Pumps, in general, are used in lifting water to heights. Domestic water pumps are generally those pumps that are made for household uses. While lifting water or any other fluids, the pump must work against gravity as well as frictional forces that work on the fluid being transported.
Thus we see that pumps are generally rated in horsepower and the rate of discharge is also noted. It is the common practice to denote the rate of flow of water that a pump can handle. The GPH value is the gallons of water that a pump can deliver in an hour.
Generally, efficiencies are not paying too much attention in the case of domestic water pumps. This is because of the nature of working of such pumps. Most pumps used for domestic purposes would work for a short spurt of time. Here, the short timed nature of functioning will incur the minimal losses as compared to a pump working longer hours a day.
More than efficiencies, the ability to start at short notice and deliver the full head of water is important. Laid out down below are a few simple construction of pumps that are used for domestic purposes.
Submersible Pumps
A very common type of water pump is the submersible water pump. Here the entire pump is kept under the water, as the name would suggest. This has been done to overcome a little handicap that such pumps face in nature. The water column that atmospheric pressure supports is roughly ten meters. For heights greater than this, water has to be pushed up rather than being pulled up. So it makes logical sense to have a pump inside the body of the water to push up the liquid to heights.
Compressor Pumps
Submersible water pumps face difficulty in pumping out water if the yield of the well is seen to be low. This has been overcome with the use of a compressor pump. Here, a combination of a water pump along with an air compressor is mated together to force water from wells or water bodies that give a low yield. These pumps are powerful enough to lift water to greater heights than most submersible pumps.
Jet Pumps
A different variation of the compressor pump is the jet pump. Having fewer moving parts, the pump can do with little maintenance and is seen to be very energy efficient. This pump does face disadvantages in pumping water with sediments as it would get corroded. Most jet pumps are used as domestic water pumps in areas of a very low water table and little flow of water into the well. They are rather efficient devices thus can be used for continuous operations.
Conclusion
With the three types of domestic water pumps discussed here, it is evident that most pumps do have very specialised applications. Having the proper pump for each situation would only ensure a smooth as well as trouble free operations. Most pumps are simple mechanical structures that have very little sophistication about them.
