Surface Well Pump Solar Powered

[chenposeb]

Hi,

I'm in need of a solar powered surface water pump that doesn't cost too much.
To cut a long story short I have just had a well dug (one of the guys with a truck and a few pipes on the back) apparently 34 metres deep. I didn't have the time to count the tubes as he was done in a few hours and had it all finished, I did have someone else watching the work though, they just didn't think to count the tubes. If I had known the well was being dug, I probably would have been there.

Most important is to pump water up about 3m from where the pump will be and about 25m away (this is my storage tank) if anyone could recommend a pump that might also be able to double up as a watering system that would be even better.

Thanks.

[Lantern]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

[JohnG]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

$500 for a float switch!!! That's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

What I know about solar power could fit on the back of a very small postage stamp,
but maybe you could use a 24v marine pump with a solar panel?

Can't quite follow what you're after (sorry if I'm a bit slow!) - normally your bore pump pumps the water from your well to your storage tank, with a float switch to turn it on and off. What does this other 'surface water pump' have to do?

[ENT]

^ Excellent idea, I used similar tricks.

[Pragmatic]

34 metres deep. I didn't have the time to count the tubes as he was done in a few hours

34m in a few hours? Guy near to me had that depth done the other day and it took 2.5 days equating to about 20+ hours of drilling.

[chenposeb]

The first guys came and did a 60m one in about 2-3 days, but it's all salt water. The same guys did my in laws for twice the price, half the length (about 25m actually) and took about a week.
These other guys came at 7am charged 25% of what our first drillers charged and were done by 3.30pm, no real breaks so I reckon it was the real deal. Only actually saw them pulling up about 15m of pipe though, but the FIL was on guard said they did about 30m worth at least.

[chenposeb]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

$500 for a float switch!!! That's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

What I know about solar power could fit on the back of a very small postage stamp,
but maybe you could use a 24v marine pump with a solar panel?

Can't quite follow what you're after (sorry if I'm a bit slow!) - normally your bore pump pumps the water from your well to your storage tank, with a float switch to turn it on and off. What does this other 'surface water pump' have to do?

As I don't have an electricity source on my land other than a cable plugged into my ILs house and draped more than 500m over other peoples rice fields, I need a solar option. I have no pump, just a hole and a tube at the moment

I recently bought a tank which holds 2k litres for storing water. The pump really only needs to fill the tank. If there were cheapish ones which worked to not only fill the tank but also help water the rest of the farm that would be great. Although the tank is my priority, I also have 3 ponds which are slowly drying out, but still work for now.

Anything else I can say to help, I am also clueless about most of this and was looking for some advice from anyone who might be doing a similar thing, or know someone who is.

The Marine Pump thing might work, do you think it could suck up 34m then uphill to the storage tank?
Thanks

[chenposeb]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

thanks, just too expensive at the moment.

[Pragmatic]

[rickschoppers]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

$500 for a float switch!!! That's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

What I know about solar power could fit on the back of a very small postage stamp,
but maybe you could use a 24v marine pump with a solar panel?

Can't quite follow what you're after (sorry if I'm a bit slow!) - normally your bore pump pumps the water from your well to your storage tank, with a float switch to turn it on and off. What does this other 'surface water pump' have to do?

As I don't have an electricity source on my land other than a cable plugged into my ILs house and draped more than 500m over other peoples rice fields, I need a solar option. I have now pump, just a hole and a tube at the moment

I recently bought a tank which holds 2k litres for storing water. The pump really only needs to fill the tank. If there were cheapish ones which worked to not only fill the tank but also help water the rest of the farm that would be great. Although the tank is my priority, I also have 3 ponds which are slowly drying out, but still work for now.

Anything else I can say to help, I am also clueless about most of this and was looking for some advice from anyone who might be doing a similar thing, or know someone who is.

