Solar powered, 12v water pump for small pool

[MaryB]

Don't be surprised of the panel voltage seems really high, open circuit no load voltage of a 12 volt panel will be up around 18 volts for example. Once loaded it will drop.

[abunaitoo]

I have no idea what I talking about.
But could a water wheel be made to turn an alternator to charge the battery????
Just trying to think out of the box.

[3006guns]

In an application like this, why is everyone so worried about battery charging rates, controllers, etc.? I mean, we're talking about gently circulating water in a small tub for cryin' out loud. Just use a panel that matches or exceeds a 12 volt pump's requirements (in amps) and wire it to the pump. Done. As soon as the sun comes up, the pump will start working. As soon as the sun sets, the pump will stop working. Just about any inexpensive decorative pond pump would work.

I lived on photovoltaics and no commercial power for over five years back in the eighties, made every mistake in the book and learned from them. The biggest lesson was to NOT over complicate everything. Although it might be technically satisfying to have a bank of batteries, charge controller and associated devices...a simple setup does the same job a lot cheaper and is easy to diagnose. It either works or it doesn't!

Example: I pumped water from a 114' domestic well using a windmill force pump (hand pump), a geared pump jack, a Ford truck generator used as a motor and the whole lash up cabled directly to the PV panels on my roof. That setup ran all day.......a stunning advance over my windmill. It topped off my 1000 gallon tank within 2-3 hours every morning and we had an OVERabundance of water. I actually had to shut it down for fear of wearing out the pump when not using the water. No batteries, no charge controllers, just electricity straight to the motor resulting in mechanical motion and work being performed.

[ohland]

battery charging rates, controllers, etc.?

The original question was assembling a system that could run 24/7, both pumping AND charging during the day, then only pumping at night. I think Mary knows of a starlight rated panel that could run a pump at night, but she ain't talking.

[MaryB]

Wish they made one! It would sell! I have seen a spike from my charge controller during lightning storms where the panels catch enough of a light pulse to pump a tiny amount to the batteries!

[ohland]

Wish they made one!

Oh-ho! Waitaminit... This is another green energy federal funded project! This administration is so desperate to show solar is more than daytime only, perhaps your new panel technology could use $500 million [500k would be so small that everyone would see it as not serious] to determine the most effective nocturnal panel. I would wager NOBODY else has even thought of it...

[MaryB]

I prefer to catch night photon in my telescope... new video camera came in today so I don't have to crane my neck to look through the telescope. I can send it to my monitor!

[ohland]

[QUOTE=MaryB;3235574]I prefer to catch night photon in my telescope... new video camera came in today/QUOTE]

Hot-day-um, who's got the tater salad? The research grant application is almost writing itself...

The proposed system will gather low energy photons, convert them to high energy photons, then direct them onto a newly developed photovoltaic array. It is theorized that raising the photons to a higher quantum level will increase night-time array efficiency.

A proof of concept system is being assembled that uses output to a video monitor. This system will demonstrate the power gain and ability to align the photon packets with the array cell boundaries. It is hoped that this will produce energy at an order of magnitude greater than present solar cells.

[MaryB]

This is mighty bright through a telescope!



this took 30 minutes of exposures(15 2 minute stacked in software, tracking was off so stars are not round)