Thread: Difference between output and efficiency

Hello!

I'm translating a text from Spanish into English about pumping fundamentals. I've got a problem concerning the terms output and efficiency. I've been reading texts about this topic and I haven't found any difference at all.

This is one of the various contexts in which this term appears:
"En cuanto al rendimiento, los rosarios inclinados bien construidos aprovechan el 40% del trabajo consumido, siendo estos rendimientos tan pequeños la causa principal de la caída en desuso de dicho aparato para elevar aguas."

Can anyone help me, please? Thanks!

I don't speak Spanish; however efficiency generally refers to the ratio of the output to the input.
The output of a pump would be measured in gallons per minute or liters per minute. Efficiency would be measured in percent.

Pump efficiency could be either volumetric efficiency or energy efficiency. Volumetric efficiency is the ratio of the flow rate to the theoretical flow rate, if the pump had no internal leakage.

http://www.insidersecretstohydraulic...ulic-pump.html

It appears that the sentence you posted is referring to the energy efficiency of a "rosary pump." A pump that raises the elevation of water consumes energy, either electrical or mechanical, and transfers some of that energy to the water in the form of potential energy. A pump that is 40 percent efficient would convert 40 percent of the input energy to potential energy.

Thanks, Harold! Your answer has been very useful!!

You're welcome.