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The Pedal-Powered Water Pump:
Water and Energy Efficiency
Purpose: The Mullumbimby Community Garden pedal-powered
water pump is an educational interactive tool to help visitors and
students understand the concepts of embodied energy, renewable
energy systems, multifaceted thinking, and reusable water
techniques.
Roles: Educational tool, Renewable energy implement, and
Watering application to immediate areas (nursery, entrance shrubs,
etc.)
Building Method: It is important to consider that ‘Do it yourself’
projects differ relatively. Based on the various available and
sustainable materials used, the building process may be modified or
changed to produce the best possible outcome.
The materials used for the building of the pump structure, the hiccups
or modifications along the way, their solutions, and also, alternative
techniques are outlined in the ‘How To’ build tool guide link. All the
necessary instructions for assembling your own pedal-powered water
pump are included, along with the documentation of the process.
I. Renewable Energy
Renewable energy resources are generally termed as those,
which can be readily replenished on a human time scale. The most
commonly utilised resources are the sunlight, wind, rain, tides,
geothermal heat, and waves. Renewable energy offers a envisioned
world free of major oil, natural gas, and mineral mining. The negative
and far-reaching affects of mining and burning natural resources are
obvious and fear provoking. How can we better understand the
impact we have on the environment around us? Measure your
ecological footprint.
Moving toward alternative more efficient and renewable energy will
improve many environmental crisis currently in existence. Often
looking to successfully shift away from unsustainable energy systems
and practices proves difficult due to structural barriers. Taking the
initiative as an individual or community to create location specific
energy systems within the limitations of earth’s natural systems can
be a more feasible route.
What are some ideas for creating renewable energy systems?
Small-Scale Systems?
Large-Scale Systems?
Small-scale Renewable Energy and DIY Projects
The most immediate opportunities for creating renewable
systems are those practiced and structured on a small-scale. Largescale sustainable initiatives are hugely important for large
bureaucratic bodies like organisations, companies, governments, and
city planning committees. But often, structural barriers exist making it
very difficult to exist under sustainable systems. Thus, there are two
reasons why it may be best to act individually or within the community
to implement sustainable initiatives on a smaller scale. Firstly, smallscale initiatives have the potential to provide renewable energy and
or water systems for homes and neighborhoods on a localised level.
When individuals and communities take it upon themselves to supply
their own food, energy, and water needs, the imagination becomes
wild with future possibilities of an alternative world. Secondly, smaller
sustainable initiatives allows for a pilot or innovation stage where
renewable energy and water systems can be refined and perfected
before they are expanded into a larger implementation. Small-scale
sustainable initiatives such as the addition of an individual home
sized rainwater catchment container in the place of extracting city
water can go a long way. These far-reaching affects can be seen,
especially if many people in one region follow suit and adopt the
same behavior. Before such implements can be feasible and
successful trial and error periods for different ideas are mandatory.
‘Do It Yourself’ or DIY projects to grow your own food or build
renewable energy and water systems are the first step toward wide
spread small-scale sustainable initiative application.
It is important to remember, when it comes to creatively
brainstorming to build alternative sustainable systems or structures,
the concept of acknowledging historical ways of living that were once
successful can prove helpful. In other words, recreating old ways of
producing energy or moving water can facilitate the modification and
development of new ways. With a movement away from current
systems toward more efficient and localised ways of living,
recognizing benefactors of old and new energy and water systems
will prove helpful and mind opening.
Projects
With creativity and consistence the possibilities for sustainability
‘Do It Yourself ‘projects are infinite. The goals with most small-scale
sustainability projects include; completing with reused materials,
limiting energy and water consumption throughout the process, and
creating a system adhering to the universal principles of
sustainability. Below I have outlined only a few of the most commonly
attempted and successful DIY projects for sustainability. Keep in
mind that a wide variety of projects are not mentioned, but are still
possible.
Repurposing Materials:
~Plastics- water and soft drink bottles, bags, packaging plastics, etc.
can be reused in a wide range of creative ways. One great example
is the creation of a drip water irrigation system for a garden using old
plastic water bottles.
