GROWERS should not be paying $20,000 for an irrigation efficiency audit from government sources, according to Rob Welke.
The founder and director of Tallemenco, is an experienced pump station and pipeline systems designer and auditor with 48 years’ experience, including 25 years as senior technical officer with South Australia’s government-owned owned water supply, SA Water.
His experience led him to develop numerous mobile phone apps designed to assist site assessments.
This included “IPEEATpro” (Irrigation Pumping Energy Efficiency Assessment Tool-professional), a screening tool for identifying high-yielding pumping energy efficiency savings potential in an irrigation pumping and distribution system without detail auditing.
Speaking at the irrigation sessions of Hort Connections 2017, Mr Welke said pipeline wear was a major contributor to irrigation inefficiency.
His research has shown less than 1mm of rough internal pipe surface could create up to a 10 per cent efficiency loss.
According to Mr Welke, friction loss is caused by wither design or deterioration.
“We are designing into our systems an inefficiency that's going to occur in our systems within 12 months,” Mr Welke said.
Mr Welke’s defining moment to look more closely at farm water efficiency was in 2000 when a primary producer called him to say he thought had a “wheelbarrow in his pipeline”.
The reference goes back to the early days of pipe construction when a labourer would enter large pipelines to fix joins and cracks with concrete, occasionally forgetting to take the wheelbarrow with him when he exited the pipe, thus a major blockage was referred to as having a wheelbarrow in a pipeline.
Upon investigating the cause, Mr Welke found biofilm build-up inside the pipeline which seriously hindered water flow.
So began his interest in improving irrigation efficiency through audits.
Mr Welke said he was appalled to hear reports of government organisations charging large sums for irrigation audits when his products could deliver the same information for a tenth of the price, and in a faster time.
“To spend $20,000 on a government irrigation audit is absolutely ludicrous when you could do it with the particular app for about $1500,” he said.
He said irrigators could also make good gains by reassessing what electricity tariff they were on.
Ashley Walmsley
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
