Direct solar pumping

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Paulk

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Oct 8, 2017
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Berkeley, California
I'm going to put in a AGP this winter, (~15,000 Gal) in Northern CA. I just joined the site trying to learn more about pools. I'm off the grid at my ranch, and while I COULD tie into my main AC inverter system, I'd rather not. I'm hope to just put in another mast near the pool site and power the pump (with controller) directly off those panels, which means it will only operate during the sunlight hours. I looked for threads on such but don't see anything very recent, and things have changed a lot in the last couple of years. I do have my well water supply needs done by Lorentz pump, and am pretty satisfied with it. But I also see a lot of other systems now that are pretty competitive for pool use. Sure the Sun Pumps are good, and probably the Sun Ray, (maybe made by Sun Pump?), but there are lots of others available now too. MGK has a system for maybe $900 that includes a DC brushless, variable speed motor and controller for instance. I see others even cheaper. Any other experience here recently with any solar pumps that have worked well or not?
paul
 
Hi

I saw needsajet sent me a note, so reading this now.

We have been using the Lorentz pump for two years, and mostly problem free.

We put in the solar pump because we did not want to tie into our ac system either. The biggest issue we faced was because we only use the pool for 4 months, we had to find a way to switch the 1500W of solar used to run the Lorentz, back to our batteries. Electrician figured that out in the end.

Other problem with running the DC pump is that it is not tied to the salt generator. I know there is an extra layer of safety in addition to the flow switch for salt generators that prevents them from running if there is no power to the pump - unfortunately we could not figure that one out, so we put all our trust in the flow switch.

The Lorentz we have is the C17.1 and PS600 controller. The reasons we went with that is I could not source anything else in Canada. So we likely paid more for our system than what you can find where you are.

In terms of operation it works just fine. It comes with a plumbing adaptor to plumb into your system - make sure you receive the two gray adaptors, otherwise you cannot connect it. Also the controller green lead is for ground, not neutral.

We use the pump daily, but also have a backup AC pump should I ever need to run for 24 hours.

This summer we had some hot days, and we think the controller tripped off due to heat a few times. We also think this heat affected the pump a bit, since when it gets really hot, the pump makes more noise than usual, but keeps moving lots of water. All in all we are happy, but have nothing to compare to.


18000 IG, SWG, 1/2 HP Tri Star + Solar PV direct DC Lorentz pump, Sand filtrt
 
Thanks tlevy, and needsajet. Good to hear you have had decent service from your Lorentz. I've had Lorentz water pumps for about 20 years I think. But those were hi pressure pumps. (I have about 185 feet of head). Their line of pumps for that application are probably more competitive with the Grundfos pumps. Pump, motor and controller are in the $2500 range I think, maybe more. But being that this head isn't very high, I was hoping that some other manufacturer was making a pump that was satisfactory. After all, the normal pump made for the pool industry isn't very high tech. Brushless, variable speed seems ideal for a pump, and such motors have come down a LOT in the last few years. I might not trust a Chinese pump necessarily, but the DC motors they make are decent enough. I might go to Sun Pumps, they are certainly in the industry for MANY years, and I think most of their stuff is made here in the US, or at least designed here. But I have to say that looking for solar pumps in China, you can see on Alibaba, (eBay in china sort of) that Ningbo offers a pump for $400 ($150 if you buy a lot) that has a brushless, variable speed DC motor, 370 watts (so about 1/2hp) and SEEMS to have good stats. 3 year warranty. At that price I could buy 3 and probably be pretty good for 10 or more years.... I noted that several US suppliers are selling the same pump and system for $900.
I was just hoping that someone had used some of the less expensive pumps and had some experience with them
My location is about 800 feet or so from my energy shed, (where I have my inverters for my AC power. I do have a line I put down there to run an ac pump for emergency water. I don't want to use that frankly as it scares me to have a pump or anything that is going to use a fair amount of power daily, that might inadvertently drain my batteries. I'm a bit of a battery dictator. For a set of batteries that costs $5k, you sort of want to be.
Anyway, I'll mull it over some more, do some research maybe with Sun Pumps, and let you know what I finally do. Tlevy , do you mind my asking how much your system was? how many watts is your pump?
thanks so much. This website is pretty useful. I think I know a fair amount about solar, and plumbing, electric and construction. but I didn't know much at all about the chemicals, or all the rest of the stuff. Got to figure out what pool to buy yet.
paul
 
We spent about 1,500 - canadian $ - (if memory serves) for the pump and controller. That does not include the wiring, or the 1500W of new solar that we installed, but like I said, that 1500W of solar is switched to my batteries when the pump is not running.

As for power, it produces about 750W. Haven't looked at the specs in a few years.

SunPumps was the other brand I was looking at...


18000 IG, SWG, 1/2 HP Tri Star + Solar PV direct DC Lorentz pump, Sand filtrt
 
Thanks guys. I'm still looking at Sun Pumps. Somewhat curious about Sun Ray also. (Claims made in USA, and is obviously really geared toward pool). A bit cheaper at $900 for pump and controller/motor, (brushless). I'll have to do a lot of reading and talking to these guys. I think Lorentz is a good company, as I've said. Their big submersible pumps are top of the line. Just thinking that this should be easily done by something simpler. Well, maybe I'll find out. My pool is going to be about 800 feet from my energy shed, so sort of difficult for me to use those panels both ways. Too bad, would have been nice to get to use the panels that way.
As to a windmill. I do have one, and I'm not really using it for water pumping anymore. But this site is not so good for a windmill as it is down in one of my canyons with little wind.
thanks to both of you.
 
Well, yep, not great wind, but also windmills are GREAT for bringing water from even deep in a well, being a piston pump. you can pump water from 1000 feet deep if you needed too. But they can't pump very well without constant maintenance if you are pumping above the top of the windmill. And of course they don't pump on those days when no wind. And even if there were wind, and the pumping was below the top of the windmill, (which I agree is likely) then the other problem is that being a piston displacement pump, it IS high pressure, but not very high volume. All those contributed to my switching to Lorentz solar pumps 20 years ago.
Thanks much to all. If anyone has direct experience with Sun Ray or Sun Pump pumps, I'm interested.
pk
 
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