# Solar Well Pump



## MTY (May 1, 2019)

I made arrangements yesterday to have two 2100 gallon cisterns cast.  Today I met with the contractor that will push a short road up a hill beyond the house.  One cistern will be buried on the hill. 

I am waiting on bids for a solar well pump.  The pump will run on solar or ac, and can be ordered manually or automatically switched.  I do not have enough info now to give more details. 

The plan is to pump to one of the cisterns and gravity feed the house.  The other cistern will be gravity fed from the spring and used for all outside watering. 

Should we lose power we will have water and a wood stove. 

I do not consider myself a prepper, but when we lost power where we live now, there was no water to flush with.  We went 6 days without a toilet. 

The last house I did, I ran well water to all but the basement toilet and gravity fed that one from a cistern.  After that, we never had a power failure of more than a couple of hours at that house. 

If you have a solar powered well pump, I would appreciate any tips that may help me avoid a major blunder.


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## Sodbuster (May 1, 2019)

MTY said:


> I made arrangements yesterday to have two 2100 gallon cisterns cast.  Today I met with the contractor that will push a short road up a hill beyond the house.  One cistern will be buried on the hill.
> 
> I am waiting on bids for a solar well pump.  The pump will run on solar or ac, and can be ordered manually or automatically switched.  I do not have enough info now to give more details.
> 
> ...



I don't have any solar tips, but what type of winter temperatures do you see, and what about lines freezing?


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## MTY (May 2, 2019)

The last 20 years or so it has not gotten below zero.  All pipes will be  below frost line and the cisterns buried.  The current spring feed to the cistern I am taking out melts off the snow.  There can be several inches of snow on the ground and a bare mud line across the field.  As long as the spring is flowing, the water will not freeze.  The water temp is about 40 degrees.


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## wilsoncm1 (May 3, 2019)

There's a youtube channel from a guy in SC called Engineer775.  He builds solar power well systems for people.  Take a look.


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## semipro (May 3, 2019)

I'm wondering if you really want to dedicate solar PV to a well pump.  Is it because of the location of the well or that you don't want to run power to it?
If not it would seem more flexible to connect PV and maybe a generator to the house and they direct the power to where it's needed whether its the well or something else. 
The nice thing about the cistern setup is that you can probably use a very low-powered well pump and run it almost constantly.   This decreases the pump/motor and pipe diameter and may allow for the installation of a manual pump into the well casing as well. 
It may be best to place float switches in the cistern rather than relying upon some sort of pressure switch  At 0.433 PSI head per ft. elevation of water a pressure switch could be troublesome if you're only talking several ft. in tank water level drop. 
You may want to check out the water system these folks put together.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChhBsM9K_Bc9a_YTK7UUlnQ  They started with elevated cisterns filled manually and then added a well later.


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## MTY (May 4, 2019)

There will be float switches in both cisterns.  There is about 50' of drop.  There will be both ac and solar to the pump.  The well tested at 30 gpm for 90 minutes and did not run dry.  The pump will put 5 gpm to the cistern as long as the sun is shining.  Static level is 490' so I do not want to start and stop the pump any more than is necessary.  I am hoping to rarely have it run on ac. 

The spring is putting out more than I can deal with.  The old cistern is spalling badly and as a result it leaks.  I have a timer on it and sprinklers to run at night to keep the water level down below the spalling.  The new cistern should not leak, and the overflow will go to the pond and creek. 

I spent the day on pick, shovel and plate vibrator today prepping the basement for concrete.  I am barely awake and will check the links when I can keep my eyes open.


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## Gunfixr (May 8, 2019)

Got my interest. I want to set up solar to run my existing well pump in the future.
As well as at least some of the house.


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## peakbagger (May 9, 2019)

Positive displacement DC well pumps are the way to go solar in a well as long as you have an upper gravity tank to feed the house loads or have an on demand pump in the top tank. For a direct system with no batteries, there is a "box" that acts as a linear current booster that adjust the variable output of the sun to the proper current. If there is a substantial battery system, a AC centrifugal pump can be used but it has a far lower efficiency than a DC  pump. If someone goes with an AC pump, they need to put in variable speed pump. If they already have a 3 wire external capacitor deep well pump it can be converted to variable speed but it is not cheap. The variable speed pump does away with the need for a large expansion tank and limits the start up current of the pump to nameplate. 

There are two major types of DC pumps, some are long term permanent pumps and some are throwaway which are usually a standard non waterproof pump in a "sealed" container that eventually leaks. Its definitely "pay me now pay me later" on pumps. Note well pumps are infamous for being impacted by nearby lightning strikes so put in proper bonding and surge protection.


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## MTY (May 10, 2019)

I got the hole for the well cistern dug today.  The hole is on a hill about 50 feet above the house.  The spring cistern hole should be done tomorrow, and both cisterns placed next week.  2100 gallons apiece.  The spring cistern is below the well cistern and between the well cistern and the well head.  That will save considerable digging of power and water lines. 

The outfit that was supposed to be getting me quotes on pumps has gone dark.  I generally will not beg someone to take my money, so I will have to look further into this.  Cisterns, road up the hill for placing the well cistern, the well, and the small stuff have me right at 30K for water.  At this point I am not going to cheap out on the pump.  I just have to figure out what the heck to get. 

Horrible Fright had a pump with pressure tank for a little over $100 on sale last year.  I used it all last summer and fall to keep the old failing cistern pumped down.  I will most likely run power for a better pump but continue to use the HF pump on the spring cistern until it fails.  I just do not have the time to do all I would like to get done.  I am still trying to get the basement floor prepped for concrete.


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