The WaterSmart Project at De Rose Hill - Kylie
Fuller 2008
De Rose Hill isn't very big in the
scheme of things; we are 700 square miles which equates to about
1800 square kilometres in size.... So compared with a lot of other
places around we are not that big, however we do have a lot of
waters and all of these need to be monitored. Basically what we
lack in size we make up for in infrastructure. We have in
excess of thirty watering points that are pretty much spread over
the entire place, these are predominately bores but there are also
some dams.
With the cost of diesel rising, and
a view that the sun shines an awful lot up here and it seemed to be
a waste not to be using it to our full advantage, also factor in
the time it was taking us to complete a bore run (time that we
could be spending doing other things) led to us installing solar
systems to pump our water.
After some research into costs and
the volume of water pumped, distances involved and other relevant
considerations, we began with a simple system of fixed panels and
pump.
As the available technology changed
so did the type of solar set ups we purchased. We found that
we needed a simple system where we could interchange the pumps with
and the added benefit of someone doing the installation for you
meant that we could be up and running a lot quicker. By the time
the WaterSmart™ project rolled around approximately 50% of
our waters were supplied by solar systems with most of them being
Grundfos systems fitted by Blackmores Power & Water from
Laura.
Our Journey with the
WaterSmart™ project began almost two years ago. Due to the
number of solar systems we already had on the ground and the plan
for more to be installed we filled in a sheet of questions about
our property and the water usage, telemetry and other things
similar, sent it off and expected that would be the last we heard
of it.... how wrong I was.
We first found that we were a part
of this project in 2006. That was exciting but what did it
really mean? Well in short an awful lot of information (both
collecting and compiling), planning, some installation of new
equipment and decisions about which equipment to install.
During this project we have looked
at the average cost of our bores, bore runs, time spent, kilometres
travelled etc. and the savings that can be made and benefits had by
using the appropriate technology.
With the assistance of the
WaterSmart™ project along with Blackmores Power and Water we
have installed:
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1 solar system (DC Bore)
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3 tanks
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Telemetry to monitor 5 bores in 2 vehicles & the
office
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1 bore with a remote start
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3 pipelines
We wanted a system that was easy to
use and relatively inexpensive to install. We decided to use a
telemetry system set up by Blackmores Power and Water using GME UHF
radios. This system seemed to fit the requirements, as well as
providing us with enough information to determine whether the bore
needed to be started and the ability to work in with a remote start
system as set up at Townies.
This system is simple enough for
everyone to use and a remote start can also be added later if
desired. The equipment is not difficult to replace or to source and
the system can also be set up to run on your office computer with
it checking levels as often as you set it to. It does also have an
alarm feature which will sound if there is no water or something is
wrong.
Each bore run that is completed on
De Rose Hill is recorded. We had always done this in the past
in the form of a diary but now the information we have is a bit
more complex and includes the time taken, kilometres travelled,
what has been replaced or fixed, the fuel used to pump water. This
is recorded in a book kept in the cars and then put onto a spread
sheet to be analysed. It is a unique way of examining the
patterns that occur with the bores and how they change along with
the seasons. It also allows you to see where your time is spent and
how perhaps this can be altered.
The unfortunate thing about the
information that we have recorded is that we have not received the
rainfall that we have in the past. In the past 12 months like
many other places we have had a little over two inches, and
consequently this has meant more frequent bore runs to provide our
cattle with licks as well as to keep a check on the feed situation
(so why not look at the water while you are there?). This has meant
that the kilometres travelled and the frequency of the bore runs
has not decreased even with the telemetry we have installed in the
office and the vehicles.
With the WaterSmart™project we
installed a solar to pump along new pipeline from DC Bore to twin
tanks on the top of the sand hills. This was done to
encourage stock to move to parts of the paddocks that were not
being utilised at that time. (This was done with the hope
that it would rain and we would be able to utilise these areas,
unfortunately the rain has stayed away and we have no feed or
cattle there now.)
One of the tanks gravity feeds an
area set aside for a trough in the top corner of Townies paddock
while the other tank feeds along a further pipeline to Wally's tank
where a trough can also be placed (in Mundy Dam Paddock).
