Michael Qulek

Sorry John, the phrases "small system" and "run a well pump" can NOT be put into the same sentence.  Can you run a well pump solely off of solar, well sure, but it ain't gonna be small.  Take a look at the following chart...

A 3/4hp pump needs 31.4A at 240V for ~500 milliseconds to start.  That works out to be ~7500 starting watts.  Few inverters can handle that.  But they are out there.  I power my own 1hp pump with Schneider's XW+6848 inverter.  Beware of the cheaper Chinese-made inverters.  Although they may claim they can surge to 2X, that surge can only be maintained for at most one AC cycle, or ~ 16 milliseconds.  So, shop for an inverter that is DOCUMENTED to surge for at least five seconds.  Outback's Radian, Schneider's XW6848, and the Conext 4048 can surge that high.  All expensive, but all very much worth the money.

You'll be ahead of the game if you get a meter that can measure starting surge, also called "inrush".  I use and recommend the clamp meter UniT 216C.  You can find one on Ebay for ~90$.  I can also read AC/DC running amperage and AC/DV volts, plus ohms, so that one meter will meet all your solar needs.

I started out with 380Ah of battery at 48V, and I never try to run my pump unless I have at least 2000W of power coming in.  With 4500W of solar panels on rotating array mounts, I can run my pump from 8am till 4pm in summer.  Maybe 8:30am till 2:30pm in weaker November sun.

Have you examined the inside of the chimmey pipe before and after installing the coils?  One concern I would have is that the heat extraction excelerates the condensation of creosote, which potentially could lead to a chimmey fire?

Mariya Bee wrote:P.S. I'm actually fascinated by how the Amish keep their food fresh with jars and without the fridge, I saw a video on the "Swartzentruber Amish". I'd love to learn how to do that myself.

That's quite easy.  With a pressure canner, you can put away just about anything, as long as you follow the standard food safety guidelines.  A canner does NOT have to be expensive.  I picked up more than one for ≤10$ at my local flea market.  Glass canning jars too, at maybe 5-10$ per dozen.  Any pressure cooker that can achive 15psi can be used as a canner.  I make a very good canned chicken soup.

Then of course, there's also drying, and pickling.

You can find books for all of these at your closest public library.  Lots of information online too.  Some great texts I personally use are "Stocking Up", and "Putting Food By".  Another very value text is "The Encyclopedia of Country Living"

Mariya Bee wrote:
I'm just sensitive to overall artificial lights, they increase my anxiety and also electronic devices via touch (hand pain). Sometimes I feel pressure around power lines and power towers as well, so I'd prefer to avoid those too.

It sounds to me that you don't tolerate the flicker of 60Hz flourescent lighting, prevalent in just about every workplace?  Does watching TV and computer screens give you the same effect?  Tell me, how do you feel around the electric lights and stereos inside automobiles?  Everything in a car would be DC.  I have heard about this before, but have never actually met someone with that kind of disorder.  How are you typing out these responses right now, with a AC powered desktop machine, or a DC powered laptop?

I honestly would not recommend anyone give up electricity completely, if nothing else, then just for lighting.  I started out with kerosene in my cabin before installing solar, and I personally feel the fumes are very toxic.  And sometimes you need extra light, even in the middle of summer.  It might be that a small 12V solar system is all you might need to live a fairly modern lifestyle.  I can not even imagine a person without at least a laptop trying to be a writer in today's world.

Hello Mariya, a couple of questions for you.  When you say "electrical sensitivity" do you mean all electricity, or specifically alternating current (AC)?  I'm asking because I was consulting with someone previously that had sort of an allergic reaction to standard AC current.  They could tolerate DC current appliances without a problem.

Your current location is New York City?  How exactly are you doing in a place where you must be totally surrounded by AC current in all directions all the time?

If you are only sensitive to alternating current like this other gentleman was, one viable option you might take is living in an RV, that is not plugged into the grid.  An RV, or a cabin with an RV-style power system might possibly work for you?

Though quite limiting, a 12V DC RV-oriented system would allow you to have lights, TV, and a few 12V appliances.  Couple that with propane heating and propane refrigerator cooling, and you could have a reasonably comfortable 20th century lifestyle.

BTW, I myself am towards the West Coast, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, so I'm just about as far from you as I can get.  My homestead, though off-grid, is also designed around 120/240V AC.

Green veins within yellow leaves is typically a sign of metal deficiencies, most commonly zinc.  For my own chestnut trees with the same symptoms, I made a spray bottle full of 1% zinc sulfate + a drop of detergent to spray on the leaves.  After spraying, the leaves started greening immediately, within 1-2 days.  Amusingly, the greening followed the spray pattern exactly.

If you can't find zinc sulfate, the commercial fertilizer "Ironite" will be a source of zinc.

Supposedly, what some old-timers did for mature trees was to drive a few galvanized nails into the roots of their trees?

John Weiland wrote:Our most concerning power draw is a deep well (220VAC) that would need a cognate inverter for juice.  I recall focussing some years ago on the Magnum brand for such an inverter.  

Hi John, do you have any specifications for your pump?  What's it's horsepower rating?  Do you have any information about the amperage draw, starting/running?  Those numbers would be essential in the design of a solar-based pumping system.

Yes, completely doable via solar, but you need to know your numbers for proper design first before building something out of randum components, and then trying to flip the power switch.

I have a chart of pump power numbers.  If you can tell me something about your pump, we can get the starting/running figures from the chart.

Rico, a bit more information from you.  What's the general location you're at?  Not pinpointed, but generalized, like East Texas, or Western Washington.  Design makes a big difference when you take into account your sunhours (sh), and what time of the year your sun is shining.

