Water Pressure Pump

BB.

I do not really understand your loads yet... The RV pump, you can get in both 12 and 24 volt models. Your UV (or other) water treatment is still unknown to me. It is possible that you can use a smaller water treatment system if you want the shower uses untreated water and just use treated water for drinking/cooling/washing hands.

I assume there are various sizes and input voltage systems available--I know very little about what is available and what your water source is (well, river, lake, will there be a cistern for storage, etc.). UV, Ozone, Or Chlorine all have their issues.

A 12 volt @ 450 AH battery bank would, long term operational reliability, support a maximum AC inverter of ~1.13 kWatts (using our flooded cell lead acid battery bank).

Remember that a system designed to supply (for example) 5 hours a day, 2 days storage, 50% maximum discharge is capable of:

• 450 AH / (5 hours * 2 nights * 1/0.50 max discharge==a 20 hour load) = 22.5 amps load
• 22.5 amps * 12 volts * 0.85 ac inverter eff) = 270 Watt average load (5 hours per night, 2 nights storage)
  

So, yes, you can support a larger AC inverter for peak loads (running some hand tools, blender, etc.)--But you cannot run a 1,000 Watt inverter at rated long very long (maybe two hours total).

And if you have a load that runs 24 hours per day (possibly a UV light system):

• 450 AH / 48 hours of stored energy = 4.69 amp average load
• 4.69 amps * 12 volts = 56 watt loads 24 hour per day (battery storage for 2 days)

No pumping/other loads.

Also AC inverters consume power just being "turned on". A small 300 Watt inverter pulls around 6 watts. A large inverter (1-2 kW) may draw 10-20 watts or more). The MorningStar I suggested has a "sleep mode" (will not turn on unless there is >6 watt load) and a remote on/off switch (small "light switch or timer" to only run the inverter when needed). That can help save power too.

In general, I always high suggest conservation and understanding your power needs. Off grid solar power can make life much nicer--But it comes at a cost of building and maintaining the system.

And if you have other folks "running/monitoring" the system, they may not be a diligent about managing the loads/power usage--You could end up with a dead battery bank (lead acid batteries do not like being taken dead).

-Bill

rp3703

You wouldn't happen to be as knowledgable in UV water treatment systems as you are about solar power systems? I have plenty of questions regarding that subject as well if you're up for it.

Dave Angelini

The smart sensor pump is a bad choice! The store here stopped selling them. Many never made the warranty. POS.

Look at the other Shureflo pumps at the store here. Much better and cheaper. They are in the expendable range but can be rebuilt.

  It is too bad as that was a nice area of pumping that this pump covered. I had a client who said the pump was designed when it leaked to flood the motor and run it long enough to perfectly destroy everything. It consumed itself  Look at some of the amazon reviews....  

 I thought they stopped making it, but when they were sold the new owner probably revived it. The Dankoffs are pricey but rebuildable for life.

jonr

Be careful with UV - it needs contact time and very clear water (RO is fine, others maybe).  Even then, has no residual effect (ie, you could have a thriving culture down stream of it).

I know several people who had water treatment systems that "seemed to be OK".  They eventually got sick and upgraded.

rp3703

We drank water from the lake at our place in Canada that a neighbor treated using one of these http://www.aqua-sun-intl.com/stationary-systems.html last year and it was fine. I would like to get a similar system system but use our own solar power and pump to run it. Eliminating those items leaves only the two filters and the UV.  

BB.

RP,

I am able to bluff a bit--But I don't know what is out there and the best for "your" situation.

Please feel free to ask the question(s) here on the forum. Either in this thread, or a second thread dedicated to water treatment (to keep this thread from wondering too much). Your choice.

I would love to read about other folks experiences too. Always an interesting subject to me.

-Bill

mike95490

The suresine 300 has a 600w surge for 10 minutes rating.  But you have to let it cool back down for a bit after that,  But a brief 500w usage for a couple minutes is well within it's capability.

Estragon

You were looking at the best way to charge phone batteries and maybe a few LED lights. The 300w morningstar would do nicely for that. It has low self-consumption for small loads, a search mode, pure sign wave (compatible with electronics etc that likes "clean" power) and can be turned on-off remotely with a simple toggle switch.

Mine will even run 5 small circulation pumps and on-demand propane water heater used in my hydronic floor heating.

A 600w inverter would also work fine on a 450ah bank, if you think you'll be running loads that need it. Bigger inverters tend to use more power just being on though. Do you have a particular model in mind?

rp3703

I would like to thank all who helped me with the design of my solar setup on this thread. I put everything together this July at our place in Canada and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately the solar setup was overshadowed this year by us having to install a new metal roof on our cabin, so I was not able to permanently install everything. Instead, I had to build a temporary frame out of 2x4’s which I mounted 4 of my 6 panels to, so that we would have enough power to get us through with cell phone charging and other battery charging duties. We did run a vacuum cleaner a couple of times on it though. Almost every day, we hit float at about an hour or two after sunrise. I am very pleased with the outcome. At the end of our stay, I took everything apart and left the eight 6V batteries tied together in four 12V pairs and hooked them up to four Coleman solar charger panels. I’m hoping they will still be fine by the time we return next year.

BB.

RP, happy to hear everything worked out for you.

One caveat (may be too late now)--The batteries should be put away fully charged before storing/float charging for best life. And solar panels are generally mounted on a wall/vertical surface to shed snow (if that is an issue). Once the batteries are cold (maybe even sub freezing), they will have a very low self discharge and even it the array(s) are drifted over, there is usually no issue for the winter.

-Bill

rp3703

Thanks Bill, The batteries were fully charged before we set them up with the trickle chargers which are hanging inside of a sliding glass door facing south. The real solar panels were stored inside the house since they were not being used. I plan to build a pivoting roof mount next year so that they can lay flat on the 10 degree pitch roof while we are there in the summer and then we can pivot them to 45 degrees when we leave for the winter.  We may also bring up four more batteries since next year we will be switching over to an electric fridge, washing machine as well as a submersible pump for water pressure. It's nice to have a system that's scaleable.