This is the best time of the year because it's our raining season. My job is to fill up a lake with 3 massif pumps.
The lake is 48klm long and 26klm wide and about 12m deep.Each pump is running from 3kv3 and using 90Amp and the wattage is 440kw. Each pump is capable of pumping 2000L per sec.The pumps stands about 3 storage high from top to bottom. The impeller weigh 800kg and is made of solid brass. To start one pump cost about $4000 . It take about 1 hour to start up a pump.The reason for this is, if you try to do it faster, the shaft to the impeller can brake because of the force and the pressure of the water.
My job is to make sure these pumps never stops. There's a control board with a computer in front of each pump where you can monitor all the different sensors. All together there's 38 sensors on each pump. These sensors are to check the vibration, the cooling oil, cooling water, the pressure and a lot of other things.Each pump got 148 brushes in 4 rows stack on each other . The armature is 900mm dia and 1.1m long
There are 3 of us that's qualified to work on these pumps. We are the only 3 in South Africa. Because we are only 3 guys we have to work each and every day for 3 to 4 month to fill up the lake. When we finished we pumped about 120 thousand million cubic meter water and then the lake stands at 87%
The pic's show the top section of the pump and the second pic show the outlet valves
The money is good and that's what it's all about.(the bling bling)
Hope you enjoy my story

 

120 thousand million cubic meter water

isnt a thousand million = a billion?


Is this water standard potable (drinking) water?

What is the main use for the water? And What do you do for water during the "dry" seasons? Does the lake dry up?

 

retched,The lake belong to a farmers community. Altogether there's about 3 thousand farmers in this community. Each of them have to pay a certain amount per annual. the water is then pumped from the river and during the summer the water is again release back into the river. each farmer have their own pumps with which they then pump the water from the river to fill their dams.
So far we were lucky because there was always water in the river during winter time,but the weather is changing all the time because this year it rained only 3 times. We all hoping for more water for this year and next month it's the beginning of spring. The water level is now standing on 74%. Each year, after summer the water level dropped with about 35%
I personally think next year is gonna be a very dry season. It's all to do with the greenhouse effect.

 

It's all to do with the greenhouse effect.

But doesn't your artificial lake and irrigation also contribute to putting water vapor into the atmosphere?

John

 

Hi John,
It is like you said, but the vapor doesn't stay in the sky. the wind move it on.The other thing is that our rain is coming from the sea side(east). It doesn't mean the same vapor that form above us will bring rain to us.It just doesn't work that way.
If you wanted to know more about this, you have to Google for it.

 

I think jpanhalt is talking about your project adding vapor to the atmosphere, which would increase the greenhouse effect.

I may be incorrect.

 

If it was rain to begin with...

 

Water Vapor is the most potent greenhouse gas and I have heard of people thinking that it is a problem - for example that Hydrogen cars that produce only water will increase greenhouse effect.

Burning Hydrocarbons also creates water along with the CO2.
Water tends to recycle back out of the atmosphere in a few months as rain compared to at least many years, decades, and centuries of CO2 making life hell before we start getting close to normal levels again.

We have actually multiplied our global carbon emissions since the 70s. Most of the carbon we have put up in the atmosphere has gotten there in the last 25 years. That means that we are way behind the climate effect curve. Our current levels of greenhouse gas probaly has a guaranteed 5 degrees of warming.

But the atmosphere is low thermal mass and has to pull up the ocean temperatures. The thermal mass of the oceans is several times the atmospheres and it will take a hundred years for it to climb the warming curve and start to stabilize so we have to wait 100 years to see how bad a mess we have made. Meanwhile we make it worse, so that count down clock to 100 years or so of locked in warming isn't even started. It is 100 years plus however long it takes us to get our act together.

Meanwhile the world is doing a "So thats the way you want to play?"

Some ways the planet has decided to follow our lead.
Forest fires and insects infestations. One of the few places where trees are having an easier time is above the arctic circle and there they break the snow cover affecting the albedo to increase warming.
Warming Oceans, like a warm soda lose their fizz. Their CO2 absorbtion decreases rapidly and eventually the ocean starts to release CO2 adding to the atmospheric fraction instead of decreasing it through absorbtion.
Melting Permafrost, Ocean Sediments, and drying wetlands. Large amounts of methane and CO2 are released. There is a feared potential for a series of major breakdowns that could completely overshadow our gradual pollution.
The decay of the polar ice cap. Directly related to warming oceans, this has the potential to allow raising global temperatures rapidly by allowing the Oceans more direct thermal absorbtion in the polar sea where the cold water has the most headroom for thermal gain - making this warming thermodynamically efficient to the point of climate destabilization. The Ice is already rotten and crumbling. It might last 50 years or be gone in the the summer of 2012.
Increased Hadley Cell circulations. Rainy gets more rain. Dry gets dryer. Australia could be getting out of the grain business now. Much of the American grainbelt could be desert in 50 years. The high plains of Kenya - one of the most fertile areas on Earth have had droughts that are like a touch of the Sahara. It is bad. If the Earth does not counteradapt and increase fertility in large areas then there will be Carbon in the atmosphere for a long long time. Hopefully more rain will help some areas but the way the new rainfall patterns work, it could arrive in amounts that will make the disaster in Pakistan seem normal.

So increased water vapor is a problem but higher evaporation rates are a given with the warming Oceans. Negative feedbacks from cloud cover are one of the most hopeful outcomes.

Still seems hard to imagine pumping water to fill a lake. Maybe thats just me being in Canada where we have so many lakes.

 

Lots of intertwined hypotheses and statements with dire predictions, but no credible evidence or data. Makes about as much sense as the turbo encabulator ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDgQg6bq7o&feature=related ).

John

 

We've got an interesting one in Wales. Water is pumped up during low electricity demand and then used during high demand to balance the grid (up to 1800MW).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_power_station

 

Lots of intertwined hypotheses and statements with dire predictions, but no credible evidence or data. Makes about as much sense as the turbo encabulator ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDgQg6bq7o&feature=related ).

John

Sorry if I got too serious on the global warming issue and if I am logically wrong in any of the more speculative areas of my post please let me know.

If you just want something demonstrated try this explanation.

 

If anyone uses the climate has always kept changing dodge there is a good electronics response.

The planets climate is a low frequency oscillator, but it is sensitive and at higher frequencies the planet is like a damped high frequency oscillator. We are feeding that oscillator a strong pulse signal. It will return to normal... eventually.