Rationing Utilities (Rathdrum, Priest River, Dubois: vs, move, design)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

.......... Nobody is requesting that we use less electricity; they just turn the electricity off.........

That arrived this morning. An email requesting that we don't use the washer and dryer before 11 PM, that we turn all of our electronics completely off when not in use, that we don't set the AC lower than 78 degrees, that we consider using the barbecue instead of the oven.......

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by banjomike

It's important to remember that this month and next are the height of the growing season for Idaho's crops.

They all need water, and they all need more water right now than they will in August and from then on to harvest.
It takes electricity to power all those well pumps.

Since agriculture remains Idaho's largest industry and greatest source of income, I wouldn't expect homeowner's demands to take precedence in either water or electric power right now.

We can ration more that our crops can. This heat wave won't last long now, as the summer solstice is almost upon us.

Why wouldn’t these farmers use a small solar panel bank per pump to assist in situations like this?

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by Mister Torgue

Why wouldn’t these farmers use a small solar panel bank per pump to assist in situations like this?

Irrigation usually takes a considerable water flow and so a large HP pump, often pumping 24 hours per day.

Solar panel is suitable to fill watering troughs for livestock... not much flow and only occasional pumping.

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Irrigation usually takes a considerable water flow and so a large HP pump, often pumping 24 hours per day.

Solar panel is suitable to fill watering troughs for livestock... not much flow and only occasional pumping.

Gotcha, thanks for the info. Not my realm of expertise so it was a legit question.

[elousv]

Speaking of pumps, Rathdrum is burning them up trying to keep up with the demand. Imagine double the population.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Irrigation usually takes a considerable water flow and so a large HP pump, often pumping 24 hours per day.

Solar panel is suitable to fill watering troughs for livestock... not much flow and only occasional pumping.

You''re right, ham, but not exactly.
Irrigation does take consider water, and large pump to pull the water out of the ground, but once the system is pressurized, the pump doesn't run 24 hours away.

It doesn't need to and never has.

Way back, when deepwel irrigation first began, watering was done with 'hand ines', long aluminum pipes that were moved around a field by hand, connecting and disconnecting with the main lines that were laid underground.
The 'mains' were always closed so the system stayed pressurized and full of water. The pumps only kicked on whenever the pressure in the mains dropped below a certain point. Once the pressure is back up, they shut off.

Most irrigation was done in the early hours of morning, beginning long before sunup then shutting down in early afternoon. This schedule utilizes electricity during the low-demand hours, so it costs less, and those are always the coolest hours of a day, which minimizes water evaporation.

Nowadays, with computer control and much more efficient systems, both power and water usage is far lower than it was back then, or even later, when the big circle pivot sprinkling systems went into use.

Modern circle pivots are more like leaky hoses than sprinklers. They dribble out the water close to the ground in constantly varying amounts according to air temp, air moisture, and ground moisture at any given spot in the field.

Internal water pressure makes the circles turn on their pivots. The circle stays connected to the pivot an the pivot to the mainline. No moving means less leakage and power usage.

Ultimately, it means more crops for the same amount of power and water, but as always, the transition from old to new is slow and not at all uniform. One farmer may have a modern system, while the next one down the road is still using a 40-year old system.
's
In Idaho. agriculture gets the first call on the water in a drought. The cities come second. The prevailing thought is food gets the water it needs to grow and the lawns can dry up.

Like the Colorado River, which has more demands for the water than it has water to meet them, the Snake's water is also rationed and distributed. It too can have more demand than water.

[nm9stheham]

Lots of irrigation types, Mike. Pumping for an irrigation district, where miles of open canal feeds irrigation to numerous farms, is 24/7 for quite some time. Or filling a pond for a gravity-flow canal and ground-pipe system; that ususally takes days, and is repeated.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by elousv

Speaking of pumps, Rathdrum is burning them up trying to keep up with the demand. Imagine double the population.

Pump is fixed/replaced and now on-line. It was a air temperature issue, not caused by the demand load.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Lots of irrigation types, Mike. Pumping for an irrigation district, where miles of open canal feeds irrigation to numerous farms, is 24/7 for quite some time. Or filling a pond for a gravity-flow canal and ground-pipe system; that ususally takes days, and is repeated.

Yes, there certainly are!
My post about the pumps pertained mostly to deep-well irrigation only.

Mr. Torgue asked why a solar panel would help a water pump.
It would be a help, depending on the type of irrigation being used, the depth of the well, the frequency of water use, and the amount used.

We see all the irrigated acreage in our state, but we tend to forget all the livestock Idaho produces. Solar panels can power the pumps used for livestock purposes quite well. Stored water is pumped into buried storage tanks, then into water troughs on demand by livestock usage.

Solar panels are excellent power sources for this stored water, and storage is the least wasteful way of using the water.

[mistyriver]

Farmers do use solar power for irrigation. There are batteries for night time pumping as well.