How to Run a Well Pump on Solar

One question I commonly get from people building an off grid power system, is whether they can run a deep water well pump from a solar system. So, today I decided to answer that question for everyone.
My recommended DC well pump: offgridpermaculture.com/Water...
Is it possible to run a submersible well pump from solar power? Yes! With a properly sized solar system, you can run a well from solar power. You generally have two options for this, an AC pump with inverter, or a DC powered well pump designed for use in an off grid systems.
Since a well pump could easily be the biggest electrical load in your off grid system, it is worth taking the time to consider your options. Below I’ll go over whether you should choose an AC pump, DC pump, or flexible pumping system for your homestead.
#solar #offgrid

[@OffGridPermaculture]

See article for DC well pump recommendation: offgridpermaculture.com/Water_Systems/How_to_Run_a_Well_Pump_on_Solar.html

[@abuidnsampala]

Very interesting topic bro! I have learnt something valuable

[@jakeaustel7161]

You should check out RPS Solar they have great kits detailed instructions and a direct phone number for their products. You buy direct as the customer.

[@leandrosphotostudio]

dude.. i admire you just for the fact and patience you have towards that freaking mosquito !!!

[@ashleyvalleyfarms3712]

That was a good explanation, thanks for the vid and thanks for the links

[@TheJessicaRoper]

Thanks for the info

[@elicab.a.8918]

I hope God blesses you in every way

[@SimpleEarthSelfReliance]

Shut up and take my subscribe! Liking your videos and style, and glad I found you. I am busy setting up my 4th or so solar pump setup, but I have yet to find a nice video to explain to friends how to do things, so I cam going to share yours around. Steady supply water: indeed. In terms of pumps, and saving on maintenance and controllers and stuff, something like the Grundfos solar pumps are really awesome. (though I run ours without battery, so only pumping during day time).

[@jojomwangi]

well said and informed

[@Cityoflight18]

Hi there! thank you for this!!! Really helpful! I will be ordering the pump you recommended today and I was wondering if you had any tips on battery bank size and solar. It will be use in a bore hole to pump 40m up twice a month about 3000lt of water each time. The property has unshaded sun exposure from about 8am until 16pm. Thank you!

[@cutweldngrind]

I bought me a cheap 24v 370w solar water well pump of ebay and it does 6 to 7 gallons max. My pump is 175 feet below ground and been thinking on getting another identical pump and run 2 at the same time or buy an expensive bigger unit. Cool video again bud.

[@goodplanetfilms]

6 to 7 gallon per hour ?

[@cutweldngrind]

@@goodplanetfilms Averages 6 Gallons Per Minute and I can get over 2000 gallons per day on solar. I don't have batteries but haven't needed them yet.

[@goodplanetfilms]

@@cutweldngrind wheeew that seem a lot of water :) Why would you need another pump? So you connected 370w panel to submersible pump directly without the battery? I'm looking for reliable one for my 6 meter well. What brand pump you are using and do you find it reliable? 😊

[@DavidSmith-fr1uz]

Okay, you're getting 6 to 7 gallons a minute? What kind of application do you have where you need more than that? That's a lot of water. Even only using solar panels, the 2000 gallons a day would meet the household needs of 10 or more people.

[@cutweldngrind]

@@DavidSmith-fr1uz The plan is to build a pond and be able to maintain water levels. I also have future plans to try planting watermelons, tomatoes and corn to donate around town. Thanks for watching.

[@MusafirsSoul]

Is there a DC pump for Drive point well 25' or less. I am struggling to find one which can directly be connected to the solar panel. Its a small off-grid project just to fill a couple of 230 gallon ibc totes twice a month.

[@paulwarren7242]

Do you run a pressure switch and pressure tank with this pump?

[@polarbear4612]

If your off grid you will absolutely need an inverter anyway right? For the rest of your house. Since you will already have an inverter then why get a more expensive and hard to find dc pump? The only issue I can see is that AC pumps have a ton of initial surge so you may need an inverter with a 220v option or a pump with a soft start in order to keep from tripping the inverter.

[@okeyjokey981]

You can try with ctp waterpump sun sun 10000 . It is AC electricity. But it will pump 10000 liters per hour. It is a 80w water pump. So you just need one solar panel .. to be sure 240w solar panel a cheap inverter , a car batery , a timer dig. This is cheap and you have free water. Sorry for my bad english i hope you understand what i am trying to say.

[@southernafricanboy4148]

Wow. What's the name of pump please My borehole is 35 metres deep will this work please. I need it in Africa urgently

[@marcosnascimento4701]

Great information thank you so much

[@raymondpetersen3543]

Just how are you going to get one down in a 4 or 5 inch hole ?

[@phil7654]

I have Zoeller submersible well pump model #1450-0010 2wire version so can I run it on solar? Any kits recommended?

[@cashus68]

Ok at the end you reverted back to ac pumps when you were talking about dc pumps i got confused there ? Please clarify :)

[@debrachandler5092]

Have a question my solar powered pump when in the off position will automatically come on

[@brentjohnson6654]

New sub here. I have a existing pump in rural Texas and am figuring out how to properly power it with a battery backup fed by a generator or solar panels. Thanks for your video. It all makes sense and would be good to look at DC motors if I were starting over. Now the trouble with hooking up inverters to a pump or motor with inductive load of any kind is the startup surge. That is what has me wondering what would be the best to power my pump along with other critical loads next time we loose electricity. Thanks again for your video.

