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[JTTCOTE]

I'm pumping from a murky pool into a cistern, but want to automate the process so the cistern fills when it rains. What's the easiest way of powering a screw pump on the ground?

[Fusty]

I'd use a windmill I guess.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Windmill

[Telgin]

A windmill is definitely the easiest solution if your map has wind.  Supposedly not all do, but all that I've built windmills on did.  A waterwheel is another option if you've got a waterfall (at least I think this requires a waterfall and not just running water), but it's a lot more complicated to set up and likely to send a few dwarves to a watery grave if you're not accustomed to working with water.

[caddybear]

A waterwheel works with running water. You'll have to channel the top layer of a brook or the kind though.

[Starver]

I've previously set up a waterwheel powered by the outflow from the cistern I was filling (or, rather, an overflow of it).  Similar to the dwarven perpetual-motion machines in that the water that powered it goes into the place the pump is pumping out (which then ends up being part of the overflow shortly thereafter).  Needs a kick-starter load of water from the top (or other power-input to the pump) to start, and its possible that in an evaporating pool example you could end up with your overflow water getting less and less until there's not enough pumped up to overflow and keep the pump going, so may not be suitable for your situation, but a more traditional self contained perpetual-motion power-source could suffice for your purposes in that case.

If, as already said, the absolutely most simple method of plonking a windmill on top[1] doesn't work.  And I've also never had a windless embark, although I've had ones with varying amounts of wind (when I've had to accumulate numerous windmills in order to feed something a distance away, thus overcoming both low wind-power and transmission losses).


[1] Actually, I rarely do just that, but generall put a two-gear offset between 'mill and pump, with the non-supporting gear lever-linked, as a safety cut-out...

[JTTCOTE]

I was more looking for how to set up a windmill. The wiki says I have to channel out the tile below, but can I just build it on top? Do I need to make a floor or anything for them to construct it on?

I'm on a volcano so I definately have wind.

[Sphalerite]

I was more looking for how to set up a windmill. The wiki says I have to channel out the tile below, but can I just build it on top? Do I need to make a floor or anything for them to construct it on?

You can construct a windmill directly on top of the pump.  You will need to build a platform, either with a ramp and some walls or a staircase and floor, so your dwarves can access the Z-level above the pump to build the windmill there.

I'm on a volcano so I definately have wind.

I don't see how that's connected.

[JTTCOTE]

So its a mountain so it should logically have wind.


Yeah, built it, thanks.

[Sphalerite]

So its a mountain so it should logically have wind.

Things which you think would apply due to logic and common sense often don't do so in DF.