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12 volt pond pumps
I can't find much via google on serious 12 volt pond pumps. Are there
any r.p.m readers using one, or know of one that can pump suitable volumes for use in a 5000+ litre pond? I'm interested to know the power requirements and feasibility of running from a car batter charged by photovoltaic panels. The price of solar panels seems to be dropping all the time, and with energy costs going up it might be worth looking into. David |
12 volt pond pumps
On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:21:05 EDT, DavidM
wrote: I can't find much via google on serious 12 volt pond pumps. Are there any r.p.m readers using one, or know of one that can pump suitable volumes for use in a 5000+ litre pond? I'm interested to know the power requirements and feasibility of running from a car batter charged by photovoltaic panels. The price of solar panels seems to be dropping all the time, and with energy costs going up it might be worth looking into. David I'm hoping you'll find an answer here. I know my son is trying to figure out how to power my motion sprinklers via solar. At least where the batteries are charged during the day, and will run all night. ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
12 volt pond pumps
How about running a conventional 120v pond pump off of an inverter powered
by the 12v battery. "DavidM" wrote in message ... I can't find much via google on serious 12 volt pond pumps. Are there any r.p.m readers using one, or know of one that can pump suitable volumes for use in a 5000+ litre pond? I'm interested to know the power requirements and feasibility of running from a car batter charged by photovoltaic panels. The price of solar panels seems to be dropping all the time, and with energy costs going up it might be worth looking into. David |
12 volt pond pumps
What about using a inverter to power a 120v pump. Solar cells charge the car
battery, inverter changes 12VDC to 120 VAC to run the pump. Simple and you can use common pond pumps. Paul "DavidM" wrote in message ... I can't find much via google on serious 12 volt pond pumps. Are there any r.p.m readers using one, or know of one that can pump suitable volumes for use in a 5000+ litre pond? I'm interested to know the power requirements and feasibility of running from a car batter charged by photovoltaic panels. The price of solar panels seems to be dropping all the time, and with energy costs going up it might be worth looking into. David |
12 volt pond pumps
I wonder if you can get enough power from a photo cell without paying
an arm and a leg? How powerful is your pump? Jim |
12 volt pond pumps
"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message ... I wonder if you can get enough power from a photo cell without paying an arm and a leg? How powerful is your pump? Jim Kinda depends on how much arms and legs go for in your neck of the woods. I've a Sequence pump that uses about 120 watts. A 400 watt inverter ($30) would easily run it. Car battery, maybe $75 or so. Now here's where the body parts come in. On ebay, 123 watt solar panels go for $660 each and I'd need two of them, figuring that the sun only shines 1/2 the time, but the pump runs 24/7. Maybe 3 would be better to allow for cloudy days and system losses. Throw in a charging regulator, and we're in the 2 kilo-dollar neighborhood. That's more than arms and legs go for around here. It doesn't sound feasible for anything larger than say a whiskey barrel size water feature. Paul |
12 volt pond pumps
Phyllis and Jim wrote:
I wonder if you can get enough power from a photo cell without paying an arm and a leg? How powerful is your pump? Jim My current pond pump is 50 watts. An inverter runs at 90% efficiency according to the manufactures, so probably more like 80%, that bumps it up to ~65 watts. I'm guessing even 50% output from a solar panel is optimistic (% of total output, not efficiency) in Southern UK, even though East Anglia is technically a desert :) Looking at 120 watt solar panels make me think that it's not such a great idea. They are in the £700 region here in the UK, that's without batteries, charging circuits and the inverter. How about gas fired steam pump? |
12 volt pond pumps
~ jan wrote:
On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:21:05 EDT, DavidM wrote: I can't find much via google on serious 12 volt pond pumps. Are there any r.p.m readers using one, or know of one that can pump suitable volumes for use in a 5000+ litre pond? I'm interested to know the power requirements and feasibility of running from a car batter charged by photovoltaic panels. The price of solar panels seems to be dropping all the time, and with energy costs going up it might be worth looking into. I'm hoping you'll find an answer here. I know my son is trying to figure out how to power my motion sprinklers via solar. At least where the batteries are charged during the day, and will run all night. ~ jan First, don't use a car battery. Sure they're cheap, but they won't last long. But really, I don't think such a beast exists. I bought about the most efficient pump I could get, for my 5000 _gallon_ pond, and it drew ~215W. Let's just pretend you could use something a quarter the size for 5000 liters (probably you'd need bigger). 50W 24 hours per day is more power than my entire solar powered home uses! That's 1.2KwH daily, and I use about 1KwH for my house. I run 800W of solar panels to get that. Admittedly, I need to account for short winter days, and foggy Springs, and since you'll likely only need it in the summer, and may have much more sunlight, you might conceivably get by with only about 400W. -- derek |
12 volt pond pumps
Paul wrote:
How about running a conventional 120v pond pump off of an inverter powered by the 12v battery. You lose up to 15% of your power to the conversion, and DC pumps are more efficient in the first place. -- derek |
12 volt pond pumps
Paul wrote:
Kinda depends on how much arms and legs go for in your neck of the woods. I've a Sequence pump that uses about 120 watts. A 400 watt inverter ($30) would easily run it. Car battery, maybe $75 or so. Now here's where the body parts come in. On ebay, 123 watt solar panels go for $660 each and I'd need two of them, figuring that the sun only shines 1/2 the time, The sun doesn't shine 1/2 the time. You'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere in North America where the sun shines on average 7 hours per day (in summer - I assume we don't need to worry about winter). but the pump runs 24/7. Maybe 3 would be better to allow for cloudy days and system losses. otoh, three 123W panels is pretty close to my back of the envelope calculation :-) I can get them for much less than $660, but they'll cost at least that by the time shipping is calculated. They're big and bulky, and they only ship FedEx or UPS Ground in most cases. Throw in a charging regulator, actually, they're available under $50 and we're in the 2 kilo-dollar neighborhood. That's more than arms and legs go for around here. It doesn't sound feasible for anything larger than say a whiskey barrel size water feature. Paul -- derek |