The Marine Pump thing might work, do you think it could suck up 34m then uphill to the storage tank?
Thanks

The Thais drape lines longer than 500 meters all the time. Seems that would be the best option and one the locals can help with. Solar would mess with their minds too much.

[chenposeb]

Shurflo 9325

Rainbow Power Company Solar Power Systems

Quite a few Baht when you add the solar panels

$500 for a float switch!!! That's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

What I know about solar power could fit on the back of a very small postage stamp,
but maybe you could use a 24v marine pump with a solar panel?

Can't quite follow what you're after (sorry if I'm a bit slow!) - normally your bore pump pumps the water from your well to your storage tank, with a float switch to turn it on and off. What does this other 'surface water pump' have to do?

As I don't have an electricity source on my land other than a cable plugged into my ILs house and draped more than 500m over other peoples rice fields, I need a solar option. I have now pump, just a hole and a tube at the moment

I recently bought a tank which holds 2k litres for storing water. The pump really only needs to fill the tank. If there were cheapish ones which worked to not only fill the tank but also help water the rest of the farm that would be great. Although the tank is my priority, I also have 3 ponds which are slowly drying out, but still work for now.

Anything else I can say to help, I am also clueless about most of this and was looking for some advice from anyone who might be doing a similar thing, or know someone who is.

The Marine Pump thing might work, do you think it could suck up 34m then uphill to the storage tank?
Thanks

The Thais drape lines longer than 500 meters all the time. Seems that would be the best option and one the locals can help with. Solar would mess with their minds too much.

I agree, but I am trying to get the solar in as there have been too many vehicles/people taking out the electricity. Especially the night time frog catchers.

[VocalNeal]

How long can it take to fill the tank and how often do you need to fill it?

How do you get to your land? Truck / motorbike ? Donkey? How often do you go there?

i think surface pumps only work to a maximum of about 10m so you'll need to know where the water is. Deeper than 10m you'll need a submersible or a Lucky star LSC 250 EA deep well pump.

[Begbie]

How about a wind powered pump?

[JohnG]

The Marine Pump thing might work, do you think it could suck up 34m then uphill to the storage tank?
Thanks

Not a chance - I was just thinking about water after the well!.

The pump @Lantern suggested, which is a bore pump and the sort of thing you need, has a max lift of 70m which would be OK but a max depth of 30m, so it depends how deep your water is.

How about a wind powered pump?

Good idea and I've had one where I used to live, but they're not cheap and unless you spend big bucks to get enough power if you have to pump from anything over 10 metres you need a fair amount of wind as the amount of water pumped isn't that much. I can't see that you'd ever get enough wind or get your money back on one hoping to use one to irrigate rice fields.

I think it's back to the 500m cable - cheaper than having a hundred thousand baht's worth of solar equipment stolen!

[crepitas]

Gas powered pump or a generator....?
Local guy growing veggies on what was a rubber farm uses a gas powered pump (dug a pond first)...well he did until some arsehole stole it (the pump not the pond) while he was at home eating lunch.TIT

[chenposeb]

thanks for the replies.
I have been looking at the tube a bit more and done a little more research.

I might be able to get a submersible in there, which is the good news. Then I have to think about how to push it uphill to the holding tank.

I am currently thinking about using a form of ram pump, which can apparently be effective from even a low pressure flow, to get the water into the tank. during the rain season, the tank also has the gutters off two of my cabins leading into it, so it's really just for using a few months of the year (I hope).

The submersible would bring the water up and the ram pump would fill the holding tank. I'm thinking if I can get a cheap submersible, ram pumps are cheap to build, so any theft shouldn't hit me too hard.

Currently I carry 5lt buckets of water out of my ponds and fill whatever I need to fill, so anything should be better than that I guess.

Will also look into wind powered as we have a good wind presence on the farm.

The land has access for vehicles but I'm trying to cut down on them as everyone seems to take it upon themselves to drive over areas I set aside for growing plants, thus compacting the ground. I go there mostly by foot or motorbike. We live there also, so we are there all the time.