[@anashomestead5919]

Idk if you will even answer me... Old 58 year lady here, by myself. I have a property w/75 year old mobile home in disrepair, well pump has not had electricity turned on for 10 years before I bought the property. The well was very likely directly wired to one of two electric meters. I don't even know which one. At the mobile home or the barn. What I did was order a Nature's Generator Elite Portable Solar Generator/Inverter combination unit, so the inverter is built into the generator unit itself. It has 3 AC Electrical Outlets. How do I get a plug in plug for a well pump? Once turned on, must it run constantly or can I turn it on or off if I were to not use any water for an entire day? Or only once or twice a day? One old lady who can't do much doesn't need a well pump to run constantly. Can I insert a surge protector between the pump & the generator/inverter? It won't arrive before June 5th. I ordered 2 complete sets. I have no other electric service, & will not be plugging into the mobile home's electrical wiring at all... it probably needs new wiring that I cannot afford to have done. I will just be using appliances to generator/inverter directly. I need very little as one disabled old lady. Flush a toilet, occasional bath & dishes. Planning on dedicated use of one unit for the well pump itself. The second entirely separate unit would be used to operate a small 1/2 fridge like those found in a motel room. I know I can turn it off to use a weak 700 watt microwave for like 3 minutes or less. A coffee pot once a day. Emergency use of an Air Conditioner in a small room if I need it to breathe due to excessive humidity. I plan on not using any of those items at the same time. It will also allow me to run an internet router & a desktop pc, I was told by the manufacturer. Also by itself most likely... Note: This generator system does come with an additional battery Pod. Note: Giving me 2 complete systems of generator/inverters, 2 battery Pods, 2 50ft Cables to reach the 6 total Solar Panels, which are portable on wheels. (All various needed cable connections were included, I made sure.) Total Costs of each system was: $1,499.99 - In case someone wants to understand or purchase it themselves. Note: Now I do understand from some random person online, who has had one, not a homesteader person, that they had a battery fail one week before the warranty ended & it was taken care of for them. I'm not sure that they depended solely on their system, I think they had a normal electricity ran household. My main question is can I manually turn a well pump on or off without damaging it? On a daily basis? I can't tell if that is some extreme no, no. Please help.

[@adelinawarriner6259]

i went to your page and have some issue with yoir information. there are several companies (including Bison Pumps) that have hand pumps for deep wells up to around 300' ... that automtically makes me question the rst of your information as it shows major lack of research.

[@phillipndemera2748]

What about using a VSD drive?

[@canadianbacon6536]

What solar controller did you use or did you just hook the panels directly?

[@OffGridPermaculture]

I used an MPPT charge controller. I recommend this one: offgridpermaculture.com/resources/recommended_solar_charge_controllers.html

[@shermdog6969]

I need to pump 400ft. I'm needing a deep well pump.

[@jasonblack6142]

Is there anyway I can come help you .if you only knew me and my story

[@davidsolomon1175]

What state do you live in?

[@estenj]

Hi. I have deep well pump about 360 ft max head capacity. Its 48V DC 540Watts DC pump. I want to run it about 8 hrs per day hoping to get 8-9 gallon water per minute. Seller said this pump can work well with 2 X 400W solar panel total about 800W. So, assuming its cloudy day and I still need to run it 8 hrs. What type and size battery I need? I checked online a lot but drowned with too much information. Can anyone help with calculation and explanation?. I appreciate.

[@jwssbrg]

Would love a link to the pump you are referring to if possible. Thanks Kevin

[@tegannottelling]

It depends what batteries you are going to use. If you are going to use lead acid you Can never use all of your stored power otherwise you’ll kill the battery you can only use about 20% of The total storage in your battery. For example if you have 100 amp hour battery you probably only want to use about 20 amp hours in total before you recharge the battery. in saying that if you get a lithium battery which is a lot more expensive you can use 80% to 95% of its total power. Depending on the brand of battery of course. There are tricks with lithium especially in regards to recharging it but that’s a whole another story and I can’t go into that right now it’s too long. So how I generally calculate it is: The number of days that you think you will need to run on battery in a row ( so you might get a week of cloudy weather ) You times the number of hours per day so 8hrs x 7 (the number of cloudy days you might expect in a row) By the way what’s the pump takes. This will give you the number of watt hours required. So if you’re going with lead acid this number should be a Max of 20% of your total amount of watt hours you need in your battery storage. You also need to choose the right solar controller both the type and the capacity, the right thickness of wire etc. Also you’ll probably need to consider how you wire up your solar panels were that they will be in series or parallel this also directly impacts on what sort of solar controller you’ll need. It’s a lot more complicated than it seems and this is a very short answer I suggest that you do a lot of research before, as this gentleman says you spend a lot of money and realise you need other things as well and spend a lot more money. Watt is amp x volt.

[@bigonprivacy2708]

@@tegannottelling Actually lead acid will be fine if you don't go below 50%. Still should last a long time. Many studies done have shown that temperature is a big drain over time so keeping your batteries cool in the summer and not too cold in the winter is a big consideration.

[@marlaabernathy3267]

Is a 75foot well considered a deep well?

[@teemum.9023]

So he is your authority and patronizer

[@lisanjopin7478]

Do u sell or deliver this product to either Germany or Africa in Cameroon? If you do so then orient me because I need it.

[@johndoe-zq1js]

Less moving parts the better

[@backyardengineer916]

Yea but you’d still need an inverter for the rest of the house

[@raymondpetersen3543]

DC water pumps do not last long... Look at the reviews on the pump you recommended. Plus Eco worthy does not have good customer service. I know from experience. I have some of their products. If you find a DC pump thast last 3 or more years you spent some money.

[@450rhino1]

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