Set up a solar water pump - PEP BB electricity.plumbing.sand.pump

I've been working on a pollinator garden, sitting area and garden pond for critters since the beginning of the year. It was just a weed patch last year! I'm proud  that all the pieces are finally coming together. This is the designated  place for the pond. The 100 gallon stock tank in the back of this photo will be slightly buried. My goal with this project is to attract birds, bats, and frogs to my garden, as well as create ambiance and a cooler temperature for my sitting spot nearby. The pump and little water feature will disturb the water surface and keep mosquitos to a minimum, I hope! I used 2nd hand or found objects for the pond. The stock tank was being thrown away, the rocks and pond liner all were leftover from landscape projects over the years. Having a sprinkler repairman for a husband can come in handy in the world of permaculture!

Once I dug a hole and leveled the tank, I laid down heavy weed cloth (2nd hand!) Then I arranged rocks and pebbles around the tank. The stack for the little fountain were all picked off a hillside of one of my favorite hiking spots nearby. Ordinary pavers are holding them up.  A little pond liner is under the fountain to keep water from drizzling out of the system.

The outdoor solar fountain I ordered cost around $100. My project is quite a ways from power or plumbing, so I thought it a good method of powering this pump. It came with several attachments and spray nozzles for different shapes of spray. But I chose to go with a hose and waterfall effect instead. The setup was easy! All the parts came in the kit, except for the tube I'm using to get water to the top of the rockpile. The sun will hit my solar panel for most of the daylight hours. Testing the kit for 5 gallons a minute output, however, presented several frustrations. I ordered a kit that is rated for 450 gallons per hour. That's 7.5 gallons per minute.  Even with the 18 volt solar panel included in the kit, the range should still hit around 5 gallons per minute under peak conditions. I was disappointed to measure only 1 gallon per minute. Even after following the troubleshoot instructions, and waiting til noon, I could only get it up to about 3 gallons per minute, measured by filling a bucket and timing on my watch. When I took my little arrangement apart, and used the spray nozzles that came with the pump, with no elevation for the water, (my setup pumps it 4 feet up) We reached between 4 and 5 gallons. I don't need it to hit 5 gallons per minute all the time, I was just trying to fulfill all that was required for this badge. The lesson I've learned here is to never plan a system on maximum spects!

Still, I am happy with the pump, and it will reach my original goals.

Discovered one of the return Bin Stores last week ( The Returned Pallets), and it was 5 dollar day so I thought I would look around and I found this kit.  

(30 Watt Solar Powered Water Fountain Pump with 430GPH Solar Pump) It was missing a few pieces, and the hose but the Solar Panel and the Solar Pump both in working order.

I needed to move some water in my outdoor water storage system, so this would do the trick nicely.

Just to make sure the Pump was pretty close to what it said it would do, I got a 5 gal water jug, and used a stopwatch to see what the results are. 0.47.42 Seconds to fill the 5 gals.

I will be moving this water storage this fall, and once I do that I will update for a permanent installation.

I’ve set something like this up several times, but not quite gotten the full 5GPM.
Determined, I finally got a big enough solar panel (100watts; ~19volts; ~6amps) and overclocked my bilge pump (12volts; 2amps) to achieve the result.

I was able to overflow the 5gal bucket in <44s

This is a temporary setup, but I’m imagining next year spinning this up more permanently during irrigation season.

Edit to add additional pics of pump and panel prior to setup: