Household water pumping solution?

[Grahame]

A little background...

We inherited a slightly annoying water pumping situation when we bought this place. For drinking, washing, laundry and bathing we have two rain-water tanks situation for some reason about 30 metres from the house. We have a small pressure pump that draws from these tanks to the house. A second pressure pump sucks water up from the channel which we use for flushing toilets (I know, we plan to compost as we make renovations) and for feeding the evaporative air-cooler (I know! we are about to put up the northern and western pergolas and we will eventually put a shade house on the south). The water is really too dirty for the cooler anyway but that is what we inherited. This pump is what we currently use for irrigation purposes too.

Both pressure pumps and pressure tanks are under the house and make a good deal of noise when they kick in.

We have a third big tank on the shed which is full and not connected to anything so it just overflows at the moment. We also have a 'dam' that we can fill with our irrigation water 'rights'.

Our aim would be that we sort of future-proof ourselves if the SHTF in a serious way.

So here are my questions and the sorts of things I am contemplating.

1. We put in a new water tank close to the house on a tank stand (I have a used one lined up as a trade for dong some gardening work) to gravity feed us. Although there are issues with the solar hot water system with this option. We could then solar pump (or something?) up to the tank from the rainwater tanks.

2. Replacing the existing pump for the drinking quality water with a solar pump. Can you run a pressure pump on solar? Or is there an alternative?

3. Put in another tank (or using the smaller of the existing rainwater tanks) for settling the creek/tank water and just pumping it directly from the channel/creek with a solar pump. But then we still need some kind of pressure or gravity feed system for that.

I think there is more to consider but I have to go right now, perhaps you already have some suggestions or recommendations?

Cheers in Advance
Grahame

[SueUSA]

Yes, there are useful solar water pumps, but I don't know much about them.

Here is one site in AU that might be useful: http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-energy/solar-power/pumping/

The largest users/suppliers are probably for remote pumping for livestock. I would assume that they are built to take some abuse, and are just as useful for the homestead as a remote stock bore.

Sue

[Grahame]

Thanks Sue, I was more wondering if you can rig up a solar pump that works with a pressure tank or if you would lose all your pressure when the sun isn't shining - not much help when the shower is running. I'm guessing you would need a battery set-up which would start defeating the purpose. Perhaps a gravity feed tank is my best option, with a solar pump to keep it topped up. But I think that may cause probs with the solar hot water system, but I can't remember why just now. Also, I have to do more work to set that up...

[eco4560]

A gravity feed header tank that you can fill with some form of renewable energy (wind / solar) would seem the way to go. You might need to check about the pressure for the hot water system and things like your washing machine though. I guess it depends on how high you can get your header!

[SueUSA]

Yes, I would think that the solar pump would be used to fill the elevated tank, then use gravity to dispense it.

if you have a dam or other source of running water, investigate hydraulic ram pumps. I still don't understand them properly (I am NOT mechanically-minded!), but everyone says they are simple and low-tech, as they use the running water from a small dam as the power source to pump water uphill, not electricity.

Maybe this will help: "How does a hydraulic ram pump work?" http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/question318.htm

Sue