Useful PV?

[Tim Lamb]

I thought this might stir some ribaldry:-)

A functional use for photovoltaics.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Lamb writes

Oops! Forgot the url:-)

[Huge]

Gawd, but that's irritating.

[Vir Campestris]

The one I saw was a toy wind turbine. (used as a fan?)

In a shop window at night, with a nice bright halogen shining on it :)

Andy

[Tim Lamb]

It sits on our kitchen window sill and reminds me of Harry:-)

[Steve Firth]

I find them useful for outbuildings where I don't want to pay thousands of pounds to have electricity poles erected.

[Tim Lamb]

Something I meant to ask you about Tuscany: isolated farmhouse, up in the hills but mains gas, electricity and mains water. Is this normal or did someone crack into EU funds for *tourism/holiday lets*, objective 5b was it?

>

[Steve Firth]

It's incredibly rare to get the full package. We had only electricity, but there was a pozzo for water about 400 yards from the house. We've had to install drainage, water and LPG. We also had to pay for new electricity poles and a new supply because ours was supplied illegally over bell wire run from a nearby abandoned building.

Tuscany is a bit odd though, very good at grabbing EU funds and largely socialist so provision for remote villages may be more common there. It's a long way from us and I've only been there twice, once to visit Florence and again to visit the Etruscan tombs at Tarquinia.

We do see TV reports from there from time to time and I can get Teletruria on our media box so sometimes see local TV reports. No mention that I can recall of big rural improvement schemes but our local friends constantly call them "commies".

[Tim Lamb]

Not sure about the drainage as there was a substantial pong one evening.

Maybe they made enough out of selling the land to fund the improvements. Very nice pool and overnight auto lawn sprinklers. About 1ha and 30 or so tired looking Olive trees. If we are invited again, I'll try to find out more.

[Vir Campestris]

Just seen a narrowboat with end-to-end cells. A bit hard to connect that to the mains :)

Andy

[The Natural Philosopher]

(a) not really. (b) Bet it has a diesel, too.

[Tim Lamb]

My daughter has a small array for charging her canal boat batteries.

I'm in the market for something suitable for pumping river water to cattle drinking troughs. Prolly need about 50' head so pond pump sets unsuitable.

[Dave Liquorice]

Won't be able lift that far less than 30' for any decent flow is the limit.

Pump will have to be at the bottom but if you have river one assumes you have flow so why not KISS and use a hydraulic ram?

Probably don't want to pay Green & Carter prices:

But it will last forever and parts are available.

There are plans on the 'net to DIY. I like this one:

[news]

Apparently the theoretical head is the average diameter of the coil times the number of coils in the spiral.

AJH

[Tim Lamb]

This is the Lea with all sorts of weed and detritus bumbling along the bottom. About 3mph flow so might be marginal for ram pump operation anyway.

There is that! Another aspect is security. No supervision and accessible to children. The noise would act like a magnet

Certainly does the job in terms of head and volume.

50-100 gallons/day would be enough. >

[Tim Lamb]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Interesting. However, you have seen how public this place is!

There is a mains powered pump house but the likely cost of restoring the connection plus the annual charge is likely to outweigh a new set up.

I envisage a PV array up a non climbable pole with the filter and pump in the existing secure shed.