Build A Ram Pump Water System

Green mall, anyone? SM mall walks the green talk

Is your go-to mall a green structure?

Fact: The Metro Manila cityscape is dotted with numerous malls—large and small. Fact: The number is so big that its contribution to the so-called carbon footprint is inevitable. But how do malls keep its daily operations green in the world of shopping-crazy Pinoys?

Take for instance the mall empire of tycoon Henry Sy. Aside from the commonly seen boxy structure and a gaggle of people flocking these shopping havens, what do you know about this retail giant?

Inquirer Property looked into SM Sta. Mesa, one of the earliest SM Supermalls in the country—next to the North Edsa branch in Quezon City.

Established in September 1990, it was previously called SM Centerpoint due to its strategic location in the heart of three bustling cities of Manila, Quezon and San Juan. The whole property boasts an area of 33,000 square meters and with a leasable space of 67,395 sq m.

As a pioneer mall which has a growing customer base of 600,000 within the 2-kilometer radius, the building has to ensure that its shoppers and mall tenants breathe and live the green and eco-friendly way.

For its part, SM Sta. Mesa installs the Building Management System which monitors the energy consumption of the building. The computer-assisted BMS adjusts the temperature of the mall to its desired setting and gives feedback as to how energy is used.

Engineer Adonamarie Dimapilis, building administrator officer, said the BMS has helped them a lot to conserve energy.

As with other SM supermalls, SM Sta. Mesa has a sewerage facility wherein used water is transferred to a plant for treatment. The treated water is then directed to a cooling tower that powers the mall’s air-conditioning system. Of course, the use of waterless urinals is a big help to reduce water consumption, Dimapilis said.

The mall’s layout has been made customer-friendly with multilevel parking slots of 1,260. The expansion has spanned to the improvement of its food court, veranda and its new digital cinemas.

Halfbakery: Airlift rope pump

[Edited: Changed from hydraulic ram to airlift and pulser pumps, also changed direction of rope] A simple explanation about rope pumps, airlift pumps and pulser pumps follows below.

This idea is about a high pressure easy to construct rope pump.

All you need is a thick pipe, a thin pipe, a rope and a wheel.

The thick pipe has the thin pipe inserted into it but not reaching all the way down. The rope is looped around the wheel, then inside the thin pipe, and then back up inside the thick pipe (but outside the thin pipe).

When the wheel is turned, the rope does two actions:

(a) It brings up the water in the thick pipe, and (b) pulls down air into the thin pipe, releasing the air at the end of the thin pipe, inside the thick pipe. (To understand this better see the airlift pump explanation below)

The air at the bottom of the thick pipe accumulates and creates pressure, similar to what happens in a pulser pump (see pulser pump explanation below).

The water coming up the thick pipe, with the help of the accumulated pressure of the air, moves faster than the rope, (hopefully, if this works), in a similar way to a person walking up an escalator, so the air pressure should be giving the rope action a boost.

Its more efficient now, because it is assisted by extra air pressure and the large bubbles (as seen in pulser pumps) completely seal the rope area.

Small washers on the rope may assist or peaces of mosquito netting.

If an air-water mixture is used, the water going down with air would come from a small amount of the water brought up. Because it is pumped out in a spray it accumulates back with a lot of air, the water mixture is then taken back down in the thin pipe by the down going rope action.

The air is then released under the thin pipe and pushes the water along with the rope extremely enhancing the pumping effect.

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