One of the things I have been looking into the last few days is how we could use the roof of the existing building to store water and pump it to the entire vertical garden. When first looking into it, I never realized how many details went into putting it all together. First starting we thought we could use simple 65 gallon tanks, but when we began to analyze how much water we needed to supply the wall with sufficient water per day, we began to look at tanks in the 11oo gallon range. After collecting the water off the roof and funneling it into the large containment bin, we needed a way to get it from there to the rest of the wall.
The pump that I had chosen for the job was a 1/3 hp pump that was capable of pumping 46 gallons a minute. To confirm that this was sufficient to pump water over 100ft and to all the pumps, I had to calculate a lot of math. I had to calculate the foot head number (HPx2178/GPM) and the psi (ft.hdx.433) and the hp and gallons per minute. The wall needs 110 to 150 gallons of water per day. Thats a lot of water to move and im still not sure if that pump will be sufficient or not. I have been since moved to another assignment because the water catchment needs some expert advice, so we will be revisisting this very shortly.
Besides watering the wall, this whole system is to educate everyone who comes to the community park that this type of system is environmentally friendly (green) and is vital in regions especially like ours affected by drought during the summer. It is vital for these vegetables to survive without someone watering them everyday.