd appreciate any experience with mechanical connections to deep well
> pumps that anyone might share.
>
> Bill
> S. Oregon coast



The old Aermotors, Heller-Allers, Dempsters et. al., worked well and
reliably as long as you lubricated bearings and gearbox every three months
or so.

Pulling down the windwheel assembly is sometimes necessary---no fun and
requires a hoist. The alternative is a hinged tower or sailboat-type mast
in a pulpit. You can tilt them up or ease them down with a loaded pickup
truck, preferably four-wheel drive in zero wind conditions.

108 feet is not really a deep well, though beyond the 29 foot limit of a
suction pump (closer to 25 feet in practice). If you have only the wheel in
prospect and have to make or buy a tower, pump and pumpjack, it will
probably be cheaper to buy a solar panel and pump. There are some fairly
high maintenance alternatives, very cheap windmills made in Nicaragua for
example, and a hydraulically-coupled windmill made somewhere around
Vancouver. It uses a piston mounted to the windwheel and a springloaded
piston mounted to the pump down in the well casing, a single hydraulic line
between. Problem is that this and a lot of similar info is buried in a
disconnected hard drive (because of terminally corrupted Microsoft OS) that
I haven't had the time or patience to reconnect as a slave. The damned
Vancouver website is there, but the #$%^ search engines no longer seem able
to find obscure, low-traffic websites---you have to have the URL in hand to
connect.

If you use sucker-rod and a piston-pump dropped down the casing a hundred
feet, you will be able to operate in lighter winds if you counterbalance the
weight of rod and pump. I didn't look at the Lehman's catalog, but their
pumpjack may have a provision to do this, or you can rig a spring on the
downstroke to ease the load on the upstroke. Oil rig pumps of the horsehead
type use an adjustable counterbalance weight.

Pictorial of single-acting pump and some other stuff.
http://www.pump-zone.com/articles/00/feb/feature1.htm

If you use an air pump to displace the water, there are fewer moving parts
and counterbalancing is unnecessary. http://airliftech.com/homepage.htm
http://bowjon.net/features.htm

Source of brass cylinder piston-pumps.
http://www.deanbennett.com/cylinder.htm

The increased efficiency resulting from use of "matching valve" on Auroville
pumps. http://www.auroville-products.com/aureka/descrip.html

Some pump information sources from Mother Earth News.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/askmother/kelly.shtml

Sucker rod. http://www.deanbennett.com/rod.htm




  • [Homestead] Tvo post- Re: An Easy Formula for Estimating Wind Power, Mar 2002, Rob, 05/22/2006

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page