[VocalNeal]

Ram pumps only work if you have a stream to power them. They use 80% of the water for energy and only 20% is pumped.

As you live there all the time I think I would get a 3 in. submersible or a deep well pump. Then buy a small 1000w generator (about 4500 baht) , which you run to fill up the 2000l tank. Have a look around local farm shops you might find a Kubota style single cylinder generator which will be more expensive but probably outlive me.

If you also charged up batteries while pumping you can have light at night!

Going solar sounds idyllic but to do it properly is not cheap.

Other choice put your FIL's 500m wire on some simple wooden posts.

Wind power. Look around. Do you see any? Then they probably don't work except to fill very remote cattle troughs.

Final thoughts? Now you have a well (water) and I hope a toilet on the property you can probably apply to PEA and they will come and run your 500m cable on proper concrete posts and install a meter.

[chenposeb]

I'm trying to make the property off-grid and as eco friendly as possible, but I was also thinking one of those generators from global or mega. You reckon the Kubota ones are a better option though? I know mega does them quite expensive but I don't want a chinese one dying on me after the first month, so might fork out the extra.
For emergencies I was going to buy a 5Kw one but maybe that's overkill?

We already have all our lighting on solar, gas for cooking, it's just the fridge and the pump that are on the grid now. I still need to research how other off-griders are doing the fridge thing in tropical climates (apparently a lot in Phillippines, South America and Africa)

I have 3 ponds during the rain season (1 at the moment but I'm digging the second biggest one deeper atm) was thinking that if the strength of the submersible pump wasn't big enough could create a small artificial stream with it that leads into my biggest pond, I still have to get round to aerating that anyway. The 80% waste might then just fill my pond.

During the rain season I would hope the gutters fill tank.

The PEA option might have to be my last port of call, but I really want to try to do it self-sufficiently if possible. We are hopefully getting a house number soon, so that might help with that.

[VocalNeal]

I think during the rainy season the gutters will fill more than one tank. Do you have one of those His Majesty's inspired cascading earthenware jar water filters for your water? gravel/sand/charcoal etc.

We already have all our lighting on solar, gas for cooking, it's just the fridge and the pump that are on the grid now. I still need to research how other off-griders are doing the fridge thing in tropical climates (apparently a lot in Phillippines, South America and Africa)

Then you'll need another 400W at least to power a pump. Small 12v inverters for cars/trucks are quite cheap if you have enough battery capacity. It all depend on how much energy is required for lifting the water and how long it takes. Don't forget most inverters are rated for resistive load not inductive load. If not labelled divide by two!

[ENT]

How about a wind powered pump?

Best idea yet!!

[ENT]

We already have all our lighting on solar, gas for cooking, it's just the fridge and the pump that are on the grid now. I still need to research how other off-griders are doing the fridge thing in tropical climates.

What about a gas or kerosene operated fridge?

I've owned a couple in the past and they work really well, cheap too, not like electric ones.

Windmill for the pump, is also cheap to maintain.

[Pragmatic]

How about a wind powered pump?

Best idea yet!!

Are you serious? I haven't seen one here.

[ENT]

[Pragmatic]

^ That Aussie narrator needs to find another job.

[JohnG]

Now you have a well (water) and I hope a toilet on the property you can probably apply to PEA and they will come and run your 500m cable on proper concrete posts and install a meter.

You can apply to PEA anytime and they'll be happy to come and put in the posts, cable and a meter - AS LONG AS YOU PAY FOR IT ALL!!!

You don't need a toilet for that - the toilet is to get a house book. The difference as far as PEA is concerned is that once you've got a house book your electricity gets charged at a lower rate (about half the 'temporary' rate).

We've recently been through all this with PEA: first getting the meter changed on the house we were renting, which had just been built so only had a temporary meter until the house book was issued, then getting electricity and a meter for the house we are building. Both very simple.