Magnum 4024PAE and 1hp well pump - bit the bullet

Well, I have bit the bullet and ordered a Magnum 4024 PAE inverter in the hopes it will start our 1 hp well pump -3 wire single phase.

I'm NOT getting rid of the well pump because we get 42 GPM from it and want that for irrigating if we have to grow all our own food. Yes, I'm a bit of a prepper. And that why we're going to 24v rather than 48v. If a battery bites the dust I'll still have a battery bank, just smaller. Most of our loads are under 500 watts combined anyway.

We already have a Magnum 2012, and I have found their techs to be wonderful, especially Glenn, always gracious when I call to ask him about stuff like this. American company, American people - can't be beat!

We pump into a 3000 gallon tank, so it will only have to turn on once a day, or as little as one every 10 days in the winter, I turn it on manually after starting a generator right now. It's the gennie and fuel that I want to be independent of.

We are upgrading the 800 watts solar to about 2200 watts, and the battery bank will double to 790 amps/24 v. Hoping that with the batteries at 90% or more and the sun giving us it's best around 10-11 am that we can start the pump. Running it (2000 watts) will not be a problem, just the startup.

The problem is in the locked rotor amps. For our pump it's 41.8 amps. The pump motor (Franklin) technical dept assures me that this amperage is at the start and lasts about 300 milliseconds but they cannot tell me how fast it falls off from 0 to 300 msec. The Magnum max amps is 70 at 1 msec and 40 at 100 msec. The Magnum techs say the 40 amps max at 100 msec is very accurate.

So there's that mystery 2 msec where I don't know if the pump will get down to 40 amps or not....only trying it will tell me.

There are soft start possibilities, but the only two that I know the pump companies will recommend for my pump cost $700 plus. We decided if that's what it takes we will get that too, but they are constant speed controls as well as soft start, so we will be paying for stuff we don't even need. We may even wire them just to start the pump and then turn off, allowing the normal full 240 volts through. Perhaps just a break/make switch.

Anyway, I put this out here for those in the future who wonder about the Magnum 240v inverter and a 1 hp pump. I will update how it works when we get it all up and running.