Going green starting with well water

[trbizwiz]

as a side thought, on putting tanks of water on a hill. Even on relatively flat ground there is a substantial amount of excavation required to build a house. If you are building a house use a berm style house, use the excavated house to build a hill behind it. If it is an existing home, ask local excavators to bring you their excess clean fill dirt (usually rocky clay). When I built my house and swimming pool, I paid thousands of dollars to have them haul off rocky clay that they hauled up the road and filled in a low spot for a local business and he built mini storage on the spot. I tried like thunder to get anyone to pay the trucking in exchange for the dirt, and no one would. I did not need the mountain next to my house and my flat property, so pay I did. This could be an opportunity for you if a neighbor is building. Maybe even help with the hauling costs, Ill bet its cheaper than batteries. You could even get enough dirt to bury the tanks at the top of the hill, that will keep your water cooler, and protect your tanks.

[BuzzBuds]

Well I have came to a stand still due to money factor I new it wasnt going to be cheap I have purchased the pump and a few of the presure tanks and all the piping and hook ups just waiting for the money to purchase the solar cells and material for the pannels now. I guess it wont be hooked up till next year now after I have worked and during my off season next summer hopefully all will play out ok for me thanks for checking in on it though. I will keep you guys informed as I progress

[MarineLiner]

[BuzzBuds]

Ok so I have spent some time researching this subject there are some realy good methods on this and I think I have came to a dicision on which setup I want use tell me if you think this would work.
Option off grid well with grid tie in in place meaning if it goes wrong I can always still use the grid to power it solar will be seporate from the grid and should be able to be modified as needed such as adding more water storage.
my setup will hopefully be like this:

Solar Array -> 12v or 24v pump (Surflo 12v to 24v 9325-043-101, 12 to 2v .1amps max will lift 230' submersible Pump).
Pump -> Existing presure tank 25g. "PT"
Pt ->Shut off Valve. "SOV"
SOV -> Filter.
Filter -> 3 Inline PT's.
3pt -> House

The wiring for the existing pump remains in place it already has a shut off switch in house. I intend to run a seporate power line for switch purpose inside house for the PV not sure if this is needed but could proove to be usfull later on with another project? for example a second breaker box seams to be the best solution here for this.
I think that I can use a 48 cell pannel to produce 24v not sure though

I will be able to add up to 4 of these panels later on not tied together though they will be for indivual items.

I also was wondering if I could use a second panel to add a pruse pump later on or would this be over doing it so to speak?

[BuzzBuds]

Acualy I am swaying towards the solar hydro myself now I have done some research on it on the alternative side with Mike. I want to mach my gpm I am using now with the grid pump

[NeilTheCop]

The other alternative, is to use a larger pressure tank, or several even, so that you can use pressureised storage at night, and not have to run the pump. The starting surge of even a small .5 hp motor, will bring most inverters to their knees. And running a motor, you will need pure sine, not modified.

What type of pump are you using?

[BuzzBuds]

I do think a few smaller presurised tanks would do the trick and be adaptable to extend later on with minamal amount of expence.

[BuzzBuds]

[QUOTE=MarineLiner;9528]

[Mike90250]

The other alternative, is to use a larger pressure tank, or several even, so that you can use pressureised storage at night, and not have to run the pump. The starting surge of even a small .5 hp motor, will bring most inverters to their knees. And running a motor, you will need pure sine, not modified.

[MarineLiner]

Example:
... using a 0.5 hp pump, for 9GPM, at 160', to 9,000 storage tank.
I will only pump on sunny days, about 4-5 hours a day. That gets me 2,160 gallons on a 4 hour day. The water is in a tank farm on a hill, and I just use the pressure from the tank, to do my water needs.
After a few days, I'll have all the tanks full, and can last a few cloudy days.
Daily needs are only about 200 gallons.
Storing the water on a hill, is more efficeint than using batteries to pump in the middle of the night.

[MarineLiner]

... I have an acer of land that all and no major hills to flow water down.
If I am going to loose 20% extra for the use of batteries then I just increase my solar capacity right> ?

[BuzzBuds]

Pumping needs 2 things to size the pump, and then the 3rd, TIME, can be factored

Lift (hight or pressure)
Volume (amount of water needed)
These first two have to be known and then you can size the rest of the stuff.

If you can arrange to pump directly from solar, you will be about 75% efficient. If you decide you want batteries, your efficiency drops to 55%

Example:
In my personal situation, I will be using a 0.5 hp pump, for 9GPM, at 160', to 9,000 storage tank. I will only pump on sunny days, about 4-5 hours a day. That gets me 2,160 gallons on a 4 hour day. The water is in a tank farm on a hill, and I just use the pressure from the tank, to do my water needs. After a few days, I'll have all the tanks full, and can last a few cloudy days. Daily needs are only about 200 gallons. Storing the water on a hill, is more efficeint than using batteries to pump in the middle of the night.

Wo I think you need to calm down there lol big boy I am a little fish here not worth eating or anything I have an acer of land that all and no major hills to flow water down.
If I am going to loose 20% extra for the use of batteries then I just increase my solar capacity right>
?

[Mike90250]

Pumping needs 2 things to size the pump, and then the 3rd, TIME, can be factored

Lift (hight or pressure)
Volume (amount of water needed)
These first two have to be known and then you can size the rest of the stuff.

If you can arrange to pump directly from solar, you will be about 75% efficient. If you decide you want batteries, your efficiency drops to 55%

Example:
In my personal situation, I will be using a 0.5 hp pump, for 9GPM, at 160', to 9,000 storage tank. I will only pump on sunny days, about 4-5 hours a day. That gets me 2,160 gallons on a 4 hour day. The water is in a tank farm on a hill, and I just use the pressure from the tank, to do my water needs. After a few days, I'll have all the tanks full, and can last a few cloudy days. Daily needs are only about 200 gallons. Storing the water on a hill, is more efficeint than using batteries to pump in the middle of the night.

[BuzzBuds]

[QUOTE=MarineLiner;9493]

[MarineLiner]

I am unsure if the power consumption
I will get a reading tommorow
I am not good with the math work just yet on figuring the the watt hours needed yet
but I figured this would be a good starting place