water windmill info

I'm looking at digging 2 water ponds/tanks for wildlife/cattle and would like to put in a water windmill to supply the ponds. I have tried googling but haven't come up with much info on who installs them, costs, drilling, minimal size, brand names, trouble shooting, ect. ect.

Anyone have any info or recommendations you could share? I am on the Gulf Coast near Victoria/ Seadrift.

Try search venue, good article short time ago about wells in your area.

Many of the standard well drillers also do windmills, most will have that info in the ad in your phone book

We had windmills most of my life and they can be a serious headache, especially with an ever dwindling supply of mechanics for them. I would research a submersible pump that runs off a solar panel; that's likely what we're going to use next time.

Goulds makes one just like this, that "off gridders" use.

Thanks for info. Guessing there are a bunch of moving parts to a windmill. But aren't most those solar pumps cheap Chinese made trash??

Not Goulds, one of the best and made in the USA iirc. Grundfos is another good pump. Avoid everything at the box stores if you want longevity odds (read the reviews)

This may interest you

http://www.simplepump.com/

Don't take this the wrong way... Don't do it!!!!

Pain in the rear. Get a solar pump and be done with it

Ha I should of read down further!

X1000

good advice, I'll do some research on the solar pumps. Thanks!

I don't have one, and I have no experience with them. A very good friend of mine owns a crane business in CA and HI that for awhile repaired the cranes for a company that did maintenance on the windmills on the Altamont Pass in CA. He said it was never ending trying to keep them going. Not that they have anything to do with water windmills other then to point out that everything moving requires maintenance. They are also expensive. When I was looking into buying one, after digging the well, it was at least $3 grand to get started with very little water output. Couple hundred gallons a day if I remember correctly. My 4 acre pond will drop a few inches per week during the peak of summer due to evaporation, which is about 100,000 gallons per inch. For me, there is just no way to justify spending the money on something that I would never see any result from.

I am going with a shallow solar pump system to fill a 2,500 gallon storage tank in my garden that I plan to use to water the plants every night. For a couple grand, I think I can come up with a system that will allow me to do this. I've already dug the shallow well, I just need to get all my measurements figured out before buying anything.

I have a aermotor windmill ( 10 ft mill 33 ft tower ) yes I went big.
The most common is a 8ft mill 27ft tower.

Once a year climb the tower pull the plug on the bottom of the mill drain the oil and replace it.
That's all there is to maintaining a windmill. In real bad storms lock them down.


The pump on a solar panel is another great idea !

Eddie, you cant tap into that 6" water well line that runs through your place?

Broken sucker rod, worn out leathers? Both common at our place and both a big PITA because you have to pull the well. Unfortunately adding to the misery is the fact that the only mechanic in the county is about 85 yrs old.

I researched them about 5 yrs ago and it was about $20K, solar submersible sounds like a much better way to go.

I would go with a submersible pump. We had a windmill on our old family ranch and it was always broke. It literally probably worked less than 50% of the time. My Dad finally got tired of wasting money to fix it only for it go out again pretty soon, so he paid to run power about 500 yards from a neighbor's barn and sunk a submersible pump it in. Problem solved, it worked from that day until we sold the place 11 years later.

Solar powered camel watering center my company built in the Danakil desert in Eithopia:



Uses the Grundfos SQFlex solar system. This system was originally designed and field tested in the Australian outback for use in watering unmanned sheep watering stations.

Happy customers:



This particular system produces about 10,000 gallons a day and feeds an above ground concrete tank instead of a pond. The water level in the tank is controlled by floats and the tank gravity feeds several troughs (the troughs are manually filled by the herdsman) that water 500 camels and about 200 goats daily. It has been running for almost 5 years straight with no problems. The only maintenance is periodic cleaning of dust off the panels (2-3 times a year) to restore output.

This was a pilot project and included training the locals on how to build them. Government over there deemed this a great success and the crew we trained have since built half dozen more of them.

Yours truly replacing a union live. Quality control over there on fittings is pretty suspect. This particular union split when the system went live.

Cool deal there Hirogen

Sure is!! Looked at that pump yesterday matter of fact online, they aren't cheap!! Should be strong enough to pump from 200'.

Very neat Hirogen. I checked them out as well, the Grunfos start around $2K. I also found one that looks comparable (I think) made by Advanced Power for around $800. Need to do a bit more searching & comparing.

This is what I like about THF, we all share ideals & opinions with one another.

By the way Hirogen, open season on camels & how do they fry up ? Chicken fried camel !! lol.

You touch one of their camels and they will seriously kill you. They use them to transport salt that they mine out on the salt flats and drink the milk. They also use them as living filters as often the water that they can find is not safe for human consumption but the camels can drink it and than produce safe milk. The only time they would ever eat one is if it died of natural causes. Goats on the other hand are fair game.

They are nomadic and these watering centers are strategically placed at crossroads.

Here's a few quotes from different sources regarding the culture of these people:

"warfare has been the primary context for much of the culture. A few decades ago, for instance, a young man was not considered an adult until he had killed one man. His victim might be from a different people or from another Afar clan."

The Afar remain aloof from all central governments, unresponsive to opportunities and suggestions for change, resistant to domination by others. They are cautiously open to specific benefits like medical care or water programs.

The clans each control a territory and historically entering a clan's territory without permission from the clan chief would get you killed. At the Eithopian embassy when I was applying for my work visa I had to provide details on the where/what was being done. The embassy official was initially going to deny my visa as they told me that I could not go into Afar territory and expect to survive. I had to get the clan chief to call the embassy on sat phone and explain that I was there by invitation.

I got hooked into all this through a friend who happens to be the only white Afar in history. He saved the life of a clan chief after a car accident about 15 years ago and was immediately adopted by the chief as a son. He was granted full membership into the clan and can vouch for people in much the same way a made member of the mob can vouch for somebody to the "family."

That sounds about like me the same when I used to stop at the Canadian immigration and apply for my work visa. Every year it got harder & harder, finally the last year the bitch was all over me and that was when I said it wasn't worth it anymore. Gave up running the fishing lodge & my tourist license, subdivided the property and moved on to greener pastures. Still have my personal cabin there, but no more governmental b.s.

Hows the Walleye fishing been this year?

Yep PITA, worked on WM's for a long time in my younger years, and like qsybks said its a lot of work, believe me.

Yikes

Hopefully your luck gets better.