Installing WaterSecure™ with an Existing 220V Well Pump

[@ronpalmer7260]

This is exactly what I have been looking to do. I have a 550' well that uses air pressure to bring the water up to the holding tank, 220volt 2 hp motor. I have a shallow well pump and a pressure tank from there, also 220volt 2hp. Last year we had a crazy drought, the heat fried my air pump which had never happened before. I cool it now by looping the copper airline through a big bucket of water. The This pump feeds 16 acres and watering it was crazy expensive. I've been looking for DC motors to run the air and pressure pumps, or some other solution to get it off grid. We had two hurricanes within two months a few years ago and combined we were without power for three weeks. If that had happened during the drought, I would have been jumping through major hoops to keep the water flowing or paying crazy fees for using the co-op water service, we keep as a backup. The well is at the top of the hill, go figure, and eventually I intend to have a 10,000-gallon holding tank and gravity feed for watering. That eliminates the pressure pump. I can use small 12volt solar booster pumps if needed at the point of delivery. I am very surprised that there aren't many more solutions for this scenario. I've been looking for a while and really haven't found anything that wasn't commercial grade and crazy expensive.

[@timdavis6088]

I just installed the 3K panel in my well pump system. I was able to wire in a new sub-panel for the existing pump. I can also use the 3K panel to power the house if need be. I have a pressure tank system so I can allow the pump to charge the tank and then turn off the power to the pump so it won't overload the 3K panel if I want to power the house grid by back-feeding into my existing panel. Because everything is 220v split-phase all I needed was a few 30amp breakers, wire, and a sub-panel. I have several scenarios that I can use this system to power the house and the well pump. Now that the RPS panel is installed I have an off-grid pump that saves on my electrical bill and a 3K converter for emergencies that can be recharged several ways. As mentioned in the video, I can charge the batteries from grid power, my dual-fuel generator (100 gal Propane tank), or the solar panel. The logic they have used is very sensible. The RPS panel will wait to pull power from the solar panels if the batteries are only slightly discharged. So even if the battery level is 88% at sunset, the RPS panel doesn't waste your money by pulling grid power over night to charge the batteries. It will wait until the next day to see if it gets adequate power from the solar panels. The overload protections are also well thought out. I tested a couple. Thanks to Andrew and all the great people at RPS Solar! You have a great system and team to be proud of.

[@RPSSolarPumps]

Glad to hear it all setup Tim. Happy to help!

[@steveforliberty7801]

I am very interested in converting my home well to solar off grid. I already have six 360 watt panels. I have been looking at the water secure system. It is really cool because you can use it as a solar generator to power some of your house appliances in a black out or all the time if you build it big enough. I do wonder though if it would be more efficient to replace my current 220 v 1 hp pump (because of surge) with a dc pump such as the gundfos sq or other 12 volt pump and run straight from the solar panels and a small battery bank as a back up. I'm looking for efficiency and independence from the grid.

[@RPSSolarPumps]

@@steveforliberty7801 Do you use the well pump to also produce pressure for your house or do you gravity feed for pressure?

[@steveforliberty7801]

@@RPSSolarPumps I also use it to produce pressure for my house. I have a small hill right next to my house where I could put a 2500 gallon tank and gravity feed water back down to a small dc pump. The hill is unlikely tall enough to produce enough pressure. Can the inverter use the power from the panels and compensate with the batteries or does it exclusively pull from the batteries?

[@steveforliberty7801]

@@RPSSolarPumps Am I asking for too much?

[@soldbysaelee9229]

I am looking into installing solar for my well too. The problem is, I do not know the Volt, Amps, or Watts of the well pump. The house uses the city water and right now the well is hooked up to the power grid. How do I determine how many solar panels or batteries I need to power the well?

[@trev0r15]

Just ballpark.. How much is this system for a 3/4 horse pump?

[@dingdongdaddy589]

Can’t even find that on their website. Forget it.