water pumping advice needed

Re: water pumping advice needed

Solar equipment and new pumps are expensive, water tanks are cheap Couldn't you install bigger tanks and just keep it full for when the grid goes down?
To install an expensive solar powered system just for the special cases when the grid goes down could be a poor use of resources.

A few questions:
- How much water do you use per day?
- How long does the longest power cut last?
- How often are the power cuts?
- Is running out of fuel for generators really a problem?

Re: water pumping advice needed

Seeing as though it's general electrical supply you're concerned about, you could consider starting to build a complete solar system that would feed the pump and also other devices you might want to power in case of a grid outage. To go this route you could use:
- 3 phase water pump
- variable frequency drive that converts 110VAC single phase into 230VAC three phase (about 200 bucks). The VFD also allows you to start the pump up slowly so that there's no starting surge. It'll also let you select its speed, so you could buy a 1HP pump and then choose to run it at only 0.5HP, whatever suits.

The rest of the equipment would be standard off-grid solar kit:
- PV panels
- Charge controller
- Batteries
- 110VAC inverter

Even if you didn't want to power any other devices, it would be interesting to compare the costs of the above system with the Grundfos kit.

Re: water pumping advice needed

40 gpm is a lot of water. Is that what you need, or what you can produce? How much water do you need on a daily, weekly or monthly basis? .4 gpm is one number with one set of solutions, 4 gpm is another, and 40 is yet another.

I agree with the suggestion, that unless you are REALLY concerned about the reliability of your grid, and or the availability of fuel in the long run, a larger storage tank system would be way cheaper. If you are worried about Armageddon then designing a complete system might be in order.

Personally, my feeling is grids are pretty reliable, fuel will continue to be available for emergency generators (albiet with increasing expense!) so the doomsday scenario is pretty unlikely,


Tony

Re: water pumping advice needed

c-cap wrote: »

I have a rural well that supplies a 3 br home, a shop, and water for 20 head of cattle. It is a 1 hp, 230vac submersible in a 4" casing. Depth of pump is 140 ft. Static water level is 48 ft. Yield is 40 gpm.
Here is what I want to do. Be able to pump water even if the grid goes down and I run out of fuel for my backup generators.
I have bought a 3000 gallon water tank. My plan is to replace my pump with a solar pump to keep the water tank full and use a pressure booster pump to pressurize the plumbing downstream of the big tank. Thinking Grundfoss because of the wide voltage capability. Question are:
1. Is there a better way to do what I want?
2. Can anyone suggest specific equipment? I would like to be able to install it myself.
Thanks for any help y'all can give.

c-cap: Any chance you can get some elevation on the tank(s) to help you out ?

We have gravity fed spring system in our house.....3000 gallons of storage as well, and the spring output varies from all a 3/4" pipe will handle ( rest simply overflows into creek bed ) down to as little as a quart/minute ( I've measured it ) in the driest parts of the year ( usually Sept/Oct here ). Tanks are located about 60' above the house, and that gives us 25-30psi....not 'great' pressure, but enough. I ran a 1" line to help with some more volume.

I had a well drilled couple years ago as a backup, but if we pump it hard, it muddies up and never been able to clear it.....taking water off slow, stays clear. My plan is to build another storage tank facility, then install a SQ pump on a couple of panels, and just let it pump anytime the sun shine.....I'll put a float switch on the tank so when full, it shuts the pump down.....then gravity will feed the tank water to the house, garden, cows as needed. Our well is 220', static level of the water is 50', and it will produce plenty of water, just gets muddy after the static level drops about 30'....my guess is the incoming water is running over a vein of mud and that washes into the well, messing up the rest of the water.....but I can shut the out put down to a gallon/minute, and never get's muddy. SO, I figure a Gundfos pump at about 1/2gal/min would be the ticket.