Water Well Advice ? A/C or Solar ?

[Valveman]

You really need a diaphragm pump or helical shaft type pump like the RPS in the above link to make it work at any RPM the sun will give it. The problem with diaphragm type pumps is they need a new diaphragm as often as you need to oil or work on a windmill. In the 60's they had a helical shaft submersible we called the Peerless Wiggle tail. Lol! The problem with the helical shaft is its hard to balance and hold with a bearing. So, it knocks the bearing out in the top of the motor often. You can get solar pumps with regular centrifugal impellers that will last a long time. The problem with those is centrifugal impellers need a fairly high minimum RPM to work at all, which limits low producing solar hours. Dealing with gophers and 30 bucks a month for a meter is worth it. Even with heavy use making your own electricity won't pay off, but I am afraid it is fast becoming more dependable than the grid.

 

[Spike56]

I don't quite understand the purpose of the fracking well. Was it just as a source of local water, I.e. not an injection well? Before you get too far into this, you might want to have the water analyzed, both for trace metals, and for organics(hydrocarbons), plus I would highly recommend testing for organic fluorine compounds to make sure nobody put PFAS type chemicals down the well for any reason.

If you want to go the solar route, I would suggest getting a solar submersible well pump like @34Willys. They are designed to operate on variable amounts of sunlight for maximum efficiency. I would buy quality solar panels for durability. If it turns out that you don't get enough sun in the winter time, you can add more panels. If it were me, I would have the well pump feed a storage tank for a week or so of usage, so a week of bad weather wouldn't be an issue. I think that it is much lower maintenance to store water than to store power.

All the best,

Peter

The fracking well was a little mis-leading. They gulped the water from my 2 acre pond to frack a nearby well. The 6" water well was drilled to refill the pond water - which I insisted on them doing. At the time, around here the Oil Companies were spending LOTS of $$. They agreed really quick because my pond was the only possible place to get enough water for fracking - which needs a lot of water real fast... too fast for a ground pump.
Agree about the storage tank. That is on my list.

 

[Spike56]

Like a few million other properties, mine has a 230VAC well pump. The NorCal power utility, PG&E, has gone down several times a year for as long as two weeks at a time. Have to run a 5.5KW gen (on propane) to get household water pressure. A real Hassle! I have been putting together a whole-house battery back-up solar system, but haven't finished it yet. So far, for about $12K, I will have 4.2KW solar panel array, and two inverters, making 230VAC. That will provide whole house power, including the well. I looked into using a 48VDC Solar well pump. They make solar pump controllers that don't need battery back-up. There are limits to depth and flow rate at a given pressure at the top of the line when filling a tank, or at household pressure. I now have two 24VDC submersibles that are supposed to pump up to about 75 feet of head at a minimal flow rate. Use one in the pond for irrigation on the veggie field, about 5 feet of head height. This install is 2 -235W solar panels and two group 31 AGM batteries, in case there are too many days with cloud cover. I'd say it's adequate for a small veggie field, say 1/8 acre, using drip tape for a time, and sprinklers on different timers to keep the coverage pattern up. I don't think it would adequately irrigate 1/4 acre in high summer heat.

Agree. I am not irrigating anything. So I really do not need a lot of volume.

 

[Doofy]

With a Brumby pump all you need to run is an air line to power the pump. No moving parts to wear out either.

 

[Spike56]

150 ft to provide AC power is your least costly route in my opinion.
If U don't wish to bury deep U can always run the AC inside of cheap PVC piping for protection.

Yes, I think that is the cheapest and probably the "best" for all situations and can have lights, heater.... etc.

 

[Tinhack]

So far, for about $12K, I will have 4.2KW solar panel array, and two inverters, making 230VAC. That will provide whole house power, including the well.

That wouldn't even run the house air conditioner in this part of the country. It was 105 in the shade here today.

 

[JasperFrank]

I ran a solar powered diagram pump for 8 years with a 170 foot lift to a 250 gallon storage tank that was on a high point of the property for later gravity flow. These pumps typically will run at 12 and 24 Volts. I never replaced the diaphragm in those 8 years. In my case it didn't matter. The bearings wore out, not the diaphragm or the valves. This poor thing was wasted after 8 years. The pump I had was spendy, an closely related to this one - but an earlier model. I leave the link here just for reference.

Shurflo 9300 Submersible Solar Water Well Pump 12 - 24V Model # 9325-043-101

Shurflo 9300 Submersible Solar Water Well Pump, 12/24 Volt, Model # 9325-043-101 Use this lightweight submersible water well pump for livestock, irrigation, or remote home application with low...

thesolarstore.com

There are plenty of 12/24 DC diaphragm type well pumps now that are much, much less expensive. Yet, I can't speak for those as I used the expensive Shureflo one.

