Getting water out of my off grid well using the sun and air.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

A year or so ago I took the air conditioning system out of my bus. I offered the parts to anyone here on the skoolie.net who wanted them for their project. I got no takers. Turns out that is a huge blessing.

Recently our deep well pump failed and rather than replace the pump I built an air lift pump for just a few dollars. A few as in six or seven bucks for fittings and 75 bucks for a 250 ft roll have 1/2 inch PEX.

Compressed air goes down the well through the half inch PEX. Bubbles make the water lighter and up it comes. In a box of Rusty tools I had an old 18 volt Dewalt drill. I had the air compressor that came out of the bus air conditioning system.

That compressor his huge. I powered the DeWalt drill with a couple of solar panels. Even at the slow speed that the drill turns it, it produces about 10 cubic feet of air per minute. That equates to about 8 gallons a minute of water coming out of my 230 ft deep well. It comes in splurges and it's fun to watch. The best part is that for less than $100 I've got more water than I need coming out of my well when the sun is shining.

[peteg59]

Good work!
Guessing you could recharge a spare battery, or two, for cloudy days if needed?

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by peteg59

Good work!
Guessing you could recharge a spare battery, or two, for cloudy days if needed?

At the rate it is going it fills the 2000 gallon holding tank in less than one day of sunshine. We are letting the overflow fill a small pond I dug, then we will sit the system down till the supply is significantly depleted. No need for batteries.
I should note that we fill our fresh water tank in the bus from the 2000 gal holding tank. We use about 40 gal of fresh water every 4 days.

[joeblack5]

Neat, how deep is your well, what pump did you have that failed?
We have a camp with a small year around creek, I build a hydraulic ram pump.. it is magic to see something pumping with no appearance energy..have to get used to the pop.pop.pop.pop sound.

Can you use the water to cool your bus?

Johan

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Can you use the water to cool your bus?

I saw a thing in Arizona years ago (not sure if they still have these) that was basically a tall chimney with wet cardboard up at the top. The wind evaporated the water and the cool(er) air sank down the chimney and came out the bottom. They had some installed at bus stands, as I recall. If this pumping method can get water out of a 230 ft. well it could presumably go another 40 or 50 feet up and keep some cardboard well-soaked. Basically a swamp cooler but with the added benefit of higher wind speeds at height.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Neat, how deep is your well, what pump did you have that failed?
We have a camp with a small year around creek, I build a hydraulic ram pump.. it is magic to see something pumping with no appearance energy..have to get used to the pop.pop.pop.pop sound.

Can you use the water to cool your bus?

Johan

The well is 230 feet. The pump was a Chinese DC submersible about 3 years old. We have a 12000btu mini split for bus cooling. It is powered by our significant solar system on the bus.

[Rwnielsen]

I love clever solutions and ingenuity. Great job