Our Well is Now Solar!

It's one of the preparations we've wanted to make sure we had in place and they finished today.

It's a Grundfos Solar Pump. They have been used in remote locations of Africa to pump water to the villages. A very reliable unit. We're very excited to finally have it in place.

The dogs have inspected it. LOL

That is really nice, solar power is great.

I have read an article about spherical solar cells that catch more sunlight in every angle, let's hope the go into production soon.

It seems you can hook it up to a small windmill too, I hope you catch a lot of sun.

Congratulations on getting at least one bit of machinery off the grid.

Great idea BH! It's good to see that others are getting prepared as well. Kudos to you! Starred and flagged!

You are but a few steps away from total autonomy.
Keep up the good work.

Thanks everybody! We're very excited! It fills up the tanks during the day and "rests" at night. We couldn't use that much water in one night if we tired!

Also, we live in a town that claims 360 days of sunshine a year. It's a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea. It's SUNNY here.

Wow I envy you a bit. hehe

Our well is underground, fed by springs. When it rains too much some water starts collecting in the basement.

I wish we could afford solar panels, but I thought the next best thing would be one of those old-fashioned hand pumps. I guess a hand pump is better than nothing.

Very cool and thanks for sharing.

I noticed the gadgetry, is it electric? And when the grids go down, what then? Nice set up though. One more thing, how hot does it make the water assuming you have a solar hot water heater too.

reply to post by antar


It's not hooked to the grid. It's totally solar. So, when the grid goes down, it happily pumps water into the tanks. Wires are necessary, even for solar power. It's still circuitry. It's just powered by the cell.

It does not heat the water. Just pumps it up from the ground into the tanks. If the grid goes down, we'll have plenty of good drinking water. We also have a generator and lots and lots of wood.

Ceara, a hand pump is a great investment! I looked into it, but our well is too deep.





[edit on 26-6-2008 by Benevolent Heretic]

How deep in your well?

I've looked into solar for livestock but the cost is out of reason.

Roper

reply to post by Roper


I think the well is about 260 feet deep. The pump is sitting at around 230 feet.

What's the gpm?

I'm down to the Red Bed It's 360 ft.. It would take a lot of panels to get 5gpm.

Roper

Goodonya! Feels great, doesn't it? I just recently dug a 300-foot ditch and laid PVC to our well -- was badly rusted steel pipe before. We also have two cisterns -- 4000 gallons total. After the piping, I got a 12V pump and 5W solar trickle charger, deep-cycle battery and plumbed in the whole thing with a semi-rediculous amount of valves, such that we can now draw off off the well or cisterns with either AC or DC. I find I'm using the DC pump a lot more, especially for watering the garden with the well. That grunFOS unit you set up...... sweeeeeet. Very nice, and pretty much necessary considering the depth of your well. We're fortunate that our water is only 5 feet below grade.

What's your next step? Maybe a few more solar panels, take the refridgerator off-line? I traded some coconuts and breadfruit for a severely used but very strong solar collector..... all metal except for the lexan cover. Heavy too. Now it is attached to the south-facing roof with cold water going in, and the very hot water going to a 50-gallon water vessel, which goes to the cold side of our water heater. Tempering valve on the output side so we don't burn our fool selve. ha

All this stuff will have paid for itself in 2 months, and keep on tickin'. Thanks for sharing your ideas and your set-up. If you've done any drawings of the system, I'd really be interested in seeing them, the connections, etc.

Cheers

[edit to change grundig to grunfos. Grundig is the wind-up radio, ya mook]

[edit on 26-6-2008 by argentus]

[edit on 26-6-2008 by argentus]

Originally posted by Roper
What's the gpm?

One. If we have direct really good sun, might get 1-3/4 gpm. But the well only produces about 1 gpm or less. The thing is - it fills both of those tanks. They're both full right now. So, in the house here, we never see anything but a nice steady flow coming out of the tanks. And living in the desert for years now, we are VERY conservative with water, so it's not a problem.

It would take a lot of panels to get 5gpm.

True.

reply to post by argentus


That sounds great! We don't have any drawings as we didn't do it. My husband might know how it's set up.

We don't have next plans. We're pretty set, really. We have gardens and property here so we're planning on staying here. The water was really the last major thing. If the grid goes down, we'll shut the house down to 2 rooms and use the fireplace to warm and cook. Plus we have LOTS of charcoal, propane and and a couple of BBQs and a whole crapload of wood. Lots of other preparations.

It would propably be smart to invest in some other form of energy to pump water just incase.

Now the solarpanelle thing was a very good investment.

But I would also suggest an alternate form of getting the water up if indeed the SHTF incase the solarpanelle ever breaks beyond repair.

Well just my 2 cents

Good to see people are actively preparing for x-day - better safe than sorry

S n' F for a smart peice of off-grid infrastructure...

well , whether Benevolent Heretic is preping for sitX it was a great move and i applaud the system implemented . and a because that is how it makes me feel .
keep up the good ,,, no ,,, excellent work Benevolent Heretic your a true American .

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Sorry I did not get back to you sooner, great I am going to have to look into it as well. How much did it cost? Actually I will go through the thread for several more questions I have on this...
Can we move in with you?

Edit to tell you that I am very proud of the intelligent steps you have taken!

[edit on 27-6-2008 by antar]