What fills the buckt at the top? Sounds like a water wheel in essence...

We are going to put water in a well instead of taking it out what a novel idea. Waste water may contaminate the ground water. So lets say fresh water. Is what you are trying to do gain the increase in kinetic energy due to the depth of the well over what could be done by a water wheel. You would need more than two buckets to keep it in continuous motion. This would all so increase output. Then you could use the weight of the buckets above to tilt and empty the one at the bottom, no valve need. You would all so have to take in the soils ability to absorb the water. The water level at the bottom of the well would increase as the ground saturates.

Very close. I've seen it done here. They made a wind mill ( not as big as in Holland) but the blades are 6 ft. 4 blades installed on Angle iron frame 15 ft height with a rudder sort of thing to turn the blades in direction of wind. The movement is very slow you can stand and count them. Down comes a vertical rod with a gear teeth attached to the shaft and the two buckets Top & bottom dumps water in a through (forgot spelling) attached to a 3" PVC pipe to a cement tank (above ground) to store water. They use this well water to water the grass of round abouts and centre islands. The best part is no electricity just initiaal investment.

initiaal = initial

Long time back I read that in Vietnam/Japan they made village pump out of bamboo with 2 buckets . As one bucket filled up its weight lifted the other abd vice versa. Sort of a piston action. Maybe someone can fish out this.

Isnt this sort of the way the old windmills worked in Holland? Using the wind to provide motive power to raise water, which was then dumped out into the sea. That I believe is how the land was reclaimed; using windpower they have virtually continuously on the North Sea, to drive wind pumps to take the water over the dikes.

I am not sure what the poster is driving at, but I dont believe he is envisioning a motive source of power to hoist the water.

Almost a nice idea! It will work but you may need a licence for recharging the underground resources. In SA it will cost you a pretty bundle. There goes cheap energy.

What about running a turbine in the well. turning shafts and then turn a wind wheel, creating an air flow to keep the plants cool.

Your idea might work in SA. We have surplus sewage (insufficient water care works) and some deep worked out gold mines. We can turn Sh... into power and it is 100% renewable! What can we call the plant? Brown Power?

Old water clocks worked this way. Lots of types, some much like you describe

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22water+clocks%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Reminds me of a friend at Texas A & M helping a buddy doing some chimney repair on the roof. Seems there were some bricks left over and decided to load them into the bucket to lower to the ground. So picture this, like your bucket at the top of the well. He fills the bucket on the roof, climbs back to the ground takes the rope and gives a mighty tug. Unfortunately, the bucket weighed about 200 lbs and he weighed only 140. The falling bucket jerked him into the air and they collided around the midpoint with some painful results and mighty oaths exclaimed into the air. The bucket hit the ground about the same time that his hand slammed into the pulley at the top. The shock of the bucket hitting the ground broke the bottom out of it, releasing the bricks. Sure enough, the law of gravity had not been repealed, and he started back down at constant acceleration, coming into contact with the lightened bucket on its way back to the top. He landed on the pile of bricks, twisting his knee and spraining his ankle, and released the rope. Yep, gravity was still working, and down came the remains of the bucket, landing on his head. It was the last time he helped with repairs higher than he could reach from the ground.

Line by line I read & visualized it. It is very very funny . Am still not over with laughing. Good one.

The first time I heard this story was Gerrard Hoffnung's monologue delivered to the Oxford Union; it wasn't just the builder that was in stitches. Hoffnung's delivery also was special, so it's well worth listening even if you've read it. (Oh, and if you are interested in orchestral music but don't know his cartoons, that's another treat to look forward to)

Fyz

This wasn't "Wiley Cayote" by chance was it? The "Road Runner" wins again.

If you have the water source, how bout a Microturbine?

Microturbine nowhere near to what he is talking about.

Just trying to take it a step or so beyond the rube goldburg water wheel.

I would prefere water turbine directly driven with free flowing water by gravity , less parts ,less friction , less losses. on to bucket theory , you are controlling two valves , pulley , gears , dynamo , it is little complex , on well , well will eventually fill up regardless of water seeping in rocks or how do you maitain that level to get that rpm / revolutions.

I would prefere water turbine directly driven with free flowing water by gravity . OK

But his application is not free flowing but lifting .

Ok it is not free flowing , it is not lifting either ,water is filled at the top simultaneously water is released at the bottom with mechanism timing , weight difference brings other side down and alternatingly empty one comes up , so the cycle begins like pendulum ritating dynamo continuously to produce electricity , this is like water driven wheel , or i would like to modify it in that way, valve operation , liver operation will make it less effiecient , here weight of water would be force for work done , if instead of water , some other medium is used as a "fuel" like waste water , than it is adifferent thing

I have a 100m deep ( say 4ft dia) old style well or a shear drop, I have two buckets attached together by a 101m length of rope. With one bucket at the top,held by the bucket filled with water at the bottom,with the rope going over a pulley! (hope you follow that bit!).

