Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
17 March 2011
Yay, Rain!
At last... just when we thought the drought was coming back.
Now I'd best get on with Winter plantings of Garlic, Onions and Cabbage...
15 October 2010
Water Tank Disaster
Well, we'd had a lovely bit of rain - over 35mm in the course of a day-and-a-half - and I just said to my wife, "That rain is good enough for Jehovah!" when, stone the crows, but I discover that the water tank that provides a supplementary backup feed to the bathroom is empty. Empty!
When last I checked the water levels of all the tanks - no more than 10 days or so ago - it was full. So clearly we have a leak somewhere. With a little luck it's just the pipeline between the water-tank and the bathroom that's been nicked by the lawnmower or something. (My guess. My fault for never burying the pipe properly.) Without luck it could be the tank itself or the pipework that supports the stopcock. Still, it couldn't come at a worse time. Spring. What looks like being another dry Summer - the third in a row. Just starting to transplant Tomatoes and Chiles, Beans and Squashes just emerging from the ground. Mind you, I did think the dam looked unjustifiably full, this morning, too full even for all this lovely, wonderful rain.
It's a funny thing... went into town for a bit of a change of scenery today, and all the locals are soooo cheerful and happy and friendly... and all because we've had a bit of decent rain. The first in 3 months, and more than we had in August and September put together.
Oh well... I guess the 5000litres is not totally lost; we'll use it in the veggie garden. And besides, all our other water tanks are full, fuller, fullest.
When last I checked the water levels of all the tanks - no more than 10 days or so ago - it was full. So clearly we have a leak somewhere. With a little luck it's just the pipeline between the water-tank and the bathroom that's been nicked by the lawnmower or something. (My guess. My fault for never burying the pipe properly.) Without luck it could be the tank itself or the pipework that supports the stopcock. Still, it couldn't come at a worse time. Spring. What looks like being another dry Summer - the third in a row. Just starting to transplant Tomatoes and Chiles, Beans and Squashes just emerging from the ground. Mind you, I did think the dam looked unjustifiably full, this morning, too full even for all this lovely, wonderful rain.
It's a funny thing... went into town for a bit of a change of scenery today, and all the locals are soooo cheerful and happy and friendly... and all because we've had a bit of decent rain. The first in 3 months, and more than we had in August and September put together.
Oh well... I guess the 5000litres is not totally lost; we'll use it in the veggie garden. And besides, all our other water tanks are full, fuller, fullest.
25 November 2009
Plumbing Again
First it was the Header Tank.
The Header Tank lives in the roof of the house, and provides cold water to the kitchen and Geyser by gravity feed. Some gunk had found its way into the ball valve that regulates the water inlet. Oh Joy! An hour spent hacking about in the (cooking hot!) ceiling above the main bedroom, doubled over in the cramped, dark, hot and humid ceiling-space, gammy knee complaining all the while about the weird angles it is forced to whilst supporting the weight of Me, whilst simultaneously trying to avoid putting a foot through the ceiling-panels, dismantling and rebuilding fiddly gunky bits. Did I mention it was hot and foetid up there?
Two days later, upon awakening, I stumbled downstairs, mumbled my way to the kettle to start my accustomed Morning Herb Tea (fresh Yarrow, Rosemary and Spearmint, if you must know!) But... no blue light from the kettle! Ugh. A glance at the microwave clock confirmed: No power. Given current circumstances with the State Owned Electricity Kakistopoly I leapt to the obvious conclusion -- a power outage. But no! For once Eskom were off the hook; our Earth Leakage tripswitch had quite perfectly done its job.
Having some days previous noticed a tiny leak from the house water-pump, I immediately and correctly fingered the culprit. Clearly, some water had found its way into the pump electronics or motor. I had already investigated the various cost options for replacing the motor and/or pressure dome and or other associated bits and pieces. But, judging by the evidence, Herr Murphy's Famous Law had beaten me in our race to A Fix Or Bust.
Upon dismantling the various pressure switches, gauges, inlet, outlets and domes, I discovered that the problems were Multiple. First was the Pressure Dome. For mysterious reasons it fills up with water outsidethe rubber bladder that makes it all work. This is impossible. Actually, there is one way this can logicaly happen, and that's if the bladder has a leak. Then it is Bicycle (Puncture) Repair Man to the rescue. Only sometimes, there is no detectable leak. In which case the water, in defiance of all laws of Classical Physics, is somehow osmosing1 itself through the very fabric of the rubber bladder. Must be something Quantum.