~Trampoline materials can be used as a soft building material,
sometimes used to build a chicken coup.
~Aluminum should always be recycled or reused. One way to reuse
aluminum cans is to create a homemade solar panel.
~Home building materials and metals should never be considered
garbage because there is a huge variety of possibilities for
repurposing.
~Glass- glass wear for the kitchen or from a decorative item can be
repurposed for cooking and or serving food or to create a new
decorative piece by breaking the glass and restructuring it.
Creating Renewable Energy Systems:
~Pedal-power can create energy to power virtually anything with the
correct implements, such as a sound system, a blender, a washing
machine, lights, a water pump, etc.
~Composting- toilet matter, food waste, garden and or farm tailings,
basically any organic matter. To further a composting system, the
heat produced can be captured and used as an energy source.
~Building a wind turbine for energy production.
~Creating a homemade solar panel from scrap metal (A project of
this magnitude would require the help of an electrician), but is still a
great project that works to repurpose aluminum and create renewable
energy.
II. Renewable Water
Similar to renewable energy, the extraction of water that can be
readily replenished is considered a renewable water source. If lakes
and rivers are very carefully extracted from for human water usage,
the process has the potential to be sustainable. Different techniques
for attaining renewable water vary depending on location due to
climate and average rainfall. Catching rainwater is an extremely wise
mechanism for utilising renewable water. Even in very dry regions, no
harm can be done implementing a catchment container for those rare
occasions when the rain does fall. The pedal-powered water pump
utilises rainwater from the garden’s catchment container.
Why Measure Water
In many developed regions of the world, water is extracted from
its naturally free flowing state to be pumped daily through tunnel
systems allowing us the luxury of brushing our teeth and washing our
clothes, along with many other activities. Often it can be forgotten
how precious and finite that water supply remains when its use simply
requires the flick of a wrist to turn the facet and out comes gloriously
clean H20. Understandably, water is necessary for many different
aspects of life, yet, minimizing water intake may be easier than one
assumes. To reach and then maintain sustainable water use, keeping
track of consumption is imperative for both economic and
environmental benefactors. This is precisely why the Mullumbimby
Community Garden strives to eventually become 100% water
sufficient. The hope is to attain this goal through the use of rainwater
catchment, reusing with gray water systems, monitoring water use,
and thinking out side of the box to create alternative water systems.
Recording measurements of water can act as the first step toward
reaching this goal whether it includes rainwater, city water, or reused
water, because each play a role in the overall hydrologic system and
human consumption.
The Mullumbimby Community Garden Water Measurements
Average
Average
Average
Peak
Minimum
Town Water
Rainfall
Rainfall
Use
Monthly:
Monthly:
Monthly:
550mm
0mm
100,000 liters
Annually:
Annually:
Annually:
4000mm
1000mm
1.2 Million Liters
1 Liter = 1000 Milliliters III. The Major Connection Between Water and Energy
Evaluate the amount of water pushed through the pedal-powered
water pump per minute and estimate how much someone needs to
pedal to equal the amount pumped from the city on average. Making
comparisons of this magnitude may prove unrealistic in the grand
scheme of things, yet, it is important when understanding the huge
volumes of water used daily in developed areas like Mullumbimby,
NSW and when growing food naturally in a community garden.
Expanding simple energy and water systems like the pedal-powered
water pump, invites the mind to imagine much larger alternative
systems. These alternative systems will lead our future down a more
sustainable path of existence.
Consider the difference in city water use during dry and wet season,
how can the seasons and climate affect water use? Thus, how does
the seasons and climate change affect water and energy
consumption?