If thats not lifting what is?

That was basic assembly described in the first paragraph , here`s second

If that pulley was now the shaft of a dynamo (or what ever you want to call it,) and the rope was now a chain (talking about a balanced system where the weight of the chain was accounted for,) when the bucket at the top is filled with sufficient water, and the bucket at the bottom had released its water, the cycle would start, down goes the bucket at a controlled rate of descent, turning the geared shaft connected to the dynamo! The bucket reaches the bottom, opens it's valve and dumps the water, at this moment, the bucket that was going up, hits a lever on the water release mechanism, and gets filled up! down goes the bucket and off we go again! This could be scale-able! The water source could be waste water in some circumstance, fresh water in other!

just copy and pasted ,same to you, where is the lifting mentioned it is only empty bucket going up for refill counter acting for loaded bucket

Oops!

A bit of clarification is needed I see!

OK, the bucket is filled at the top, which raises the just emptied bucket back up the well or cliff face! Some people said 'sounds like the water wheel' well it is the same nearly! In fact after I wrote this and went out for the night I said to myself 'Boy am I dumb! why does it have to stop and change direction, do it like a waterwheel!'

The water clock ideas of times past was my starting point, but instead of turning hands on a clock, turn a dynamo through gearing and limiting!

This method could be used to take waste water or water from a different height to a lower height, also using the kinetic energy in the weight of water to turn the dynamo to create current that could be stored!

If you have say 100 buckets on a loop of chain, and each bucket holds 20L (in this case water), then you have 1Tonne of weight just waiting to create that all elusive electricity! I'm sure that could turn a set of gears and a dynamo!

It would move slowly round so would not need enormous amounts of water!

Thanks for all the input so far, keep it coming and let me know if you see ways of improving this! cheers

If you have say 100 buckets on a loop of chain, and each bucket holds 20L (in this case water), then you have 1Tonne of weight just waiting to create that all elusive electricity! I'm sure that could turn a set of gears and a dynamo!

YES!!! This is the last part of it that I have been looking for. My aggie buddy is going to eat his heart out. I have completed the system for condensing fresh water from the atmosphere on the roof of the building. This gives me the way to generate electricity while distributing the water. A string of buckets that fill with water on the roof and dump at various levels on demand, turning a wheel at the top and another at the bottom so that the system can generate electricity and compress refrigerant at the same time. Now all I need to do is calculate the diameter of the wheels to give me the lever effect I need for the required power. If that tonne is turning a 10 Meter wheel diameter, I am sure increasing the diameter to 20 Meters will multiply the power available from the same weight. Hang on, Atlanta, we've almost got it figured out. I will answer e-mails to oertg@aol.com

If I remember correctly you are describing a shadoef (used in Egypt to pump water from the Nile) used in reverse.

Long time ago we used these pumps in SA as well. It was oxen or donkey driven.

I suppose you could fill the buckets with a hose get it to drop and wind up the oxen.

It's a variation on the water wheel, with the disadvantage that whatever goes down the well contaminates the underground water resource.

The well was only for the idea of a drop! How about a cliff which has a sewage plant below? Or a mountain spring where there is water but not enough for a wheel? You could use the weight of the water all the way down and not just when it passes over or under a wheel!

It may be a crazy contraption but if it works, it may save a few more polution points!

Can any body tell me why this should not work?

Of course it will work.

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

cant see why not at first glance!

Where I live, a proportion of the sewage has to be pumped. Naturally, most of it comes from higher ground, but one of the cost issues with pumping sewage is the wear and corrosion that this chemically active sludge can cause - so I imagine generation would suffer from the same problems

It will work. Viable? not sure.

In SA we are trying to eradicate the bucket system, maybe we should just switch over rather than having to re-introduce it.

In SA we generate jobs by utilizing ideas. "Working for Water" (removing trees because they are using water) Working for this and Working for that.

Another one wont harm "Working for s..t). By the time they have produced the 5th draft of the intention to produce guidelines for the S2E transfer the bulk of the original group would have disappeared to browner meadows.

I like looking at simple systems, and this one just popped up so I thought I would put it to the committee! Trying to get a bit more!

Not so long ago (±40 years) before the electric grid covered the country I did some "free" energy installations.

Ram pumps, water wheels, Pelton wheels, low and medium head turbines etc.

and some diesel gen sets.

A thread like this bring back memories.

I think most of the installations were abandoned when electricity became available.

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A pipe running down the drop with a nozzle and a pedal wheel may be more efficient. You may need a scraper or windshield wiper or cover the vanes with teflon.