I’m not really sane; inventive, perhaps, but definitely not sane. I’ve always got at least four "wish list" projects on the go. Right now it’s my CAD (computer-assisted drawing) application that I developed, which is (still) in limbo; my online collection of free sewing patterns that I want to turn into a well-populated library (hehe, can libraries be populated?); and my waterwheel. The waterwheel is the latest insanity.

Now for the dream:

I daydream…a lot. I wander off into a world of soft, cloudy, foggy, netherness (that’s not a word, but it’s too descriptive to delete.) In my perfect dream (daydreams are always perfect, aren’t they?) I can, actually, build a fully functional electricity-generating machine out of kitchen scraps and other bits and bobs that are lying around the house, such as the inner cardboard roll from a roll of toilet paper. (I’m not lying, and this is not meant to be comedy. (Haha))

The daydream, which can go on for weeks at a time, is much like sleepwalking. It’s a dream where I actually find various bits and scraps and, carefully, construct a model in the "image" of my dream. In my dream state, I also do VAST amounts of research. I’ll read every scientific paper I can find to validate my insanity.

So the REAL dream began when I discovered an online "how-to" about building a waterwheel or pump that works without the power of solar, electricity, or wind. The water pump pumps solely as a result of GENTLY moving water (slowly flowing water moves the fins of the wheel while a spirally wound tube pumps the water up via positive displacement) (yes, I know @yaziris that the water must be moving to get the crazy idea to work, but @yaziris, I’ve got a daydream for that too). The dream is to have two tanks at different elevations (one high, one low) and then pump the water from the low tank to the high tank. Then…THEN! The water will flow from the high tank back into the low tank while a turbine is spinning on the way down so that I can generate electricity. The water will flow back into the low tank where the water pump is positioned to catch the flow. Yes, the system will need kick-starting; a jet of water from a hosepipe will be directed at the waterwheel/ pump to get it going. But then it should run long enough to charge several batteries.

See, my daydreams are always complicated. Does that stop me? NO!

So, now I have to tell you about the "sleep walking" part of the daydream.

In a very dreamlike state, I gathered a soda bottle, tubing from the fish tank (don’t worry, the fish are still fine; I used the excess emergency supply), bamboo kebab skewers, a toilet roll, a soldering iron, tiny sauce pots, glue sticks, glue, and a dowel stick I found in an old toy box. These tools looked so good in my dream 😴 Anyone can see that you can build a waterwheel or pump with these tools, RIGHT?

Being me, I didn’t stop there. Oh, no, not at all. I sleep-walked for WEEKS.

I punched holes in the soda bottle with the soldering iron after carefully using PI to calculate how many fins I could (reasonably) get around the circumference of the bottle. I used kebab sticks to hold the water-catchment cups, and I laboriously wound fish tank tubing around the kebabs. It took days and days of dreaming to do it.

The only moment of clarity—in the middle of the beautiful dream—came when @yaziris told me:

"It’s never going to work, you crazy, mad, insane woman!"

I woke up for about half an hour and actually considered that he might be right. But then…

Being me and being so fond of my dream, I simply discounted his words as those of a "practical man" who wasn’t in the dream, so how could he possibly know?

Now, I understand that you can see how much of a dream this is and that I should wake up. That I should stop spending hours and hours drawing different "possible" designs and STOP building "sleep-walking" electricity models.

Many people have tried to explain to me that I’m dreaming, but I can’t hear them—I’M DREAMING!

I’m so determined to dream that I’ve entered a competition to design a green alternative energy system. Really (into video below)

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All images and drawings are my own
Further reading :

Original publication that fired the dream:

https://lurkertech.com/water/pump/tailer/

Others :

https://www.cleanfuture.co.in/2021/08/26/water-batteries-most-efficient/

https://grid.sun.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Van-Dongen-and-Bekker-2020-Potential-for-New-Pumped-Storage-Schemes-in-South-Africa-Energycon.pdf

https://publications.anl.gov/anlpubs/2022/05/175341.pdf

http://www.ijirmf.com/wp-content/uploads/201803007.pdf