Can you come up with an itemized list of things you want to power?  What you power, and when is as important as how many watts they consume.  Items with electric motors that start under load have what's called "starting surge", or "inrush current".   The inverter you select needs to be able to handle the starting surges your stuff will generate, usually 3-5X the running amperage.

For example, my well-pump, with a head of ~250 of water above the pump, has a starting surge of ~9000W for about 500 miliseconds or so.  On the other hand, a free-spinning window fan in the bedroom only a starting surge of 1.1X.  So, my 100W fan consumes ~110W right at startup.

This makes a big difference in the choices of inverters you select to run your house.  Basically, there are two main types of inverters, low-frequency transformer based inverters, and high-frequency transformerless ones.  The LF models are big, HEAVY, and expensive, but they have massive surge capacity.  HF models are lighter, and much cheaper, but have almost zero starting surge capacity.  Ignore whatever claim they make as to how MUCH the inverter can surge to.  Pay close attention to how LONG they claim the inverter can surge to.  That is the number that will make or break an inverter in terms of starting a big-ticket item like a well-pump, or shop air-compressor.

The big LF inverters typically an surge for 5-60 seconds.  The HF models typically can surge for only 8-16 miliseconds, not long enough to start big motors.  You definately get what you pay for with inverters.  This is why the itemized list is so important.

Inverters on the market now can be divided into two styles, component, and AllinOne (AiO).  Component means you need a separate charge controller, and breaker panel system to feed into the inverter. Some of the component models are LF, but cheaper component models are HF.  The AiO models combine the charge controller in with the inverter in one box, making wiring more simple.  Almost all AiO inverters are HF.

If you go the component route, you'll also need a charge controller.  Again, they can be divided into two types, PulseWidthModulation (PWM), and MaximumPowerPointTracking (MPPT).  Just skip PWM completely!  They have no business being in a modern system.  MPPT is vastly superior in every way except price.  PWM is appropriate only for the cheapest, low budget systems.  Beware though.  Ebay has sellers marketing FAKE MPPT controllers.  A real MPPT will have a voltage limit of at least 100V, and weigh a couple of pounds.  If it says "MPPT" but only has a voltage limit of 36V, and weighs only 8oz, it's a fake.

The best solar panel deals around are local purchasing with cash and carry pickup.  You pay a steep price premium to have solar panels delivered to you via shipping.  Shop local venues like Craigslist for panels, and then drive over to pick them up.  If you worry about panel quality, bring a voltmeter with you.  Every panel has a specifications sticker on the back, listing Voc, Vmp, Isc, and Imp.  With the unconnected panel just sitting out in the sun, your voltmeter will be measuring the Voc, the open-circuit voltage.  Don't buy a panel if the measured Voc is more than 10% less than the published value.  For example, if the published Voc = 37.5V, and you measured 35.0V, that panel is OK and good to buy.  If however, you measured only 32.5V, then I'd say skip that one.  It's worn out.  A good deal with cash and carry panels is 4-5W/$.  With shipping to your house, you won't do better than 1-2W/$.

Battery choice is becoming a religious issue.  Every battery type has some kind of weakness.  Traditional lead-acid dies with chronic undercharging.  Small solar arrays kill lead-acid batteries.  On the other hand, LI batteries can not tolerate low temperatures.  They can be destroyed by placing them in an unheated shed that goes below freezing.  If you buy a goodly number of panels, and charge lead-acid at 1/8th of C, they will be happy and give you long years of service.  If you keep Li batteries inside a heated cabin that NEVER gets cold, then Li will be happy and give you long years of service.  Let your personal situation dictate what type to chose.

https://diysolarforum.com/ is a great site for beginners.  I post there on various topics, including solar water pumping.

The very first thing I would suggest is to sit down and draft a plan, before you attempt to purchase anything.  

The first part of the plan is to determine what loads you intend to power, and during what time of the day.  For big systems, I recommend identifying your single largest load, and build a system that has 2X the capacity for that.  You could go with either kWh/day, or W of your load.  Let me give you some examples.

I typically consume ~4-5 kWh of power per day, which powers the frig, TV, computer, lights, and stuff.  My location gets about 3 sunhours (sh) in December, and 6 in June.  So, if I need 5000Wh in December, I'd need 5000Wh/3sh =  1667W of solar panels.  It would be good to double that to ~3200W for catch-up after cloudy weather.

On the other hand, my 1hp well-pump is my single biggest load, consuming ~2100W of power, so following the 2X rule, I installed 4500W of panels.  They are on rotating ground mounts, so I can turn them East in the morning, and West in the afternoon.  With rotation, I can run the pump from 8am till 4pm with zero battery depletion.

I'd suggest sizing your inverter to 2-3X the size of your biggest load.  So, for my 2100W pump, I purchased a 6800W Schneider inverter (XW+6848).

Lastly, size your batteries to what what your biggest load is.  Traditional lead-acid likes to be drained at no more than 1/10 of C, while Li might tolerate 1/4th of C.  C being the capacity listed in amphours at the 20 hour rate.  Taking the example of my pump above, the inverter will draw 2100W/50V=42A, so I purchased 400Ah Trojan L-16 batteries.

I would suggest that manually disconnecting your controller to stop charging is in general a bad idea.  Either you will forget to disconnect it in time and overcharge, or you will forget to reconnect it and let it drain to minimum.

I think the best course of action is to replace whatever controller you have and purchase a controller specifically programmed to charge Li.  Then just leave it on auto.  You didn't mention anything about what kind/wattage solar panels you have?  Getting a good quality MPPT controller, and wiring your panels in series to raise the incoming voltage is usually the best strategy.

If you can document the Vmp/Voc and Imp/Isc of your panels, and your controller specifications, we can recommend the best wiring combination.  Knowing your extreme winter lows is important, because the Voc of you panels goes up as the winter temperatures go down.  Please get back to us with those numbers.