GilleThai

I tried with a 9Amp portable generator on a 1Hp pump before, doesn't work because the voltage and Hz are not constance.

A quick search on the net show that at least some 1 Hp pumps have a running amp requirement of approximately 9 amp, so to start the pump-engine you would need 2-4 times that from the generator depending on how advanced the pump-engine design is. Even the cheapest generators would provide stable enough voltage and Hz for a pump. From my experience from power tools and compressors the requirement is normally closer to 2x the amp requirements on the plate than 4x. I would recommend to test the pump on a generator before you buy.

http://www.yr.no gets its data from the National meteorological service in Norway, for locations outside Norway the cooperate with other national meteorological institutions. The main problem is that even if they have a lot of place names in their database they still have to model the weather forecast from the surrounding measuring points and weather models used in the country you look up.

It is the well-known story of rubbish in rubbish out.

If the weather patterns in an area is predicable their ratios for hitting the correct weather is rather good, but in areas with micro climate or with weather formations that have a high random factor the forecasting is pretty much useless.

Weather data and modelling is done by http://www.met.no and idea, hosting and visualizing the data models to human understandable form is done by http://www.nrk.no (the public broadcasting corporation in Norway).

The forecast is not as a suggested in post 16 based on statistical data. it is just not as accurate as they would like us believe.

Just pumped 1/2 a gigalitre (rough calculation) from the klong to my lowest dam, my new dam is good, but these old ones that were dug for free by the Army many years ago all seem to be mostly empty. I should be right now in 2 orchards for the rest of the season, but this last one is a worry. Even people who have no frontage are pumping from the klong, but they cant any more its empty. Water truck is 350 baht for 6000 litres so one bloke up the road tells me, he can irrigate for 15 minutes.

"1 gigaliter = one billion liters or 264,172,052 US gallons"

I like the size of your dams. ca. 63 rai averaging 6 meters deep, should provide enough water for irrigation for a while.

If I haven't messed up my calculations completely 1/2 gigaliter is 1/2 million cubic meter, or 83.334 of the 6 cubic meter water trucks.

So by being able to pump the water from the klong and not buying, you have saved yourself 29 million bath, minus the cost of running your pumps.

Bit of topic, but since the mushroom houses needs to be steamed, It might be worth looking into.

If wood it the preferred fuel source, a "oversized" rocket stove would probably be the best choice for steam production. I have build 2 simple rocket stoves for boiling 25 litre pots of water (for boiling crab), and the fuel efficiency is very good (complete combustion). The downside is that the simpler models require attendance about every 10 minutes to push in the wood-sticks. Have seen larger non-movable version that are to some extend self feeding with the wood inlet tilted at a 45 degree angle.

If you have the possibility you should try to make biochar (charcoal broken in small pieces) instead of a complete burning to ash.

Some tests have shown it to be very beneficial for the plant with 8-10% biochar incorporated into the earth.

Google "biochar kiln" or "biochar retort building plans" will give you the setup from small to very big, depending on how much organic matter you have to convert.

Thanks for finding that out Jim.

I wouldnt have a clue as to how much you would expect from a fully mature tree or how to work it out approx from your data?

I would be very disappointed if each rai was only worth 20-40,000 bht.

www.helsinki.fi/vitri/publications/theses/Rubber.../Thesis_final_Rantala.pdf might be a place to look for volume pr tree. At least they have volume pr ha (page 40) even if the numbers are on trees younger than 30 years.

1800 rai of Eucalyptus would do it If you buy good land.....