Solar Powered Sumbermisble Pump

[paulcheung]

I have a similar setup, I have a pond that use 125 watts pump run 24/7. and another one run 8 hours in the day from 7am for the water fall.

I have 3 225 watts solar panels wired in series and 60 amps CC for 12 volts batteries, 1000 watts pure sine wave inverter and 4 6volts 225 amps deep cycle batteries. It run quite well since I installed the third panel. You can have the same but try to put in 24 volt batteries in series, or 2 400 amps batteries in 12 volts. also you can have a smaller inverter like 300 watts pure sine wave will do the work. I bought mine so large when I don't know better.

[mapmaker]

1200 GPH Mag Drive Pump AC 110 watts -24 Hours
and
a 60" LED Light 46 Watts - 12 Hours

Welcome to the forum,

Have you measured the wattage with a kill-a-watt meter? or are those numbers from the labels? (the labels are usually not as accurate as an actual measurement)

From an off grid calculator it it showing that the system will use

124.48 Kwh/HR per month

That makes no sense... 124.48 kilowattHours per hour per month?????

110 watts X 24 hours = 2640 wattHours per day
46 watts X 12 hours = 552 wattHours per day

2640 + 552 = 3192 wattHours per day

3192 watthours per day X 30 days = 95760 watthours per month = 95,760 kilowatthours per month

Since the sun comes up every day (not every month), the number to use for off grid system design is 3.192 kwh per day. The monthly figure is more useful for a grid tie system.

Next step in off grid design is to determine a battery size and system voltage. First take the daily energy consumption (AC watts) and figure your inverter is 85% efficient: 3.192 kwh ÷ .85 = 3.76 kwh.

A typical balanced design will have the battery drawn down to 75% SOC per day, thus your battery should store 4 X 3.76 kwh = 15 kwh.

For this capacity, I suggest a 24 volt system. That would be 15,000 watthours ÷ 24 volts = 625 amphours.

Surrette makes a good 683 ah battery in their "5000 series". It will cost you about $4000 plus shipping, and with careful management will last about 10 years.

How are we doing so far? Next step is to determine the size of the solar array that will keep those batteries happy, choose an inverter and balance of system, and decide what to do (generator?) if you have more than two cloudy days in a row.

--mapmaker

[inetdog]

Yes. Even more if you want to be able to stay off grid through the winter months.
Why do you want to be totally off grid? It would be more economical to use grid tie inverters to reduce your power cost if grid power is available to where your tank will be.

[garman]

I'm trying to run my 300 Gallon Aquarium off of solar power - off the grid.

1200 GPH Mag Drive Pump AC 110 watts -24 Hours
and
a 60" LED Light 46 Watts - 12 Hours

Point me in the right direction.

From an off grid calculator it it showing that the system will use

124.48 Kwh/HR per month
I live in Miami Florida so 4.5 Peak Hours of sun a day and want to run it %100 off the grid , so I need at least 922 watts of power.

I should be looking at 1000+ watt systems?