[Wavertree Red]

Hello,

I'm looking at putting together a solar powered rain water barrel pump for use mainly with a garden hose.  Has anyone got experience in these matters as I have very limited electrical experience? I'm aware that RainPerfect sell a standalone kit around the £90 mark.  I've read reviews and seen demonstrations for it and I'm not impressed.  It give out only 13psi.

Thinking of getting a ShurFlo, 30psi 12v caravan pump, a 10-20w solar panel and a car/leisure or universal 12v battery.  I can do this for around the same price or less than the RainPerfect kit.

Would this work? Do a need a regulator?

Any suggestions welcome. Thank you.

[jrko]

Mine uses a bilge pump (£8), car battery and 2 small solar panels

As long as you don't expect miracles re water pressure it gets the job done

[Trillium]

We have 2 of THIS one and find they work well. Had to fiddle with a bit of wiring that wasn't done right in China, but nothing difficult.

The stake fits into the solar collector which needs a full day to initially charge, then it hooks up to the actual pump, which comes with a barrel hose & siphon. You push the yellow button and it pumps. Nothing super fast but it's easy to control rather than waste water. But if you kink the hose, it blows off the barrel hose so there is some good pressure. The other night when my plants were very dry, we ended up using both pumps and emptied two 55 gallon barrels. The flow was steady and I'm quite pleased that it works so well on just solar. What you see, other than the hose and jet siphon, is all you need with this model. When not in use, we just leave them on lawn chairs in the sun, otherwise the silly dog trips over them.

[Oliver Wendell Douglas]

I have just installed pretty much EXACTLY what you have planned, ie shurflo 30psi pump, 20w solar panel, car battery,  and IT WORKS!!.
If you go for a 20w panel, you will need a regulator, otherwise it will overcharge and kill the battery, but you dont need one for a 10w panel.
Make sure you have a filter on the suction side of the pump, it is amazing the amount of crud that collects in the tank!
I will post some pictures this weekend so you can see how I did it.

Jon

[Wavertree Red]

Thanks for the feedback folks.

Excellent Jon.  How was the pressure overall?  Any chance you could upload a short video please?  Any issues getting a full charge?  How long did you get from a full charge? Questions questions questions :-).

[Oliver Wendell Douglas]

Hi, sorry for the delay in replying, I had trouble uploading to photobucket, anyway your questions:
1, pressure, the Shurflo pump is a 30psi unit, which is just about adequate for a pulsating sprinkler, and plenty for a drip feed. Ideally it should be higher pressure (mains pressure is surprisingly high at around 50-60psi or more!), but the bigger pumps get very expensive.
2, Charging, a 10w panel will supply a trickle charge for an average car battery (70-80ah), but a 20w panel will charge it quicker, which means you can use the pump longer, however you do need a charge controller for anything bigger than a 10w panel, these are not to dear, mine was about £6 off the auction site.
I originally bought a 20w panel (also off the action place) for £26, but due to some supply cock-up, I ended up with a 50w one for the same price!
Anyway, some pics
Two IBC tanks, one fed from the shed roof, the other from the greenhouse

The pipe with the blue ends joins both tanks to balance the levels, the yellow ended pipe is the feed to the pump

The pump etc. The green and yellow wires are the feed from the solar panel (I know they are the wrong colour, but that's all I had!) to the regulator on the wall. You can also just see the suction filter on the pump.
The outlet from the pump (the vertical hose) goes here:
This give me the r/h timer for the greenhouse drip feed, the l/h timer for the outside sprinklers (this one has a rain sensor attatched), and a manual feed for anything else.
I even have colour-coded outlets! (yellow - greenhouse, blue - outside, orange - Manual)
Finally, the panel on the shed roof, the frame just hooks over the ridge, no screws to puncture the felt!
Hope this helps,
Jon

[Wavertree Red]

Jon thats precisely the set-up I'm looking for. I was going to mount the pump in a box outside the shed but thinking on prefer the way you've done it. I also agree with equalising the barrels by piping them at bottom, just got to avoid air in the system.

Thanks very much for your pics and advice, appreciated.  Let you know how I get on.

Ste

[paulsol]

look at my system...pVDVQA6IBdU

[jrko]

Hey Paulsol, you're cheating - using an entire industrial units roof to collect rainwater   

I've only got my shed roof 

Nice!

[Amilo]

Hello,

I'm looking at putting together a solar powered rain water barrel pump for use mainly with a garden hose.  Has anyone got experience in these matters as I have very limited electrical experience? I'm aware that RainPerfect sell a standalone kit around the £90 mark.  I've read reviews and seen demonstrations for it and I'm not impressed.  It give out only 13psi.

Thinking of getting a ShurFlo, 30psi 12v caravan pump, a 10-20w solar panel and a car/leisure or universal 12v battery.  I can do this for around the same price or less than the RainPerfect kit.

Would this work? Do a need a regulator?

Any suggestions welcome. Thank you.

This pump is similar to the one I have in my motor home, it takes about 10 amps to run it, A car size battery (about 60 APH) will give you about 30 APH before the voltage starts to drop too far. A 20 watt panel  will give you about 14 watts if its tilted up to the sun, but not for the whole day due to the changing angle, so 14 watts at 12 volt gives you 1.3 amps for about 5 hours a day if its a sunny blue day, that's a charge of about 6>7 amps a day.

If you run the pump for 1/2 an hour it will take 2 good days to recharge the battery.

All this is rough estimations as the variable in use and conditions are great.

PS my motor home has 300 amp in battery's and 200 watts in panels and we still run out of power if we get 3 Gray days in Spain

[jrko]

The 30psi shurflo tops out at 4.5amps so with a 50w panel I'll be golden!

[Amilo]

There is even a model that is rated at 2.5 amp/30 PSI  but it wont get over a 5 bar gate!! at least not with any volume that will be effective for watering use