United States
£ GBP
Good for developed or developing countries, the wind pump described in How to Build a Wind Pump can pump rainwater, greywater, river, pond or well water for irrigation, aerate a fish pond, run a water feature or even be a bird scarer. This system does not generate electricity. The turbine is 700 mm diameter and the turbine head plus rotor weighs less than 4 kg. In a light-to-moderate wind it should pump about 1000 litres a day with a head of 4-5 metres. If you have good engineering skills and equipment you can fabricate nearly all of the system yourself; if you get all the parts manufactured, it's not much more complicated than DIY flatpack furniture.
Jim Barr was born in 1944, and now lives in Bedfordshire, England with his wife and two sons. He started his career in research at Imperial College London as a technician in physics, and has since worked as a jackaroo on an Australian cattle station, a deck hand on a French fishing boat, a developer and lecturer in computer software. He has designed microwave detection equipment for the nuclear industry, and written on adventure and renewable energy.
