solar powered submersible pump

Hi Folks, I need your advice I need recommendations on a high quality solar powered submersible pump. The water level is around 110 ft and the well casing is 6 in. Please help if you can.

Hey Brad, I wish I could remember what type I have. It’s 600 ft deep and has been running off solar for 5 years now. A fellow in KY did the work.

Have you looked at Backwoods Solar? They have an online catalog and are super nice and helpful on the phone. They sell pumps that work with solar.

Best wishes!

Awww, thank you for the 🍎

There are two different routes you can take here for a reliable system.  

First, get a high-voltage DC pump that is wired to a series string of solar panels putting out between 30-300V of DC power.  It is wired to the pump via a "pump controller" that regulates the amperage the pump receives.  Grunfos makes a number of DC solar pumps with charts to decide how many watts of panels and how many volts to run them at for a particular depth.  I think a good rule of thumb is that a lot of their pumps need at least 120VDC to run well, which would be four 60-cell residential grid-tie panels wired in series.

Secondly, design an AC system around the pump that you already have in the ground.  That's what I did personally.  I have a 1hp single-phase 240VAC Grunfos pump in my well that pulls about 10A at 240V.  The problem with big submersible pumps is that they have what is called "high starting surge", or "inrush current" that is 3-5X the running amperage.  Mine starts at ~9100W.  This lasts only for about 500 milliseconds or so, but weeds out the cheaper inverters you see on Amazon that appear to be very reasonablely priced.  They are reasonable for a reason.  They don't have the ummph (the inrush) to start a big pump.

A good rule of thumb with AC appliances is to have 2X the amount of solar panels for whatever your biggest load is.  So, for my big pump, I installed 4500W of panels (9 300W panels, wired 3S5P).  This is fed into a Midnight200 charge controller that charges eight Trojan L-16 batteries wired for 48V.  This in turn powers my split-phase 120V/240V XW+6848 inverter, which powers the pump.  It has worked flawlessly now for 5 years, and I am very happy with the performance of my system.  I have my panels on rotating mounts, so I can turn them Eastward in morning to start the pump at ~8:00AM, and Westward in the afternoon to keep the pump running till ~4:00PM.

The great thing about designing my system around the pump means that any other load in the cabin is easily handled.  My system can seamlessly run the frig, freezer, toaster oven, washing machine, and just about any other normal household appliance completely transparently.

Thank you!

Angela Wilcox wrote:Hey Brad, I wish I could remember what type I have. It’s 600 ft deep and has been running off solar for 5 years now. A fellow in KY did the work.

Have you looked at Backwoods Solar? They have an online catalog and are super nice and helpful on the phone. They sell pumps that work with solar.

Best wishes!

Thank you!

Michael Qulek wrote:There are two different routes you can take here for a reliable system.  

First, get a high-voltage DC pump that is wired to a series string of solar panels putting out between 30-300V of DC power.  It is wired to the pump via a "pump controller" that regulates the amperage the pump receives.  Grunfos makes a number of DC solar pumps with charts to decide how many watts of panels and how many volts to run them at for a particular depth.  I think a good rule of thumb is that a lot of their pumps need at least 120VDC to run well, which would be four 60-cell residential grid-tie panels wired in series.

Secondly, design an AC system around the pump that you already have in the ground.  That's what I did personally.  I have a 1hp single-phase 240VAC Grunfos pump in my well that pulls about 10A at 240V.  The problem with big submersible pumps is that they have what is called "high starting surge", or "inrush current" that is 3-5X the running amperage.  Mine starts at ~9100W.  This lasts only for about 500 milliseconds or so, but weeds out the cheaper inverters you see on Amazon that appear to be very reasonablely priced.  They are reasonable for a reason.  They don't have the ummph (the inrush) to start a big pump.

A good rule of thumb with AC appliances is to have 2X the amount of solar panels for whatever your biggest load is.  So, for my big pump, I installed 4500W of panels (9 300W panels, wired 3S5P).  This is fed into a Midnight200 charge controller that charges eight Trojan L-16 batteries wired for 48V.  This in turn powers my split-phase 120V/240V XW+6848 inverter, which powers the pump.  It has worked flawlessly now for 5 years, and I am very happy with the performance of my system.  I have my panels on rotating mounts, so I can turn them Eastward in morning to start the pump at ~8:00AM, and Westward in the afternoon to keep the pump running till ~4:00PM.

The great thing about designing my system around the pump means that any other load in the cabin is easily handled.  My system can seamlessly run the frig, freezer, toaster oven, washing machine, and just about any other normal household appliance completely transparently.

Brad E. Miller wrote:Hi Folks, I need your advice I need recommendations on a high quality solar powered submersible pump. The water level is around 110 ft and the well casing is 6 in. Please help if you can.

Hi Brad, do you have solar already? Is the pump going to be a stand alone irrigation type so it's removed from the home? I am just trying to figure out the details before offering any advice.
Cheers,
David

We share a neighbor's well. The well and holding tank are remote from any of our houses so we haul using transfer tanks, and the well is independently powered.

The well pump is an RSC 800 and our neighbor did all the communicating with RSC in 2019 when we set it up, so I am sketchy on the details. I believe the panels and pump and everything came from them for on the order of $5000. Our well is 600' deep with water at 290 and we opted for the beefier of two viable pump options. It has worked almost flawlessly for 4 years so far. We don't use batteries at all, so it only pumps during the day into the 1500 gal holding tank which is way more than we all could use in one day.

We then use a gas transfer pump from harbor freight to get water into our truck tank, and from the truck tank into our house tank.

Hey there. I didn’t see anyone mention this but the Grundfos flex is the one I use and most people on a solar/wind/generator use. It can use almost any power source as well as a large range within that power source.

I hope that helps

Scotty

Scott Davison wrote:Grundfos flex

My Grundfos flex is over 500' down. I love that I have so many power options. I pumped using a 110v generator in the beginning but I was able to get some solar panels a few years back and it works just fine that way, too.
Edited to add: The Grundfos wasn't cheap, but I feel my pump was worth every penny.