Solar powered water pump.

@CanadianLori , fortunately not necessarily so. The system that I have installed will run the pump intermittently - something to do with the capacity/level of charge in the batteries (sorry I am no physicist). It is also possible to adjust the drip rate/duration of drip to suit specific circumstances. I would agree with you though on the impact of cloudy days except we haven’t seen many of those here recently.

 

A directly connected solar panel will run a pump continuously @Ezzie . I have one doing just that in my bird bidet. And others hooked up directly through timers to run fans as while the sun shines. If it is cloudy I don't need them to be running. The above is one of the control centers for timers in my first greenhouse.

A pump run off a battery would be a whole different thing and I'm trying to figure out how you got that interpretation. Besides, why would one need to be pumping in the dark unless they did not set up a system capable of pumping enough during the day? Perhaps your batteries do not have the capacity to do what you need? How many AH are they?

Admitted, I only have about £1,200 invested in all of the panels, batteries, dc timers and dc fans and lights so maybe it's considered rinky dink by some but I did hook them all up myself and run all of the wiring into and out of the cellar where the batteries are stored so that price tag has no one's labour costs included.

 

Wow thqt looks terribly professional and complicated! Not sure my old grey matter would enable my head round something as high powered as your system @CanadianLori . Spy you have the same secateurs as a pair I have. I found them really annoying as the clip to shut them kept shutting them when I was in the middle of pruning. Maybe yours didn't do likewise? My pair were relegated to the drawer of spare stuff for when I have lost things and need something to tide me over until, hopefully I have found the missing item.

 

@siku I've never had a problem with them yet... but now... touching wood

I played with a lot of mini panels combined with server fans or pc fans before I started messing with the other stuff. It does take maintaining now and then such as cleaning the terminals but the biggest problem is I keep goofing zround with how many things I can force the system to operate.If you simply direct wire from a panel to a pump or whatever, you don't lose any power through the inverter process. I probably have a lote more wires running than most would but I like to keep my options open for tinkering later on.

Hooking up dc timers is a little different. There are some ijits out there that fail to realise that every time you add a solar extension, the poles reverse so using a volt meter is essential when setting up. I pretty much only use my fans at night in the colder months to keep the air mixed when I am running my heater in the bigger hobby house. It is a heater tnat I converted from propane to natural gas and even though natural gas is more economical, I still want to be as efficient as possible.

I'm thinking about starting to make whirligigs. I think they're a hoot too. Guess I'll have to learn how to weld.

 

@CanadianLori , I suspect your slice of Ontario real estate is a great deal more in need of something sophisticated than my little slice of sub-urban Middle England. Nevertheless, I am very impressed that you have managed to work it all out and rig up a system yourself.

I don’t know either where you got the impression that my system pumps in the dark. It doesn’t - just works a little less hard on a cloudy day. As I said, I am no physicist so I haven’t a clue what an ‘ah’ unit is let alone tell you how many I have. As a gardener though, what I can tell you is this. I have just returned from a fortnight away to find my tomatoes, potatoes and a few select shrubs in perfect nick having been left solely under the care of my solar powered pump. If some stats help, it’s pumped circa 525 litres of water intermittently through 36 dripper heads over 13 and a bit days. I grow potatoes in 65l tubs and drip irrigation to these was doubled/tripled up as I find potatoes in tubs are a bit thirsty. The rate of drip was about halfway, i.e, I could have turned it up more.

 

If you are running directly from the panel to the pump then you would not need a battery.

Talking about a battery gave me the impression you had to store power for darker time periods. But now reading that you don't know what an ah is, maybe you don't have a deep cycle battery.

What I was trying to tell you is that if you are pumping when the sun shines, you don't need batteries. No power is lost through that process. Sending to the battery then back out to the pump uses up power.

but nemind…

 

Just a thought I have a submersible pump connected to my water butts, this is operated by a timer to water plants automatically which is good for holidays.

Solar will do it but the power needed to operate a pump for the amount you need might mean running with batteries through an inverter, but if security is an issue with it being exposed to the naked eye probably not a good idea.

What about a pump fixed by the burn run by a generator which could be wheeled when needed, or by wheeling batteries you have charged and use an inverter, at the other end get a water storage system set up.
Those liquid containers you see at factories ( use one that's suitable for brown water ) are quite cheap and the water is always there.
Cost about £50 for 1000 lt think they are called IBC containers, a few could be a great asset in storage for future use.
I have 4 water butts with over 800 lt filled with rain water from my shed and garage roof.