Easily fixed, at any rate. Take the bladder out of the dome, dry everything out. Replace. Repressurise the dome -- which is what makes the whole pressure-switch system work in the first place -- and we're done. Unfortunately, along the way, I discovered the source of the original -- tiny!very tiny! -- leak. The base-plate of the dome had corroded and developed a pinprick-sized hole. A quick trip into town to the farm-supply place confirmed my most jaded guess: Buying a replacement base-plate is not an option. One is forced to buy an entire new pressure dome (including bladder and base-plate) despite the fact that only one piece is faulty. All Hail the Kakistopoly at work!
Nothing daunted, I returned home and got to work with some epoxy resin, and patched the corrosion. Not for the first time, either.
Along the way of fixing the pump and its associated machinery, I decided to replace a couple of the fittings which were badly corroded. Not too surprising after 14 years, really, but I have to ask, who the hell makes water fitting with Steel instead of Brass? I mean, what were they thinking? Had their brains been surgically removed? Or had they simply never heard of Rust? (The lower-left picture tells the story...)
Put all back together, along with a couple of other minor fixes -- like replacing the electrical cable from the motor to the switch, which the manufacturers decided to supply just exactly 5mm too short to allow the entire structure to be assembled in such a way that makes it impossible for water to leak onto the pump electrics, no matter what. All Hail to the Kakistopoly! This involved dismantling the little box housing the electrics and then searching for some of those little round metal wire-connector goodies, which involved...
You get the idea. It is my belief that any single job, if allowed, is fractally composed of smaller jobs that need doing first, each of which is, in turn composed of yet smaller, but conceptually identical (but different in their details and implementation) jobs,... and so ad infinitum.
Stuck the whole business back together. "Throw the Switch, Igor!"
"Yeth, Marthter!"
Click.
Tripped the damn Earth Leakage again, didn't I?
Choices. Life is full of choices. I could move back to Cape Town, get a well-paid job as a software designer or architect, live in a little flat in Kloof Nek or Bantry Bay, and be able to afford hiring Someone Else to take care of this sort of shit, or... I could spend the next couple of hours dismantling the motor to see whether I can dry it out and make it work again, with no assurance that this will work, nor any experience of doing anything vaguely like it before.
Anyway, a solid tap with the hammer got the motor into pieces, and 10 minutes with a hair-dryer had it all nicely dried out. Would it ever work again?
"Throw the Switch, Igor!"
"Yeth, Marthter!"
Click. Hummmmmmmm...
R1200 -- the cost of a new pump -- saved. And only a morning spent. Until the next time.
[1] Is there actually such a word?
The Header Tank lives in the roof of the house, and provides cold water to the kitchen and Geyser by gravity feed. Some gunk had found its way into the ball valve that regulates the water inlet. Oh Joy! An hour spent hacking about in the (cooking hot!) ceiling above the main bedroom, doubled over in the cramped, dark, hot and humid ceiling-space, gammy knee complaining all the while about the weird angles it is forced to whilst supporting the weight of Me, whilst simultaneously trying to avoid putting a foot through the ceiling-panels, dismantling and rebuilding fiddly gunky bits. Did I mention it was hot and foetid up there?
Two days later, upon awakening, I stumbled downstairs, mumbled my way to the kettle to start my accustomed Morning Herb Tea (fresh Yarrow, Rosemary and Spearmint, if you must know!) But... no blue light from the kettle! Ugh. A glance at the microwave clock confirmed: No power. Given current circumstances with the State Owned Electricity Kakistopoly I leapt to the obvious conclusion -- a power outage. But no! For once Eskom were off the hook; our Earth Leakage tripswitch had quite perfectly done its job.
Having some days previous noticed a tiny leak from the house water-pump, I immediately and correctly fingered the culprit. Clearly, some water had found its way into the pump electronics or motor. I had already investigated the various cost options for replacing the motor and/or pressure dome and or other associated bits and pieces. But, judging by the evidence, Herr Murphy's Famous Law had beaten me in our race to A Fix Or Bust.
