Water Pumps 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Water Pumps And TheIr Uses
A water pump is one of the most under-rated utilities used for a wide range of agricultural, light commercial, and residential tasks. It is not only a great tool for the transportation of water but also plays a momentous role in water conservation and the protection of drinking water sources.
The modern-day water pump is well-equipped to do a lot more than circulate water around your home’s pipes. An intelligently designed water pump can provide permanent solutions to a conglomerate of water requirements, including irrigation, water extraction, removal of water from flooded areas, sewage movement, pressure cleaning, and water recycling.
Today, water pumps use highly advanced technology to move water in compact set-ups. There are many different types of water pumps available today, such as centrifugal pumps, gravity pumps, peristaltic pumps, jet pumps, gear pumps, and impulse pumps. Water pumps are differentiated on the basis of the purpose they serve and how they operate.
How do water pumps work?
The working of a water pump depends on the energy source powering it such as wind, electricity, manual operation, and engines.
Mechanical pumps
Mechanical pumps either have to be submerged in the liquid they are pumping or placed external to the water. These pumps use centrifugal force to accelerate the water to the outside of one or more driven rotors (impellers), creating an area of low pressure around the center of the impeller. This difference in pressure creates suction and water starts moving from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
These types of water pumps are widely used in water supply systems, boiler feeds, water circulators, marine services, and cooling towers. The municipal sewage system, on the other hand, uses positive displacement pumps that move water by trapping a fixed amount and displacing it into the discharge pipe.
Hand-powered pumps are also a type of positive displacement pumps that are used to supply water in resource-poor settings. These are a major source of safe drinking water in rural areas of developing countries. Many different types of hand pumps are used to save drinking water.
Centrifugal pumps also play an important role in rainwater harvesting. These water pumps can be used to convert rainwater from the rooftop through pipes to a storage facility. Rainwater collection and reuse are one of the most efficient ways to alleviate the strain on the local municipal water supply. However, some states might have laws against collecting and reusing rainwater.
Electric pumps
An electric water pump, on the other hand, makes water move by converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. As electrical motors operate at a relatively constant speed, electric pumps are used for lifting large volumes of water. Electric pumps are used for construction dewatering, flood control, bypass pumping, and water transfer from rivers, oceans, canals, and other large water bodies.
Electrically-powered construction dewatering pumps remove the groundwater at construction sites before the placement of buildings’ foundations. The removal of groundwater from excavations, trenches, and places with inadequate slopes is important for the safety of the site.
Unlike their mechanical counterparts, electric pumps have more diverse applications. Bypass electric pumps ensure that the sewage and wastewater do not pollute fresh water sources when a sewage treatment system is being repaired.
From saturating environments with low water levels to bringing water to an area where it is desperately needed, electric pumps have a range of municipal applications. Most large-volume pumps are electrically powered so that they have the capacity to prevent further water movement in the event of a flood.