12 volt pond pumps
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:13:20 EDT, "Paul" wrote:
"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message ... I wonder if you can get enough power from a photo cell without paying an arm and a leg? How powerful is your pump? Jim Kinda depends on how much arms and legs go for in your neck of the woods. I've a Sequence pump that uses about 120 watts. A 400 watt inverter ($30) would easily run it. Car battery, maybe $75 or so. Except a car battery won't work. Batteries found in cars are typically designed to provide a high current for a relatively brief time (cranking) whereas what is needed is a lower current for a relatively long time (like a golf cart). At 120 watts at 120v that's 1 amp, at 12 volts that will be a 10a draw. Most car batteries can't handle that, as a matter of fact, most "deep cycle" type batteries won't handle that. What will probably be needed is a several batteries in parallel to provide that much current overnight. Now here's where the body parts come in. On ebay, 123 watt solar panels go for $660 each and I'd need two of them, figuring that the sun only shines 1/2 the time, but the pump runs 24/7. Maybe 3 would be better to allow for cloudy days and system losses. You'd need two of them even if optimal conditions were present 100% of the time. Remember, the batteries have to be recharged from the previous night's use while supplying power to the pump at the same time during the day. Furthermore, even on bright, cloudless, sunny days the photovoltaic cells are only going to provide full power for just a few hours at best. There will be some output during morning and late afternoon, but nowhere near the 120 watts needed. 3 panels sounds quite optimistic. Throw in a charging regulator, This will be essential, and matching the regulator to the type of batteries you have (so as not to overcharge or something harmful to the life of the batteries) is critical, if battery life is to be maximized. and we're in the 2 kilo-dollar neighborhood. Probably a lot more. That's more than arms and legs go for around here. It doesn't sound feasible for anything larger than say a whiskey barrel size water feature. Paul You have to have a real interest in photovoltaics right now to make this work. It is very expensive up front, and most folks cannot justify the expense on simply economics. Granted, there are exceptions where this is an economic alternative to being "on the grid," but for most folks getting power from the electric company is still the way to go, high energy prices notwithstanding. Galen Hekhuis |
12 volt pond pumps
"Derek Broughton" wrote in message ... Paul wrote: Kinda depends on how much arms and legs go for in your neck of the woods. I've a Sequence pump that uses about 120 watts. A 400 watt inverter ($30) would easily run it. Car battery, maybe $75 or so. Now here's where the body parts come in. On ebay, 123 watt solar panels go for $660 each and I'd need two of them, figuring that the sun only shines 1/2 the time, The sun doesn't shine 1/2 the time. You'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere in North America where the sun shines on average 7 hours per day (in summer - I assume we don't need to worry about winter). but the pump runs 24/7. Maybe 3 would be better to allow for cloudy days and system losses. otoh, three 123W panels is pretty close to my back of the envelope calculation :-) I can get them for much less than $660, but they'll cost at least that by the time shipping is calculated. They're big and bulky, and they only ship FedEx or UPS Ground in most cases. Throw in a charging regulator, actually, they're available under $50 and we're in the 2 kilo-dollar neighborhood. That's more than arms and legs go for around here. It doesn't sound feasible for anything larger than say a whiskey barrel size water feature. Paul -- derek Actually, my whole point here was that the idea of powering a pond pump with PV cells would be cost prohibitive for all but the _money is no object_ ponder. Paul |
12 volt pond pumps
Galen Hekhuis wrote:
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:13:20 EDT, "Paul" wrote: "Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message ... snippy You have to have a real interest in photovoltaics right now to make this work. It is very expensive up front, and most folks cannot justify the expense on simply economics. Granted, there are exceptions where this is an economic alternative to being "on the grid," but for most folks getting power from the electric company is still the way to go, high energy prices notwithstanding. Galen Hekhuis How about part PV, part wind power? http://www.unlimited-power.co.uk/Aer...enerators.html For instance. When it's sunny, it's rarely very windy. You get wind in poor weather.............all night too :) -- Pete C London UK |
12 volt pond pumps
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:49:00 EDT, "Pete C"
wrote: Galen Hekhuis wrote: On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:13:20 EDT, "Paul" wrote: "Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message ... snippy You have to have a real interest in photovoltaics right now to make this work. It is very expensive up front, and most folks cannot justify the expense on simply economics. Granted, there are exceptions where this is an economic alternative to being "on the grid," but for most folks getting power from the electric company is still the way to go, high energy prices notwithstanding. Galen Hekhuis How about part PV, part wind power? http://www.unlimited-power.co.uk/Aer...enerators.html For instance. When it's sunny, it's rarely very windy. You get wind in poor weather.............all night too :) Wind power is a real alternative. There have been substantial advances made both in power generation and design of the structure. Here in Florida we too often have the problem of too much wind, so wind power isn't as popular here as in other places. My wife and I lived in a section of Maui (Hawaii) that had no utilities (no phones, no electricity, no water, etc.) but a pretty good supply of wind and almost everybody had a windmill of some type. Of course, the maintenance is a bit higher for wind power. The ultimate would be to have your own little hydroelectric plant. With today's technology they exist in kilowatt sizes now, and what with sealed bearings and all they can be almost maintenance-free. But unlike water power, wind power is available to a lot more people, and at much less expense than a photovoltaic array. Galen Hekhuis |
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