Post-Irma Caribbean Small Solar System

Indeed Sir, even with such good intentions, you really must know exactly what pump you are designing your system to run.  And most standard well pumps will pull at least twice if not three times their rated capacity at startup.... for at least a couple seconds.  And your batteries MUST be able to supply full power / amperage required by the surge, or the pump will not start - but rather it will stall, and overload the system.  You have to know the details to really make it work.  Finding a certain well / pump for which you can get details would be a start.

If you contact anyone who is in a position to pull and replace a well pump, than you might look into the Grundfos SQFlex series of pumps, such as the 11SQF2 (down to 300 feet deep)...  these pumps can run directly from solar panels and will deliver water all day while the sun is shining, in proportion to the amount of power they are given.  They have a huge range of voltage they will accept (30 - 300 vDC OR about 50 - 250vAC).  They are super smart and will last a long time so long as they are protected from sand / grit.  Also, they're about $2400... so not cheap but again, can be connected directly to solar panel (anywhere from 100 watts to 1400 watts @ >30v) OR run from a generator of ANY standard output / frequency.  I have one and it's amazing.

Best Wishes and Luck to those in the path of nature's wrath...

Hey @SolarCaribbean

Can you clarify - you said these people have Cisterns as water catchment.  And the pumps come on for mere seconds 5 times per hour?

Does this mean that the Cisterns are serving the purpose of a "holding tank"?  How many gallons do they hold?

What is the function of these 1/3 or 1/2 horse pumps???  Are they deep well pumps?  OR are they actually pressure pumps driving pressure from the Cistern???  If so, are there pressure tanks involved?

This is important for us to clearly understand what you're dealing with.  Just how are these systems working?  How are the Cisterns being filled???

It's important because, as was mentioned earlier by Mike, deep well pumps can have a very high surge - and this may be due in part to the fact that most of them are starting under a load (water held above by check valves = pressure against the pump when starting).  Shallow pumps on the other hand, like a jet pump, or something that simply drives pressure from a holding tank, will have a surge much more like you described - like 2x the running watts.  I have a 1HP swimming pool pump - and the running amps is almost 20 amps @120v, but the startup surge is closer to 30 amps... so that's an example.  It has nothing to push against until it draws water from the pool.

Still, Surging 5x per hour, as you indicated, would be hard on any inverter.  The thing is, you want an inverter that is designed for heavy motor loads.  The inverter itself will be heavy.  I have a 1500 watt Heart Inverter... it's HEAVY (like 45 lbs or something) because it has a relatively massive transformer in it.  You need that.  It can start my 1.5HP Table Saw IFFFF there's enough battery power behind it.  That's the critical point.  And you have to maintain that battery at FULL for it to keep providing that surge power.  If the battery is not kept full, then it will not supply the amps necessary for the surge (it's voltage sill sag too low), and the motor will not reach running speed (therefore stuck in Surge, or Stalled) and so the Inverter will be stuck supplying the Surge current (with not-enough voltage) until it overheats and shuts down or melts down and dies.

I don't know about the inverter you listed.  But you can tell something about an inverter by it's weight (check "shipping weight").  Some 2000W inverters only weigh 5 or 10 lbs.  They will not last - they will melt down.  You want one that weights 50 lbs.

Also, to go with your calculation of 1400 watt hours per day, you need BOTH to recover that energy AND Float the batteries.  One 300 watt solar panel can reliably produce about 200 watts for 6 hours on a sunny day - assuming it's placed in a sunny location and facing the sun.  That's only 1200 wHrs per day.  YET LA batteries are only about 50% efficient, so keeping them charged up will require twice the energy than what is pulled from them.

So realistically, you should be recovering about 3kWhrs per day to run those pumps for 1400wHrs per day and keep your batteries charged up.

To do that, you need 3000/6 = 500w of panels x 1.5 (efficiency losses) = about 750 or 800 watts of panels.

So:

A 1500 or 2000 watt inverter weight about 50 lbs designed for inductive motor loads (Sinewave probably but that's secondary to the weight)

Your batteries looked good but something you need to understand: YOU said 6v 220Ah x2 = 12v 440 Ah. Wrong.  Unless you meant x4.  Because when you run batteries in series you add the volts, but the amps remain the same.  When you run batteries in parallel the amps add together, but the volts remain the same.  You get one or the other but not both.  Therefore 6v 220Ah (x2) = 12v 220Ah.

This may be enough battery battery to start those motors, but it will be hard on them doing it 5x per hour.  Four of these batteries would be better.

Thus:

 (2 or 4x golf carts 6v each wired series / parallel for 12v or all series (if you get 4) for 24v with 2/0 welding cable and appropriate connectors, crimp or screw, and completely coated with vaseline (entire connection and post) or other protective to resist corrosion which WILL happen if you do not protect the connections at the batteries - although this is actually much less of a problem with gels than it is with flooded LA's - but eventually it will happen)
800 watts of solar panels
an Mppt Charge Controller of good quality like Outback, Morning Star, Midnight etc.  I don't know about Schneider I don't trust them..

Your system would operate better if it was a 24v system rather than 12 volt, because volts x amps = watts, and therefore to get the same watts from a 24v system you can cut the amps in half, and AMPS are what produce heat, and heat is what kills inverters and cables.

Cheers!
-Ocean