Solar on Demand Power

[Lucas_TX]

I'm still thinking about what I want, but the idea seems to be about 10' diameter 2' deep pond, 1000 or so gallons I believe, wildlife pond only.

I'd really like to do this pond with Solar power. I've seen reports that the Oase panels are no longer available. Don't know what else anyone is using for solar?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!


Teri

 

[Telkwa]

Hi, Lucas -
We have two OASE 12-24V pumps. An Aquasolar 200 and a 400. As you mentioned, it appears that OASE has dicontinued their line of solar stuff.

You certainly don't need the overpriced OASE panels. We're running the 400 with an off-the-shelf Kyocera 120, which spins the pump on all but the cloudiest days. I checked GPM a few days ago on an overcast day. At about a foot and a half of lift, the 400 was putting out about 150 GPM. According to the pump paperwork, it'll pump about twice the water if you supply 24V. But since the Kyocera will push up to about 17V with good sun, I haven't messed with two panels in series and risked over-volting the (expensive) pump.

The little 200 is being powered by a small fiberglas-backed panel. I don't remember the brand right off the bat, but it's only about a foot by a half foot. I haven't done any GPM tests with the 200, but quite sure that it would move more water with a bigger panel.

There aren't many DC options. I just checked ebay; a search for "aquasolar" returned nothing. Most DC pumps are designed for wells or pressurizing house plumbing.

If you were determined, you could buy panels, a charge controller, batteries, and an inverter. Then you could run an inexpensive AC pump instead of an expensive and hard-to-find DC pump. I've toyed with this idea, but since there's grid power near the pond, I'll probably just buy panels and a grid-intertie inverter if I want to feel like I'm not contributing to global warming with our pond.

 

[The Juice]

I researched putting my pond and other items on a small solar island. To do it right it was going to be very expensive. I was looking at running the pump and uv 24 hours though which it sounds like you aren't.

 

[Telkwa]

Are you thinking direct solar-to-pump? That would make things simpler if you could find an Aquasolar 400 on ebay or something. That's the way we've been running ours for years.

 

[Lucas_TX]

Are you thinking direct solar-to-pump? That would make things simpler if you could find an Aquasolar 400 on ebay or something. That's the way we've been running ours for years.

The problem with direct to pump is that you can't run 24x7 correct? I was hoping for something that could charge a battery and the allow it to run at night as well. But with no fish to support, just running during the day might be OK.

I'm not familiar with an Aquasolar, can you please tell me what it is?

Thanks

Teri

 

[DrDave]

With no fish, there is no need to worry about bio.

 

[Telkwa]

Yeah, by direct to pump, or solar direct, or whatever term you want to use, I mean the solar panel or panels are wired directly to the pump. Aquasolar is (or was) a line of 12 to 24V pumps and controllers that OASE offered. I'm not sure if they've completely abandoned the solar stuff, but I haven't been able to find any available in the States. Most websites say something about the line's been discontinued.

The pumps were quite expensive - I think we paid about $400 for an Aquasolar 400 - so I'd guess OASE didn't sell a whole lot of them. Perhaps they decided it wasn't cost-effective.

Our two Aquasolars have run and run for several years with minimal maintenance. I'd have no problem recommending them. You just have to take into account that neither pump is going to power a big waterfall.

And, as mentioned earlier, you could power a standard AC pump via solar. Even when the sun's not out. But you wouldn't like the price. I'm guessing six to ten solar panels would do the job with a modest (400 GPM or so) pump.

Then you'd need a bank of deep-discharge batteries, the kind used for solar powered homes. Not car batteries.

Then you'd need a charge controller. The charge controller is the brains of the operation - it knows how to take the solar panel output and feed it to the batteries. It also monitors battery charge and can cut off the load (in this case your pump) if battery voltage dips too low.

Then you'd need an inverter. Since the charge controller's load outputs are DC, you'd need to add an inverter that can change the voltage to AC.

Whew! 4 or 5 thousand bucks to make the water go around 24/7. If you didn't care about 24/7 operation, you could scale down (or possibly leave out? I'm not sure) the batteries.

 

[DrDave]

That about sums it up. I would love to have solar power running things but it is so expensive to get it up and then there is maintenance and replacment costs. I'm hoping that some day soon to see more cost effective ways to do solar and wind.

 

[Oldhead]

Hi, Lucas -
We have two OASE 12-24V pumps. An Aquasolar 200 and a 400. As you mentioned, it appears that OASE has dicontinued their line of solar stuff.

You certainly don't need the overpriced OASE panels. We're running the 400 with an off-the-shelf Kyocera 120, which spins the pump on all but the cloudiest days. I checked GPM a few days ago on an overcast day. At about a foot and a half of lift, the 400 was putting out about 150 GPM. According to the pump paperwork, it'll pump about twice the water if you supply 24V. But since the Kyocera will push up to about 17V with good sun, I haven't messed with two panels in series and risked over-volting the (expensive) pump.

The little 200 is being powered by a small fiberglas-backed panel. I don't remember the brand right off the bat, but it's only about a foot by a half foot. I haven't done any GPM tests with the 200, but quite sure that it would move more water with a bigger panel.

There aren't many DC options. I just checked ebay; a search for "aquasolar" returned nothing. Most DC pumps are designed for wells or pressurizing house plumbing.

If you were determined, you could buy panels, a charge controller, batteries, and an inverter. Then you could run an inexpensive AC pump instead of an expensive and hard-to-find DC pump. I've toyed with this idea, but since there's grid power near the pond, I'll probably just buy panels and a grid-intertie inverter if I want to feel like I'm not contributing to global warming with our pond.

Are you saying your solar pump is putting out 9000gph? or is it just a typo and its 150 gph?

 

[Telkwa]

Whoops - I keep typing GPM. I work at a place that moves lots of water or none at all, so I'm in the habit of saying GPM. Have had to fix this several times already; missed this one!

Just to make sure: I ran a test on the Aquasolar 400, direct connected to one Kyocera 120 panel, on a medium-to-light overcast day, and got 150 gallons per hour. Sorry about the confusion.

 

[Oldhead]

No problem. I figured it was a mistake but you never know. You could have a lake for a pond.

 

[Telkwa]

If you need solar because your pond is far from grid power, then you need solar.

If, like me, you want solar because you feel guilty about consuming resources for a non-essential yard feature, then there's another option. I'm currently looking into "off-setting" the AC consumption that we're preparing to add with a 24/7 AC pump by installing a solar water heater.

I figure the biggest hit in our house is the electric water heater. We've tried for years to squash our power bill with LED lights, more efficient appliances, etc. Just can't seem to get below about 20 KwH/day.

Even in the cloudy PNW, a solar water heater can be fairly effective. A SHW system would supply hot water (or at least pre-heat) and remove some electrical load. This seems to me far more useful and cost-effective than trying to create a stand-alone solar-powered AC generation facility out in the yard!

The next most cost-effective option would probly be to set up a small grid-tied solar array. Grid-tie has improved quite nicely in the past decade or so. If your finances can handle the hit, a small 1 KW or thereabout grid-tie array is pretty much a "Plug and Play" affair now.

 

[addy1]

I have used solar water heating the entire time I lived in arizona, most of the time, the water heater was on for only 1 hour a day, early am, just in case it was cloudy the day before. I love a warm shower before going to work, lol.
They work excellent.

The main thing being up in the pnw, is the cold winter nights, in az ours circulated the water at night if the temperature dropped below a certain point. The panels were water filled and would freeze and rupture if it did not circulate. When they circulated it sucked the heat out of the tank. I am not sure what would be done in a colder climate than az. Maybe shut off for the winter.