Posted by Peter Ceresole on August 10, 2013 at 11:06:16 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Plumbing posted by Mike Field on August 08, 2013 at 16:55:14:
Ah. But therein lies the hydraulic ram's elegance, Dave. It's not steam-powered. It doesn't burn wood, nor charcoal; it doesn't use kerosene, petrol, diesel, gas, electricity, or any other fuel to drive it. The water it's pumping is the only thing that powers it. To put it simply, the water pumps itself.
Oh, let's be pedantic here (if we can't be pedantic here, where on earth can we?) It's the water plus gravity, and primarily it's solar powered. After all, what else lifts the water, via clouds and rain, to create the head that drives the pump? In fact of course everything in that list is ultimately solar powered.
Although I suspect that, more simply, the water supply is tapped higher up the hill and brought down in pipes under plain gravitational pressure to the house, avoiding the need for a pump at all. But still solar powered...