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February 24th, 2006

Water powered water pumps

“Ram pumps”

The “ram pump” does not require electricity, wind or fossil fuels, just flowing water.
The power of the water flow presurises air which then forces small amounts of water with enough pressure to rise considerable heights above the water source. They wont fill anything quickly, but they chug along happily, 24 hours a day as long as the water flows.
They are ideal for a flowing creek or river with a gradual decline -where an intake pipe, upstream, will be higher than the pump, down stream. Same with an elevated dam wall with a constant overflow. However there are easy ways of adapting it to a flowing creek without a decline. There are even systems to connect it to closed dams and still water. - as the water flows from the dam to it’s lower destination the pump can send some of that water to a tank much higher than the dam.

Here is a simple animation from the Schou company website that explains how it works. (hint to working it out - where it says “feed pipe” and “water in” Imagine water gushing in really fast. When it forces the red ball to block the gap, the force of the water has nowhere to go except into the air chamber -where it pressurises the air. A (red) valve blocks the water into the pressurised tank and it has nowhere to go except through the “water out” pipe)

(you can buy ram pumps from the Rainbow Power Company)- checkout “pumps” in their products section

Posted by kurityityin in HOME - current news, Sustainability

This entry was posted on Friday, February 24th, 2006 at 1:19 pm and is filed under HOME - current news, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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