irrigation system

[stormwarrior]

OK I am here for ideas to elaborate a system to irragate 6 acres of ground using solar energy and a generator to jump start the system.

 

Let me set up the idea here.

 

300 feet pumped uphill from a water well then 1000 feet to the edge of the property and downhill about 600 feet into pond, overflow going into a creek

 

300 feet is pumped straight without a break in the line

 

at the turn going across the hill about every 100 feet I will have a drip system that is on/off so that I can water that section using gravity to drain the water back to the pond and/or creek

 

Now to the area that I want to utilyze to produce some electric feedback to charge a bank of marine batteries say 10 marine batteries. Perhaps using gravity and turbines inside a length of pipe on the downside of the slope heading to the pond.

 

The question is could I generate enough electricity to run a pump to siphon water back to the top of the hill using this system or would I need a constant energy source to maintain the system?

[insane_alien]

draw a diagram, put as much information on the diagram as possible. i'll need the diameter of the pipe for one thing. i'll work out what size of pump you need.

[stormwarrior]

[insane_alien]

okay, coupla points.

 

1/ what is the flowrate of the drip valves

2/ what is the diameter of the pipe

3/ why don't you have the drip valves on the first pipe, it would save you having to pump the water back up from the pond. there should be enough pressure difference to do this and siphon the water to the pond. although, that depends on what sort of flowrates you want.

[stormwarrior]

3) Im actually planning on hooking into the drip valves with both lines alternating

back and forth pump from the storage tank and pump from the pond.

 

2) 4 inch piping is what I plan on using for this and I am also considering putting 2 sprinkler heads on the ends that I can turn on and off like the drip lines

 

1) Flowrate for the drip valves im not sure really........I havent figured out what would be acceptable what range would I be looking at? I would assume the drip system will be flex pvc 1 inch and about 50-100 foot section with holes running ever 5 feet on each side

The valves will be able to be turned completely off and bypassed so that I can irragate each section individually.

 

we will label those

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

 

1 and 6

2 and 7

3 and 8

4 and 9

5 and 10

 

there will only be 5 drip lines but two entry points one from the pond one from the storage tank.

 

The reason for this system to be alternating is because 5000 gallon tanks dont last long for water irragation and having to fill that tank up from the well takes along time 4-5 days generally with intermediate stops due to water pressure being so low.

 

Yes Im in a low water area and trying to maintain a pond and irrigation utilyzing every possible resource just to keep the place green.

[insane_alien]

wait hang on, i was checking your diagram again to do some calculations and i noticed something i missed before. how in hell will you manage to siphon water UP 300ft? you'll get 30ft if you create a complete vacuu in the pipe above. you'll need a pump capable of at LEAST 10 barg to get flow. although, for practical purposes you'll probably need something like 15barg.

 

for getting it up 600ft you'll need at least 20barg at the bottom.

[stormwarrior]

we arent talking about straight up and down we are talking about hill region

 

btw here is an updated picture

[insane_alien]

doesn't matter if it's on a hill or not. if it has to ascend 300ft it will require 10bar to reach it. or is the 300ft the length and it only goes up 20ft or so?

[stormwarrior]

Im not sure what 20 barg means.

It is a measurement of vacuum? I plan on pumping it uphill using a sump pump perhaps

 

yes its less then a 20 feet rise over 300 and 600 feet

Ill look on my map for elevation difference

[insane_alien]

well you need to tell me this. give me all the information you can.

 

20 barg means a presure 20 bar above atmospheric. its nealy 20 atmospheres of pressure.

[stormwarrior]

its not even 20 feet up over the span from fence to fence.

More then half of it is level ground about 150 foot is up hill from pond to top of hill lets use the figure of 20barg as you suggested

 

Ill look for the barometer and see what it says

[insane_alien]

what? no, don't use 20barg. i haven't calculated anything yet. you haven't gave me all the data.

 

why would you use a barometer? it won't go up to 20bar.

[stormwarrior]

lol yeah yeah was a brainfart was thinking about that after I posted and found the barometer lol

[sunsettommy]

You will need a filter system if you use drip lines.They can clog easily with pond water.

[stormwarrior]

Yup I plan on filtering the water from both sides using a removable trap on each end of the pipe

[stormwarrior]

I finally have the difference in elevation

 

620-677 elevation difference=57feet

 

57 feet from the pond to top of the hill

 

from the pump to the top of the hill

633-650

from pump to top of the hill 17 feet

 

I made a better image of the project that is here:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4264/irragationfq6.th.jpg