Light at the end of dark Tunnel !

There had been a rapid turn of events in the past few days !

Intense heat witnessed at the farm for 2 years now, farmers hybernating all around, and a sense of responsibility, an emptiness, the repeated cheat from electricity board  and deceit of rain clouds avoiding Nachankulam with shower had pushed Subbu to resolve on getting a generator set that a farmer in Perumalanji village seems not using. That farmer had given up 6 months back due to water table depleting in his well beyond viability.  Subbu called me with execution speed saying he wants it at once. I thought for a while.

Am I deviating from my resolve to only use sustainable energy sources?  Am I compromising for a slow speed diaseal engine ?  This is not new and last year also we were searching for an old one. It is now we are entering 6th year and have not started regular farming. All the while we have been doing many experiments including paddy and everything was successful. But my other objective of regularly running the farm, selling vegetables, providing employement etc had taken a set back. My own experiments on sustainable energy sources namely verticle windpump and concentrated solar energy is going slow.  More than everything else, I must empathise with the team's aspiration who are on ground zero working for me. They must come to work with hope...

I further enquired and found it is 7 KV Sunpower slow speed diasel engine with dynamo.  They can be decoupled later and I can use the dynamo perhaps for any Solar CSP experiments.  I can use the engine as standby coupled with a compressor for pumping water. It can be used to expand the cultivating area due to portability. I said Ok. Go ahead. The farmer had pitched 35K. Two year old and barely used for 6 months. Another 20K for 300 meters wire and flexible pipe and we should be having water flowing in our fields. We can actually start the agriculture as Summar is the best season.  The thought is mesmerising.

So today Subbu had put togather a team consisting of technician, 2 workers, Subbu himself & Kandan . They left in tracktor trailer and bike to Perumalanji to clinch the deal. They had carried with them three 2" pipes, ropes and chain pully to lift heavy weight.  Having tested its working and satisfied on the spot,  they have brought it to Valliyoor to get wire etc. If everything goes well they must reach the farm today evening and start. The actual 5HP submercible pump will be brought by Subbu from his home as he mentioned there is one spare.

Hoping the best.

Repeat problem in Windpump - a Solution

Just illustration

In the past 15 days itself the windpump had unwound its central sucking rod assembly twice. Each time it is painful to remove the entire pipe assembly 8 x 10 feet from inside the borewell along with a central sucking rod.  It costs for arranging labor, waste of time and loss of water for irrigation.

A sucking rod assembly is used to push and pull the pump plunger deep inside the borewell. The windpump will push and pull the rod assembly on every cycle of rotation in verticle direction. This creates a kind of friction and sound. An 80 feet rod assembly should weigh a cool 30 kg.

If the tower is not aligned in straight line to the bore hole - which is the case in our site, then we are in permanent trouble.  As per my estimate we are 6"inches off the mark to the centre. Therefore (i believe) during continuous operation, the wind turbine that swivels during change of direction of wind, unwinds the sucker rods even though there is smooth ball and socket joint at the nek.  The rods get disconnected anywhere deep inside or above ground level randomly.

Typical Sucker rod, goes at centre of water pipe

Since we have pump at 80 feet, there are 8 links and due to over usage the threads would have worn out.  We do have replaced one by one, welded and tried all tricks, but no use.  The power of wind is very high.

Now for a brilliant idea !.  I have decided (and take some risk) to replace the 8 x 10 feet sucker rods with single steel wire.  After debating for few rounds with Subbu I decided to go for thin stay wire thickness steel wire. Subbu wanted to go for thumb thick wire thinking that will not bend.

The thin stay wire will pass thorugh the 2" water pipe assembly to entire length, say 80 feet and get connected to the plunger assembly of pump.  My theory is (if it goes well), the downward movement of the pump will happen through gravity.  The weight of the last pump plunger assembly and one connecting sucker rod should be enough to keep the wire straight. During downward stroke will the pump operate without the wire bending ?. I guess yes. Because the downward friction is only due to a feet of water against which plunger should travel inside the tube. This will be offset by the weight of the one rod purposefully left connected.

illustration

So we are at action. Subbu had purchased 25 meters of steel wire rope at 3.5K INR at Tirunelveli.  He had also purchased a rod, cut into small piece and welded a ring o connect the wire.  He will be doing this experiment today / tomorrow.  Above the tower he will again loop the wire. But he has forgotton, taken it light or ignored purchasing a pully. I wanted the wire to go through a pully wheel that can guide the wire and keep it dead centre.  He will realise that soon.

What is running in my mind ?

My Farm is dry. Whenever I call Subbu (just now I finished a conversation) i can sense the despair in his voice. As usual there is no rain in our place for several months now inspite of the fact that Tamil Nadu is experiencing heavy rains in some parts.  Subbu feels ashamed to tell me that we are buying water to survive plants. Quite often. That is the fact. He says most of the expenditure is going towards "purchasing" water. Village born, village grown men donot like spending for water. Successive Governments have failed to develop irrigation projects. There is rampant loot and plundering of natural resources all over the state driving the water tables below.   Vested interests are in power. Water is their main cash. The adjscent perinnial river has been leased out to Cocola company and other commercial factories for bribe. The other thing that is plundered is the River Sand and granite.  Mountains are shaved. Rivers are scratched with heavy machineary.

Coming back, we do have water inside the borewell. Luckily there are crescent shaped ponds from oriental times around in our place that store water during rainy season which lasts 1 month. These ponds are dry for most of the time, but I guess they are keeping the water tables recharged. At 100 feet we have water. But no means to pump them except for the lonely windpump.  The 2nd bore well is mounted with manual water pump. It is too hot and dry to do any outdoor activity. I cannot ask people to pump water. Labor costs money. Tracktor load full of water costs a lot. We need to survive with just hope.

There are two hopes.  One is the electricity. We are waiting. Today, tomorrow it should come. We have passed several months waiting for that. Last week, the electricity board authorities summoned Subbu twice to Nanguneri to load the electricity poles. But he waited till evening can came back. Either of the officers are not there. But there is hope we will get the installation done in 10 days time. Post that I have to buy a submercible and start the actual farm work that for which I was waiting for the past several years.  I wanted to avoid electricity, but cannot help it till the below happens.

The second hope is my own initiative of developing verticle windpump.  Backhome at Pune, I have finished the rotor that is smoothly rotating for many days now. I have also finished the gear, this time using bevel gear. Just last week that was done using a lathe shop and another welding shop.  It has come out well. Now I need to customise the motorcycle chain to drive the shaft.  The third stage for this would be a pump. But for my farm, I can straight away start using the wind energy to drive the hand operated manual pump. I am in parallel drawing each stage of the windpump for fabrication in bigger size.  Subbu is waiting along with another shop owner in Valliyoor for my drawings. Some of the material is already ready.  This should come up in a month's time.

The gear assembly. First run.  Details https://www.facebook.com/groups/519702174896073/

The original ABS windpump is failing very often. That is a sour point.  The links are unscrewing during operation.  In the last one week twice it stopped working because of de-linking of the joints.  Subbu has lost count of how many times he had fixed it now.  It has become a routine to hire two labors, draw out the entire pipe assembly out of the borewell, fix the twist and insert again.  Today i believe 3 of the rods had lost the grip and he had purchased new rods from Vailliyoor. There is no choice. This windpump is the only source of water.