Solar water pump
 

Built a solar water system a few days ago to replace my old homemade windmill which was unreliable, trouble prone, and didn't pump much. Bought a 150w solar panel ($310) and a Morningstar charge controller ($85). Hooked it up to an old battery someone dropped off for a core and mounted a shurflo sprayer pump I had sitting on the shelf. Ordered a $7 12v timer from amazon but for now I'm just turning the pump on in the morning and shutting it off at night. So far the battery indicator has stayed on full. It's pumping about 30gal an hour with a 20' rise and 200 yard run. Very happy with it so far! Wish I would of done this a long time ago....
Fabbed a adjustable tilt bracket with some square tubing and angle iron and mounted it to a couple old 2x6's
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...pstw6jepbl.jpg

Mounted it about 5' from my well
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...psvmvbxgsq.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...psdutoyf2u.jpg

Built a cover for the electronics and mounted a small screen in the pump intake and a swing valve on the output
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps0d4cvmko.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...pslpkpzczb.jpg

Pumps through 3/4 sprinkle line to my 1250 gal rain barrel. A pressure system with another larger screen/filter on the barrel feeds the yard sprinklers and garden hoses
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...pskeelbr0n.jpg

If you've got access to battery cores, keep your eye out for a deep cycle. I see your present battery says "Starting".

I need to set up a similar system to water our vegetable patch at the farm.

How hot does that Shurflow get running continuous duty? Looks like it says it's a diaphragm pump. I'll have to look up the specs if I can make out the model number. I've got a Jabsco Water Puppy (Nitrile impeller) I've used to pump out my rain barrels, but it gets very hot running.

Thanks for posting.

It gets warm but not too hot to touch or anything. The battery is supposed to be a deep cycle marine battery...

I fixed a small air leak on the suction side and it's pumping way more, close to 100g an hr which is it's free flow rating

How deep is the well - more specifically, how deep to the water surface in the well. How much head in feet are you pumping up from.

This is quite good!


Steve

Water surface is about 8' below the pump? it's pumping 20' above the pump over a hill then the tank is about 6' down from the hilltop.

How has this setup been working for you?

Great! I ordered some $7 12v timers from China when I started the project and they finally just showed up now but it's time to blow the lines out as its starting to freeze some nights so I'll try them next year... I just walked out and turned it on for the day when my tank was low for this summer and it was supplying my irrigation just fine, very happy with it.

Thought I'd put an update on here, the pump setup is still working great (Well actually it's a second pump as I broke the first one trying to pull the hose off to winterize it), but the setup overall is good, have the timer set to run a few hours in the afternoon and it supplies all the water I need.