Easily fixed, at any rate. Take the bladder out of the dome, dry everything out. Replace. Repressurise the dome -- which is what makes the whole pressure-switch system work in the first place -- and we're done. Unfortunately, along the way, I discovered the source of the original -- tiny!very tiny! -- leak. The base-plate of the dome had corroded and developed a pinprick-sized hole. A quick trip into town to the farm-supply place confirmed my most jaded guess: Buying a replacement base-plate is not an option. One is forced to buy an entire new pressure dome (including bladder and base-plate) despite the fact that only one piece is faulty. All Hail the Kakistopoly at work!
Nothing daunted, I returned home and got to work with some epoxy resin, and patched the corrosion. Not for the first time, either.
Along the way of fixing the pump and its associated machinery, I decided to replace a couple of the fittings which were badly corroded. Not too surprising after 14 years, really, but I have to ask, who the hell makes water fitting with Steel instead of Brass? I mean, what were they thinking? Had their brains been surgically removed? Or had they simply never heard of Rust? (The lower-left picture tells the story...)
Put all back together, along with a couple of other minor fixes -- like replacing the electrical cable from the motor to the switch, which the manufacturers decided to supply just exactly 5mm too short to allow the entire structure to be assembled in such a way that makes it impossible for water to leak onto the pump electrics, no matter what. All Hail to the Kakistopoly! This involved dismantling the little box housing the electrics and then searching for some of those little round metal wire-connector goodies, which involved...
You get the idea. It is my belief that any single job, if allowed, is fractally composed of smaller jobs that need doing first, each of which is, in turn composed of yet smaller, but conceptually identical (but different in their details and implementation) jobs,... and so ad infinitum.
Stuck the whole business back together. "Throw the Switch, Igor!"
"Yeth, Marthter!"
Click.
Tripped the damn Earth Leakage again, didn't I?
Choices. Life is full of choices. I could move back to Cape Town, get a well-paid job as a software designer or architect, live in a little flat in Kloof Nek or Bantry Bay, and be able to afford hiring Someone Else to take care of this sort of shit, or... I could spend the next couple of hours dismantling the motor to see whether I can dry it out and make it work again, with no assurance that this will work, nor any experience of doing anything vaguely like it before.
Anyway, a solid tap with the hammer got the motor into pieces, and 10 minutes with a hair-dryer had it all nicely dried out. Would it ever work again?
"Throw the Switch, Igor!"
"Yeth, Marthter!"
Click. Hummmmmmmm...
R1200 -- the cost of a new pump -- saved. And only a morning spent. Until the next time.
[1] Is there actually such a word?
05 November 2009
Drought Finally Official
Finally our region has been officially declared a Drought Disaster Area, and the Provincial Gov is pumping in emergency funds for "emergency projects such as drilling of boreholes/treatment of effluent water etc."
A couple of weeks ago the local Muni announced that they're going to be constructing a desalinisation works for Sedgefield. They're even trying to get emergency permission to delay parts of the Environmental Impact Assessment processes that are legally required... despite the fact that brine from a desalinisation works is classed as toxic waste... despite that fact that Eskom has no spare electricity generation capacity to power such energy-intensive boondoggles projects...in the same breath as local pols are mouthing empty bullshit about reducing our Carbon Footprint...
Something is very smelly in the District of Eden! (And it's not just the illegal-but-ignored below-the-water-table septic tanks in Sedgefield.) Apart from totally abdicating responsibility for allowing the development of housing estates in Knysna and Sedgefield far in excess of the actual carrying capacity of our catchment, local officials seem to studiously avoid looking at much simpler, lower tech, more sustainable and cheaper options.
Like requiring rainwater catchment for every house...
Like requiring in-house water to be gravity fed and not pressure-driven (thus reducing by about a factor of 4 the flow rate from taps)...
Despite the drought our rainwater tanks are all full, even while our dams are pretty empty.
Even when the boys were both still living at home we never, ever used as much as 5000litres in a month. And yes, we do wash ourselves and wash our clothes. Pretty regularly. Perhaps when you know and can easilymonitor your stored water levels being conscious about water usage comes more easily.
I shudder to think what the situation will look like in another few weeks when Peak Tourist Season hits...