The twin tanks and Wally's tank are
monitored by the Telemetry system. The levels in the tanks can be
checked from a vehicle or by the computer in the office.
We have three levels set in our
tanks
- High
-
Medium
-
Low
This was enough information to allow
us to determine if we needed to start pumping to the tanks. The
telemetry system also has an alarm that will tell you if something
is wrong. On one occasion we responded to the alarm to find
that the pipeline to one of the tanks had split causing it to lose
all the water in the tank and of course the tank promptly blew over
and triggered an alarm.
The short answer being that if we
didn't have the alarm it may have taken longer to check that tank
particularly is since it had been checked and was okay earlier that
day.
Our bore runs are split up into two
“sides” depending on which side of the highway you are
going. The average length of a bore run is around 160km to do the
basics give or take depending on the other jobs that need to be
done on it. This 160km isn't very far but on average takes
about 4 hours to complete.
Townies bore is on the Western side
of De Rose Hill about 8km down the highway and roughly 5 km in off
the bitumen. It was chosen as a telemetry site because it is
one of the few bores we have that are not part of a loop when doing
a full run on that side. At Townies we have set up a system
to check the tank as well as a remote start. It is set up to start
automatically when the tank level is low. This means that the radio
can firstly check the level in the tank and then start the
generator if needed. It can also be started from the office or
vehicle if needed.
Eadies and Antwell both have the
telemetry set up to enable the water levels in the waters to be
checked.
Eadies is a tank that is right down
the bottom end on the Western Side (on the Southern boundary,
approximately 32km from the house) by having the telemetry set up
there it has prevented some unnecessary travel particularly as it
can be checked either from the house, earlier in the bore run or
while completing the Eastern “side” of the bore run
without actually visiting the bore.
The telemetry set up at Antwell is
in a turkeys nest. We have done this to show that this type
of system can provide an effective monitoring solution no matter
what type of water containment system you choose to use.
Antwell does not have a remote start but can be upgraded to have
one. Antwell is further in from Townies (Approximately 5km
further west).
As I mentioned before over half of
De Rose Hill was already set up to use solar panels to pump
water.
Our average solar set up on a water
is really quite simple.
- We have the solar panels that
provide the power to operate the submersible pump. In our first
systems the panels were fixed but we have since moved to the system
that tracks the sun. The panels are north facing and this allows
for more exposure to the sunlight for most of the day.
- The float system is a dual float
system which operates very simply by shutting off the water supply
once the desired level has been reached.
- The systems we have were installed
by Blackmores Power and Water and all use the same pumps and
leads. This makes it much easier to interchange something if
anything does go wrong. They also don't have a control box, just a
simple on/off switch and a cord allowing a generator to be plugged
in and used if necessary.
These are effective as we have
mainly shallow bores and not too far to pump, although we do have
one system set up that pumps to a turkeys nest then a further 8km
to another dam.
As it gets progressively harder to
find staff in the pastoral industry we need to look at alternatives
that allow us to effectively make use of the time we
have.
The WaterSmart™ project has
given us the opportunity to examine the use of the solar set ups we
had and to use telemetry systems that were introduced as a part of
the project. It allowed us to look at telemetry on its own, with a
remote start function as well as how telemetry and solar can be set
up to work together. Both the solar and telemetry systems are
designed to be more convenient and allow us to best utilise our
time, they also don't come with the O H & S issues that we can
face.
The solar set ups that we have
installed are able to be self monitoring by using the float systems
and automatically cut off at the desired level as well as they have
the option of being combined with a telemetry system to monitor the
water level. On the other hand the telemetry systems with a remote
start offer us more in the way of remote monitoring and give us the
ability to monitor the water levels even though we are not
physically there and the ability to start the motor. After
installation the solar systems do not require any input of fuel
(unless you need to use a generator) where as a remote start
generator will. No matter which choice you make the most
important thing is that you make an informed decision about what
type of system is suitable for the area you are placing it
in.
Project partners at De Rose
Hill Station are Grundfos and Blackmore’s Power and
Water.
