Ok scenario I have a 14 acre lake behind my house, 75-80 ft of lift need3d I have traditionally run a 2” gas engine to run sprinkler system( have a fimco one like a football field) i would love to go to an electric water pump and smaller sprinkler/sprinklers run more often. No electricity close to water Could i put up a few solar panels, an inverter and run this pump? What else would i need? Attached is the type of pump i want to run Thanks After this question have an oh crap question
Last edited by IA_fog; 07/03/22.
We might have to be neighbors, but I don’t have to be neighborly. John Chisum
I'd say it depends on what sort of pump you need, and how much power it will draw when it runs. Solar panels can be had that generate up to 130 watts. But that's at !:00 PM on a clear day. So, you would need a knowledgeable person to design your system. The company that designed and built mine had such people design the system that runs most of the systems in my house. I also have a battery storage system that allows me to store some of the power the panels generate for night use or in the event of a power outage. As a result, I pay only for the connection fee to the grid. That's because my system generates more power than I use for the year. The bottom line is, one, how much would it cost and two, what are your needs. E
The pump draws 1200 Watts. For simplicity, assume the inverter is 100% efficient. That's 100 amps input at 12 volts. So if you had a 300 amp hour battery setup, it would run the sprinklers for 3 hours. That battery will cost around $1000. For solar panels, I generally figure about $1.50 per watt. A 250 watt panel sounds roughly right. So, yes, it can be done. These numbers will sort of get you in the right ballpark. Plan on some heavy copper conductors.
Your average hours of sunlight per day is available online. Here in Utah, we average 5.5 hours per day. From the average hours per day, you can figure the Amp-Hours you need in a panel. You will also need to consider the consequences of days without sun. If the sun isn't shining, maybe it's raining, and you don't need the sprinklers for a while.
You might do better with a much smaller pump to store water in an elevated tank when the sun shines. I think your best choice is something like a 50 AH LiFePO4 battery that charges off the charging unit of a solar panel. The battery is mainly there to keep the voltage constant, to run the inverter. Instead of elevating the tank, you could go to a bladder and compressed air system close to the house and the 120 mains.