Solar powered pump

[Jim Roper]

I need a small submersible pump to run off a solar panel.

Not much power needed, just something to keep a syphon going.

Lots of stuff from searches, too much in fact.

Any recommendations?

[MrWiggly]

How about a small boat bilge pump ? Various sizes avaliable from chandlers, and run on 12 volt.

[Jim Roper]

MrWiggly:

How about a small boat bilge pump ?   Various sizes avaliable from chandlers, and run on 12 volt.

Thought about that, but the chap in the office next door sells that sort of thing and says their output and power requirement would be way over the top for what I want.

I think it will probably have to be something like those that run garden pond fountains.

[chesters1]

unless its a huge cell nothing will run ,they in the best outside conditions (florida etc) are only 14%-17% efficiant ,a panel 450MM X 540MM only gives 20 watt's just about enough to charge a 12v battery and thats in lab conditions on which they base the outputs of course ,in reality far less

they are like wind turbines fine when the conditions are perfect useless when their not and theres far more imperfect conditions than perfect.

in lab conditions the panel will produce 1.6 amps (err hopefully my maths is ok) at 12v less the resistance of the wire to the motor ,remember that the output of the motor is in air so will need far more power to pump water remember also 12v really means 13.8v ,a max of 12v will result in less watts/amps.

i.e if the panel produces 12v (rather than 13.8v) then its stated output will be less when connected to a pump requiring 13.8v (a car battery is really 13.8v fully charged )

 

[ 02. May 2005, 09:07 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Huge_Vitae]

Jim,

 

When you say to keep a syphon running are you meaning that you wish to top off a tank occasionally which is trickling water to another unit?

 

It really does depend on the amount of water you need, rather than match pump out put to volume of water transfer required why not fit a float switch to your header tank, a 12v battery powering a windscreen washer unit from a car at the scrapyard can transfer a good amount of water, especially 2 connected together.

 

check up the ratings of the pump and work out how long the battery will power the unit and you know how often you will have to check it.

 

With the low amp requirement of the pump and the higher amp battery, or 2 small ones wired in series, or is it parallel I get confused!!!

 

You should find it a plausable method.

 

QED: At my pontoon is a lovelly old wooden boat, in the 4 years it has been there it has never mooved. It has a solar panel on the roof charging the batteries. Every few hours the bilge pump kicks in and empties the water from a) the boat leaking and the **** that owns it never put the cover on properly.

 

I have never seen him down there to recharge the battery, I will update you on how long it works for, one day I will go down there and she will be on the bottom!

[Jim Roper]

I have a large pond and a spring about 200 yrds away up a slope with about(guessing) 10 feet difference in height between them.

At present there is a 4" pipe made from ex GPO ducting with very leaky joints moving the water downhill.

The flow in the winter is adequate but by the end of the summer it is just a trickle due to all the losses on the way.

I thought a half inch polythene pipe syphon would be cheaper that digging in a 4" properly jointed drain pipe.

To maintain the syphon, should it empty a sump at the spring level, I thought of using a small solar powered pump. Most of the time, while the syphon was working, there would hopefully be very little load on the pump motor.