I used 6, 12 volt, used panels, set up for 24 volt. There is a huge difference between 12V and 24V if you have the panels to pull that off as to flow rate. 12v was 1.5 Gal/Min, 24 volt was 3.5, GPM. Right now you can get used panels pretty darn cheap. In my area used 12 volt PVs are about $25 to $50 each if they are non- Underlabs certified. Which is entirely oky for a stand alone well pump system. I never got any float switch to work more than a month. So I rigged up a manual switch and could just visually see if the tank was filled or not. I eventually sold those panels and the home made panel frame, wiring and the Poly tubing for about what I payed for the original system, less the spendy, total loss, Shurflo pump which in 1994, cost me $400. I have only a thin idea how many gallons this system generated in 8 years, but it must have been about 60,000 or so gallons. Which works out to 1/2 a cent per gallon.

 

[Valveman]

I ran a solar powered diagram pump for 8 years with a 170 foot lift to a 250 gallon storage tank that was on a high point of the property for later gravity flow. These pumps typically will run at 12 and 24 Volts. I never replaced the diaphragm in those 8 years. In my case it didn't matter. The bearings wore out, not the diaphragm or the valves. This poor thing was wasted after 8 years. The pump I had was spendy, an closely related to this one - but an earlier model. I leave the link here just for reference.

Shurflo 9300 Submersible Solar Water Well Pump 12 - 24V Model # 9325-043-101

Shurflo 9300 Submersible Solar Water Well Pump, 12/24 Volt, Model # 9325-043-101 Use this lightweight submersible water well pump for livestock, irrigation, or remote home application with low...

thesolarstore.com

There are plenty of 12/24 DC diaphragm type well pumps now that are much, much less expensive. Yet, I can't speak for those as I used the expensive Shureflo one.

I used 6, 12 volt, used panels, set up for 24 volt. There is a huge difference between 12V and 24V if you have the panels to pull that off as to flow rate. 12v was 1.5 Gal/Min, 24 volt was 3.5, GPM. Right now you can get used panels pretty darn cheap. In my area used 12 volt PVs are about $25 to $50 each if they are non- Underlabs certified. Which is entirely oky for a stand alone well pump system. I never got any float switch to work more than a month. So I rigged up a manual switch and could just visually see if the tank was filled or not. I eventually sold those panels and the home made panel frame, wiring and the Poly tubing for about what I payed for the original system, less the spendy, total loss, Shurflo pump which in 1994, cost me $400. I have only a thin idea how many gallons this system generated in 8 years, but it must have been about 60,000 or so gallons. Which works out to 1/2 a cent per gallon.

3.5 GPM for 8 hours a day should be about 900,000 gallons a year? Why you say only 60K gallons? Just trying to figure out how much use the pump got in 8 years?

 

[JasperFrank]

I would say the pump got an honest 60,000 gallons. It probably got more like 80,000 now that I have to remember better. We were living in His and Her trailers, as I was building the house, with out utilities at first, and using about 50 gallons a day for two people over 8 years. Domestic water was, bought at municipal water outlets and put in big containers and used sparingly. Laundry done at laundromats. We took very short showers. Dishes, cleaned by hand as efficiently as possible.
The OP asked for experiences. There is no way any solar pump in going to give near a million gallons without the bother of replacement every five years so.

The OP is, I think, asking about a remote situation. Does he put in the Mains Line at great expense or create a less expensive stand alone solar system for Ag water? And if he does, and has gravel up take he's going to have to replace that mains feed pump anyway every five years.

In my world, it penciled out that the solar option, and solar powered pump to a storage tank, is a valid way to do this.

 

[Valveman]

I would say the pump got an honest 60,000 gallons. It probably got more like 80,000 now that I have to remember better. We were living in His and Her trailers, as I was building the house, with out utilities at first, and using about 50 gallons a day for two people over 8 years. Domestic water was, bought at municipal water outlets and put in big containers and used sparingly. Laundry done at laundromats. We took very short showers. Dishes, cleaned by hand as efficiently as possible.
The OP asked for experiences. There is no way any solar pump in going to give near a million gallons without the bother of replacement every five years so.

The OP is, I think, asking about a remote situation. Does he put in the Mains Line at great expense or create a less expensive stand alone solar system for Ag water? And if he does, and has gravel up take he's going to have to replace that mains feed pump anyway every five years.

In my world, it penciled out that the solar option, and solar powered pump to a storage tank, is a valid way to do this.

OK thanks. 80,000 gallons at 3.5 GPM is only 380 hours or 15 full days of service over 8 years or 2,920 days. With such a lightly used well it makes sense. I have one I am thinking about trying with batteries (instead of storage) that uses about that same amount of water. I started out trying to do solar on another little 1/2HP well I have that runs 24/7. Quotes from 30K to 55K.