Solar pump for the shallow well

A few weeks back we decided to improve our water supply. Before we had been using a gasoline powered pump to fill the water tank from the well once in a while. The problem with that is that it makes noise, the tank empties out and water pressure drops and then one has to act before running out of water. And these pumps tend to break or one runs out of gasoline. That’s not a good thing. There is a better way available and it’s free after the initial investment.

So we ordered the installation of a solar powered pump. We are all busy with finishing the house thus it made sense to simply use some money instead of buying the pieces and figuring it out ourselves.

We all did have a good luck at what the professionals were doing to learn how it’s being done.

The pump is a longish cylinder that gets sunk into the well and hangs there at a depth of about 7 meters. The 40 mm pipe and the power cable is attached to it.

On the post with the solar panels on top we’ve got some switches. We can turn on the pump manually and we can switch the power source to a generator in case there is not enough sunlight or we need to pump at night.

On top of the water tower the professionals installed a buoy that closes a valve. When it’s shut, pressure will build up in the pipe and a pressure switch close to the pump will trigger a power shutoff.

The design of our water distribution system is currently entirely driven by dynamic demand. We are not yet living in the house but we have a number of animals that have a need for water. That triggered the installation of a new water pipe of 32 mm in diameter. We did take into account future needs and the pipe takes a bit of a detour.

The good thing is that we don’t need to rely anymore on portable IBC water tanks. As the sunlight creates a lot of algae growth, connecting the waterers for the animals directly to a pipe gets also rid of that problem. One thing less to worry about.

There will certainly be a lot of redesigns as we learn what we really need.