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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> Wouldn't the storage tank & 10W
> pump combination be the more brilliant invention?

I've extolled the virtues of an elevated tank delivering gravity  
water for many years. Not everyone has enough elevation to make it  
sensible. A tank on a wooden platform delivers very low pressure. It  
takes 2.1 feet elevation to create one psi at the faucet or  
showerhead. A wooden platform for a water tank must be very strong  
and sit upon a good footing.

Regarding the compressed air pump, I always think of energy in and  
energy out. What creates the compressed air? What is the source and  
what is the cost? I suppose to evaluate the efficiency one would need  
to compare some other pump cost per thousand gallons, say, and the  
compressed air pump energy source the same.

My cousin who built the elegant log cabin had as his first water  
source a twelve-volt pump lifting water to a tank up the hill from a  
small spring. The pump was energized by a battery charger. So it  
still required electricity. I don't know if he ever calculated the  
cost-per-gallon of pumping that way. I do know that he later had a  
well dug and a normal deep pump installed.