Update: Forgot to add that the Provincial Gov rates this as the worst drought in 100 to 150 years. Didn't know they were capable of keeping records from that long ago! :-O
A couple of weeks ago the local Muni announced that they're going to be constructing a desalinisation works for Sedgefield. They're even trying to get emergency permission to delay parts of the Environmental Impact Assessment processes that are legally required... despite the fact that brine from a desalinisation works is classed as toxic waste... despite that fact that Eskom has no spare electricity generation capacity to power such energy-intensive boondoggles projects...in the same breath as local pols are mouthing empty bullshit about reducing our Carbon Footprint...
Something is very smelly in the District of Eden! (And it's not just the illegal-but-ignored below-the-water-table septic tanks in Sedgefield.) Apart from totally abdicating responsibility for allowing the development of housing estates in Knysna and Sedgefield far in excess of the actual carrying capacity of our catchment, local officials seem to studiously avoid looking at much simpler, lower tech, more sustainable and cheaper options.
Like requiring rainwater catchment for every house...
Like requiring in-house water to be gravity fed and not pressure-driven (thus reducing by about a factor of 4 the flow rate from taps)...
Despite the drought our rainwater tanks are all full, even while our dams are pretty empty.
Even when the boys were both still living at home we never, ever used as much as 5000litres in a month. And yes, we do wash ourselves and wash our clothes. Pretty regularly. Perhaps when you know and can easilymonitor your stored water levels being conscious about water usage comes more easily.
I shudder to think what the situation will look like in another few weeks when Peak Tourist Season hits...
Update: Forgot to add that the Provincial Gov rates this as the worst drought in 100 to 150 years. Didn't know they were capable of keeping records from that long ago! :-O
09 April 2009
Running on Empty
Not much to write, here. Nothing's going on. Still no water/rain. Forecasts for the next week still say "dry".
I should be planting Winter crops -- grains, (hi Patrick! ;-) Brassicas, Chickpeas (hi Telsing! ;-) and Broad Beans, Buckwheat to crowd out some Kikuyu grass, Onions and Leeks... but there's no point. Not until we start getting something resembling regular rain again.
It's got so bad that I went and bought a watering can for watering the seed trays. I keep planting trays of seedlings, and then ditching them when they get past their Plant By Dates, in the hope that rain will come again in time for them. Up to now I;ve been watering seed-trays from the Dam, but there is now so little water left that evaporation might yet kill of the remaining tadpoles! If I try to pump water from it, all I get is mud. So, for now, seed-tray water has to come from the house drinking-water tanks. It's little enough that we can manage it. Our roof is super-efficient at catching rainwater (and even heavy dews make their contribution to the house-water supply) so we have no problem for drinking/washing water, and can easily last out another 6 months or so without a drop of rain. But the soil is like iron: dry, dusty, hard as concrete. Mature trees wilting. I'm afraid to go into the forest for fear of what I might encounter.
If we don't get rain within then next 2 or 3 weeks we'll have no Winter crops to harvest next Spring. Difficult to be even slightly self-sufficient, then...
The spiritual and emotional impacts are the hard ones to write about. I rarely venture into the veggie garden any more, except to fetch herbs for my First Thing In The Morning Herb Tea each day, and to water the futile, doomed seed-trays. And to bucket washing-machine water to the handful of remaining Tomatoes and Chillis. The spirit -- the enthusiasm -- for tending the plants is suppressed by the knowledge that all that effort would be futile. So I focus on some software projects instead.
Local farmers have organised a couple of "Prayer Meeting for Rain" events. I guess that, in the long run, they're assured of success. Sooner or later the rain has to return, and then their efforts will be rewarded. Of course the rain will return anyway... ;-)
I should be planting Winter crops -- grains, (hi Patrick! ;-) Brassicas, Chickpeas (hi Telsing! ;-) and Broad Beans, Buckwheat to crowd out some Kikuyu grass, Onions and Leeks... but there's no point. Not until we start getting something resembling regular rain again.
It's got so bad that I went and bought a watering can for watering the seed trays. I keep planting trays of seedlings, and then ditching them when they get past their Plant By Dates, in the hope that rain will come again in time for them. Up to now I;ve been watering seed-trays from the Dam, but there is now so little water left that evaporation might yet kill of the remaining tadpoles! If I try to pump water from it, all I get is mud. So, for now, seed-tray water has to come from the house drinking-water tanks. It's little enough that we can manage it. Our roof is super-efficient at catching rainwater (and even heavy dews make their contribution to the house-water supply) so we have no problem for drinking/washing water, and can easily last out another 6 months or so without a drop of rain. But the soil is like iron: dry, dusty, hard as concrete. Mature trees wilting. I'm afraid to go into the forest for fear of what I might encounter.
