The “air-shed” is the small shed located next to the 440’ deep water well, which houses the compressors and air tanks to create and store air for the air powered well pump system. This year’s update included (finally) installing a closet housing a 200 amp hour battery system with direct current distribution, able to power the 12 volt compressor. This compressor can be used to power the well directly (it turns on with water demand) or to fill the air tanks. The system is powered by two 100 watt solar panels on the shed roof.
Future Uses for the Air-Shed Electrical System
We are designing an ultra-local sky camera weather system, which will be powered by the DC electrical distribution system now available in the air-shed. Roseanum Farm is blessed by having a beautiful and wide open-sky view from most locations, and the air-shed is located in a place sufficiently distant from large trees that we believe it will be a useful place to install a year-round sky camera. The system objective will be to automatically collect images of the sky at regular intervals – perhaps four or eight times per 24 hour day – and upload the images to a webserver, overlaid with local weather information (collected by sensors on-site.)