Similar to energy consumption throughout many fields of industry,
there is an ever-expanding demand for extremely large quantities of
fresh water. Often, these two resources directly correlate in the sense
that it takes intense surges of electrical power to pump water
throughout most systems and lump sums of fresh water are
necessary to produce electricity in nearly every power plant. Water
plays a major role in energy production whether it is the extraction of
crude oil from the ground, deterring pollutants from power plant
exhaust, generating steam to turn turbines, flushing away the residue
from the burning of fossil fuels or keeping power plants cool. This
concept brings one to evaluate possible renewable energy and water
systems feeding off one another to creatively mimic or mirror natural
systems. Creating energy and water systems to mimic nature works
to avoid severely inefficient ways of using fresh water and nonrenewable energy sources.
Consider how much water is necessary to create energy in industrial
practices for electricity. How much energy is required to supply us
with water through our plumbing systems?
When brainstorming various ways of sustaining or minimizing both
water and energy consumption do not let go of an idea simply
because it seems impossible or unrealistic. What are the necessary
steps toward making it possible?
IV. Localisation
How can a shift away from international trade and big business
toward more localised systems benefit community?
Attempting to create an alternative energy system in your own
backyard or community to produce personal energy, creates a
pathway to more sustainable off the grid systems. Within sustainable
development, many different sectors will need to shift away from
international trade and large industry systems and become placebased to maintain a self-sufficient existence and coexist with nature
efficiently. With a bit of creativity and determination simple
implements to a household or neighborhood are feasible. If
communities take it into their own hands, self-sustaining systems can
go a long way in terms of energy, water, and food consumption,
which have lengths of benefits in regard to financial means and
health. The pedal-powered water pump utilises rainwater and
manpower instead of city water and city power, which reduces the
garden’s water bill and ecological footprint. Furthermore, small-scale
community based sustainable initiatives provide a platform for the
proposal of larger projects. Creating alternative energy and water
systems will prove to be a process of trial and error, which precisely
shows the importance of starting small.
To begin a community movement toward renewables, I believe
the population must be invested in a shift away from larger energy
and water systems. This process is termed localization and is defined
by the existence of systems contained within the same region to
which they provide an outcome or product.
Discussion Questions
Why renewable energy over non-renewable energy?
What are the benefits of reusing or recycling water?
Do small-scale ‘DIY’ renewable energy and water projects serve
more than one purpose?
Do small-scale renewable energy systems facilitate the creation of
large-scale energy systems? Could they be considered the starting
block?
How can we utilise the concept of the pedal-powered water pump to
create or expand on other ‘DIY’ projects?
Resources
Journal Articles
Bomford, M. (2010). Getting fossil fuels off the plate. The Post Carbon Reader:
Managing the 21st Century’ Sustainability Crisis. Healdsberg, California:
Watershed Media. 119-127.
Jones, W. (2008). How much water does it take to make electricity? IEEE Spectrum 1(1).
Kolb, A. & Kolb, D. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential
learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning and Education.
4(2). 193-212.
Murphy, M. (ND) How to use compost to heat water. SFGate: Home Guides
Rogers, Z. & Bragg, E. (2012). The Power of Connection: Sustainable lifestyles and
sense of place. Ecopsychology. 4(4), 307-318.
Documentaries
Norberg-Hodge, H. (Narrator). Gorelick, S. & Page, J. (Directors/Producers). (2011).
The Economics of Happiness (Documentary Film). International Society for
Ecology and Culture.
Websites and Blogs
CERES Community Environment Park. Overview. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from
http://www.ceres.org.au/about/about.html
MILKCRATEEVENTS. Blog at WorldPress.com. The Harmonic Theme. Retrieved April
18, 2015, from http://milkcrateevents.com/
Mullumbimby Community Garden. Management. Retrieved March 21, 2015, from
http://mullumbimbycommunitygardens.org/about-us/
The Coal Loader Center for Sustainability. The Coal Loader Community Garden.
Retrieved March 29, 2015, from
http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/Waste_Environment/The_Coal_Loader
/Coal_Loader_Community_Garden
Other URL Links & Pages
http://sustainablog.org/
http://thegreenenergyblog.com/
http://aglblog.com.au/
http://inhabitat.com/tag/diy-projects/
http://makingoursustainablelife.com/diy-projects