If we don't get rain within then next 2 or 3 weeks we'll have no Winter crops to harvest next Spring. Difficult to be even slightly self-sufficient, then...
The spiritual and emotional impacts are the hard ones to write about. I rarely venture into the veggie garden any more, except to fetch herbs for my First Thing In The Morning Herb Tea each day, and to water the futile, doomed seed-trays. And to bucket washing-machine water to the handful of remaining Tomatoes and Chillis. The spirit -- the enthusiasm -- for tending the plants is suppressed by the knowledge that all that effort would be futile. So I focus on some software projects instead.
Local farmers have organised a couple of "Prayer Meeting for Rain" events. I guess that, in the long run, they're assured of success. Sooner or later the rain has to return, and then their efforts will be rewarded. Of course the rain will return anyway... ;-)
20 May 2007
When Wishes Come True
Seems like I get my wish: 36mm of rain so far, and it looks like settling in for the night. Hooray!
Just went out to feed the Chickens (and check the rain gauge) and the ground is only just starting to get squishy-wet, so more rain will be very welcome. Looking back in my Garden Book, the last decent rain was on 5 March -- 2½ months ago! Too long.
Update 21 May 2007 16:43: Its bitterly cold and still bucketting down; rain should continue until tomorrow morning, and dams are starting to look a bit healthier.
Just went out to feed the Chickens (and check the rain gauge) and the ground is only just starting to get squishy-wet, so more rain will be very welcome. Looking back in my Garden Book, the last decent rain was on 5 March -- 2½ months ago! Too long.
Update 21 May 2007 16:43: Its bitterly cold and still bucketting down; rain should continue until tomorrow morning, and dams are starting to look a bit healthier.
10 May 2007
Vegetable Garden in Autumn
Finally: a little rain! After weeks without a drop, we finally got 8mm of rain yesterday. Not nearly enough, and things are looking a bit grim. We have not had "decent" rain since March -- only a few half-arsed showers in April. To my mind, anything less than 15mm does more harm than good, and a rain only really qualifies as "decent" when it hits 25mm or more.
The dam that provides irrigation water is nearly empty, and, unless we getgood rains soon -- at least 30 or 40mm -- I shall have to investigate ways to pump water from the Big Dam at the bottom of the farm. Renting a pump isvery expensive; local equipment-hire places demand R300 and up for a day's pump-hire. You can buy the damn thing for around R1200!
On the upside, the year's Garlic (pictured left, though the plants are barely visible) is doing really well, and I managed to get a full bed of Onions transplanted before the rain, so they're all looking good, and starting to stand upright again after their move. Broad beans and Lentils haven't shown-up yet (no surprise there, though), but Turnips (Golden Globe), Carrots, Beets and Mangels have! I've never grown giant Beets before, and am mainly doing so now to get experience with them, and to save some seed as a bit of "future-proofing" insurance. Broccoli (Early Purple) and Cauliflower also got transplanted just before the rain, so they're also quite happy. All of these are Winter crops around here, as are Peas (still to be planted.) Lettuce is an ever-ongoing story, here; the only time of year we have trouble with Lettuce is in December and January when temperatures get high enough to inhibit germination of Lettuce seed, though shade-cloth over the flats does help a bit.
I've also put in a few Potatoes. People around here give me funny looks for planting Winter Potatoes, but they have been reasonably successful (if not terribly prolific) on the few occasions I've done so in the past. It means that come Springtime, we're eating homegrown new Potatoes at a time of year when the shops are charging more for them than their weight in gold. If I can free-up a bit more space -- and I think I can -- I can perhaps get another 1/2-dozen plants in. All good provided the Porcupine doesn't find them!
All we need now is a lot more rain!
The dam that provides irrigation water is nearly empty, and, unless we getgood rains soon -- at least 30 or 40mm -- I shall have to investigate ways to pump water from the Big Dam at the bottom of the farm. Renting a pump isvery expensive; local equipment-hire places demand R300 and up for a day's pump-hire. You can buy the damn thing for around R1200!
On the upside, the year's Garlic (pictured left, though the plants are barely visible) is doing really well, and I managed to get a full bed of Onions transplanted before the rain, so they're all looking good, and starting to stand upright again after their move. Broad beans and Lentils haven't shown-up yet (no surprise there, though), but Turnips (Golden Globe), Carrots, Beets and Mangels have! I've never grown giant Beets before, and am mainly doing so now to get experience with them, and to save some seed as a bit of "future-proofing" insurance. Broccoli (Early Purple) and Cauliflower also got transplanted just before the rain, so they're also quite happy. All of these are Winter crops around here, as are Peas (still to be planted.) Lettuce is an ever-ongoing story, here; the only time of year we have trouble with Lettuce is in December and January when temperatures get high enough to inhibit germination of Lettuce seed, though shade-cloth over the flats does help a bit.I've also put in a few Potatoes. People around here give me funny looks for planting Winter Potatoes, but they have been reasonably successful (if not terribly prolific) on the few occasions I've done so in the past. It means that come Springtime, we're eating homegrown new Potatoes at a time of year when the shops are charging more for them than their weight in gold. If I can free-up a bit more space -- and I think I can -- I can perhaps get another 1/2-dozen plants in. All good provided the Porcupine doesn't find them!
All we need now is a lot more rain!
15 April 2007
Pump Action
We have two water pumps around the place: one providing irrigation water from the small Earth-dam next to the house, the other pumping our household water from the main storage tanks to a header-tank in the roof of the house. Having installed our own plumbing, and water being a bit important, keeps us very tuned to the behaviour of the machinery we rely upon. Let the water pump cycle even a fraction of a second too short, and I am instantly aware that there's a problem.
Over several weeks the house-pump has been cycling in ever shortening durations, and I'm well familiar with what that means...
Digression: The Inner Life of Pumps and Pressure Switches
The pump is controlled by a pressure-switch, which in turn relies on a rubber-bladder inside the pressure-dome. I've also heard it called a surge tank. The rubber bladder gets filled with water, compressing the bubble of air between the bladder and pressure-dome, until there is sufficient back-pressure to overcome the spring in the pressure switch. There are more modern electronic versions of pressure switches that do away with the need for pressure-domes, and I am told they're very reliable, but they were not around when we built and plumbed our house, and I see no real need for another expense to replace a perfectly serviceable setup.
Every so often, though, the bladder wears out and develops a pucture, and water seeps through to the wrong side of the bladder. This means that there's less air to make everything work, and the pump trends towards switching in ever-shorter cycles, which, if neglected, will have the pump destroy itself. So everything has to come apart, as pictured here, the bladder replaced, then put back together again. Only this time, I was feeling a bit miffed at a bladder that has lasted a bare 18 months. I should check inside the pressure-dome and check that there's not a rough spot sandpapering through the rubber. The bladders are also getting quite expensive!
Invent Another Way
Out came an old bicycle puncture-repair kit. Puncture located. Patch applied. Whan, bang and we're back in action. If it works.
After all, the whole thing is under about 4 bar of pressure. And being flexed and bent all the time. Neither of which is normal for a bicycle tube.
Only way to find out is to put it all back together; suck it and see.
Putting the bladder and pressure-dome back together, bolting the baseplate on securely, and threading the whole thing back onto the 4-way joint that ties everything together without causing any leaks is only part of the story, though. The pressure-dome still needs to have air pumped into it through a tyre-valve on the top. Normally about 1.5 to 2 bar of air pressure is plenty -- this is all about just having the air in place, rather than creating any tremendous pressure. I have tried using a small 12-volt pressure pump such as you might carry in the pickup for emergency tyre pumping, but, to be honest, it takes so long to fill the pressure-dome that I'm better off using an ordinary handraulic tyre-pump.
There's Always Another Job Along the Way
Out comes the tyre-pump, only to find that the hose has perished and broken. It's Saturday afternoon, and the hardware shops are all closed for the weekend.
Close examination reveals that most of the length of hose is still OK -- only one end was badly perished. So, a little action with knife and a hose-clamp, and we're back in action.
Now we know why the shed is filled with a rich and varied assortment of plumbing bits, glues, wire, spare parts and piping of various descriptions.
Happily my patch-job seems to be holding well, though it remains to be seen how long it will last. The saving of a couple of hundred bucks was a good win, but more importantly, the feeling that comes of having dealt with the problem, having refused to accept defeat in the face of niggling problems and difficulties -- that's the big win.
Post Script
I do plan to install a hand- or wind-driven backup pump for the house water. That's partly the reason that the plumbing system was designed as a gravity-feed setup in the first place. Right now we have water sufficient for about 3 or 4 days without power to pump water up to refill the header tank. And it has happened a couple of times that we've been without power for that long as a result of storm damage. In these situations we're still able to use inside water, bath, etc. where our much more modern and clever neighbours are forced to do without.
The catch is that I expressly do not want a manufactured pump, but something I can totally build myself from scratch, so that I am not at all reliant on any factory-engineered bits and pieces that would instantly become unobtainable should "everything go Pear-shaped."
Over several weeks the house-pump has been cycling in ever shortening durations, and I'm well familiar with what that means...
Digression: The Inner Life of Pumps and Pressure Switches
The pump is controlled by a pressure-switch, which in turn relies on a rubber-bladder inside the pressure-dome. I've also heard it called a surge tank. The rubber bladder gets filled with water, compressing the bubble of air between the bladder and pressure-dome, until there is sufficient back-pressure to overcome the spring in the pressure switch. There are more modern electronic versions of pressure switches that do away with the need for pressure-domes, and I am told they're very reliable, but they were not around when we built and plumbed our house, and I see no real need for another expense to replace a perfectly serviceable setup.Every so often, though, the bladder wears out and develops a pucture, and water seeps through to the wrong side of the bladder. This means that there's less air to make everything work, and the pump trends towards switching in ever-shorter cycles, which, if neglected, will have the pump destroy itself. So everything has to come apart, as pictured here, the bladder replaced, then put back together again. Only this time, I was feeling a bit miffed at a bladder that has lasted a bare 18 months. I should check inside the pressure-dome and check that there's not a rough spot sandpapering through the rubber. The bladders are also getting quite expensive!
Invent Another Way
Out came an old bicycle puncture-repair kit. Puncture located. Patch applied. Whan, bang and we're back in action. If it works.After all, the whole thing is under about 4 bar of pressure. And being flexed and bent all the time. Neither of which is normal for a bicycle tube.
Only way to find out is to put it all back together; suck it and see.
Putting the bladder and pressure-dome back together, bolting the baseplate on securely, and threading the whole thing back onto the 4-way joint that ties everything together without causing any leaks is only part of the story, though. The pressure-dome still needs to have air pumped into it through a tyre-valve on the top. Normally about 1.5 to 2 bar of air pressure is plenty -- this is all about just having the air in place, rather than creating any tremendous pressure. I have tried using a small 12-volt pressure pump such as you might carry in the pickup for emergency tyre pumping, but, to be honest, it takes so long to fill the pressure-dome that I'm better off using an ordinary handraulic tyre-pump.
There's Always Another Job Along the Way
Out comes the tyre-pump, only to find that the hose has perished and broken. It's Saturday afternoon, and the hardware shops are all closed for the weekend.
Close examination reveals that most of the length of hose is still OK -- only one end was badly perished. So, a little action with knife and a hose-clamp, and we're back in action.Now we know why the shed is filled with a rich and varied assortment of plumbing bits, glues, wire, spare parts and piping of various descriptions.
Happily my patch-job seems to be holding well, though it remains to be seen how long it will last. The saving of a couple of hundred bucks was a good win, but more importantly, the feeling that comes of having dealt with the problem, having refused to accept defeat in the face of niggling problems and difficulties -- that's the big win.
Post Script
I do plan to install a hand- or wind-driven backup pump for the house water. That's partly the reason that the plumbing system was designed as a gravity-feed setup in the first place. Right now we have water sufficient for about 3 or 4 days without power to pump water up to refill the header tank. And it has happened a couple of times that we've been without power for that long as a result of storm damage. In these situations we're still able to use inside water, bath, etc. where our much more modern and clever neighbours are forced to do without.
The catch is that I expressly do not want a manufactured pump, but something I can totally build myself from scratch, so that I am not at all reliant on any factory-engineered bits and pieces that would instantly become unobtainable should "everything go Pear-shaped."
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