Anyone into solar power?

I designed and built my own small system. 290 watts with about 5,000 watt hours of battery backup with a midnight 150 charge controller.

What you will need is very dependent on the depth of your well.

Powering a ground well with solar is expensive and mostly pointless.

Installing a cistern and water storage tanks is relatively cheap.

You can get much of what you need for free if you are clever, 55 gal barrels, totes, used farm equipment etc, certain chemical wholesalers.
A person I know has over 3000 gal of water storage and paid less than 300 dollars for it all and all he has to do is open a valve to use it with no other power needed.

If you really want long term shtf power get a steam powered generator that will survive an EMP by burning anything you throw into it.

ALL GM's toys will be worthless after the first EMP wave hits unless he's spent the money for nested copper and aluminum faraday cages.

FYI there is a new type of inverter that will run your house off grid and without batteries, as long as the sun is out.

How stupid does someone have to be to install a complex, finnicky microprocessor based multithousand dollar system to heat with or cook on after tshtf when you can burn free or readily available biomass or various civilization waste products?
Solar equipment is not going to work forever in a hostile environment and there is built in power conversion loses that make multiple energy conversions relatively inefficient..
A wood stove will last many lifetimes if properly used and can be made or fixed with little cost.

I agree, but you still need to generate useful amounts of pressure. In a gravity fed system (which, as you say, is very efficient), you need 12" of head for every 0.4 psi of water pressure.

If you want 40 psi going into your house, you need a 100' fall from the water tank to point of use.

You need to get that water up there somehow...

Last Edited by Azaziah on 04/04/2015 09:51 AM

Japan please, Go back to fearing godzira.

Solar seems like a good idea because where I live, Not many people are. Hell my entire state has like 2 million people and a shit load of woods.

Point it north that is the best.

passive solar interests me.

but hey - grew up in Ohio - pumps for wells/water have always been WIND-POWERED in that area.

old-style spindly windmills a very common sight to pump water for the cows' trough, and other uses.

this may or may not be of interest to you, OP. Great thread!




Last Edited by beeches on 04/04/2015 10:04 AM

Oah the phone solar plug ... Oeh and bayterys for at night too suply the fridge .


Lights oh eh warm water but that can be done with the sun also when you have a water compartment you can higher the pressure for a shower and poo off the flats balkiny

these kind of guys:


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OP, I would highly recommend the Simple Pump.

I have one at my bug out location. Right now it runs on solar but can also quickly be convert (in about 10 minutes) to a manual hand pump. it pumps about 5 gallons per minute.

Its really an awesome unit and you can install it yourself with the help of a buddy. One final note, Its great for colder climates.

Check it out www.simplepump.com.

EMP will be used to prepare the way for new management, I guarantee it.

If you prepped for a microprocessor based future you will If you prepare for a microprocessor based post apocolyptic future have wasted your money.

If you chose poorly you will have expensive electrics what wont work.

If you chose properly you will have direct solar, wind or biomass options that cost next to nothing to prepare or maintain.

$8000 for a drink of cold water or a mouthful of microwaved food is not sustainable.


Solar electrics has only one purpose for Mercans and thats's to offset the expense of grid power when the libs make it hyperexpensive for the consumer thru poisonous regulation. Theres the current tax benefits too which I'm sure some here would be happy to take advantage of.


It proper planning electricity in a post shtf world should not be necessary.

One can collect rain or runoff water, freeze it, store ice for later use, distill drinkable water cogenerated from biomass heating or cooking or solar, light can be obtained from a variety of fuels or simply by cooperating with the sun.

Post shtf environment will not be suitable for the current focus on luxury and pasttime games and amusements. It will be about survival and vigilance and using superior skills and preparation against those who did not and want to take yours.

That's what I want now, Something small to just get clean water.

If you are trying to do this on a shoe string budget and on a small scale like only pump water, then here is some advice.

The most common stuff out there is 12v, but 12 v has its draw backs.
In DC volts the lower the volts , the thicker the wires and the wire formulas get crazy the longer the 12v run. AC voltage is not as sensitive to length as DC,. (this is why Edison's DC power lost to Tesla's AC). When running wire you have to count every turn and every direction you take to route your wire to make the cables look nice and organized.

Volts x amps = watts so also watts divided by amps = volts etc.

200 watts of panels at 12v would be 16.6 amps of DC.
16.6 amps through a 12v 120 v inverter= 1992 watts at 120v

One advantage of 12v is the abundance of stuff out there, the ability to automotive things like fuses , wires accessories etc. . Marine and RV stores stock a lot of robust 12v products?.......including 12v water pumps!
In fact if this is a water pump only project, you could eliminate the inverter by going DC water pump.

If going to a bigger array of Pannels, then I'd reccomended 24vdc. 24v wires are half the price of 12v and can travel much further. You'll probably have to buy stuff from a solar supplier when using 24v.

To be continued.......

I am now thinking of just a small pump to get drinkable water from since its shtf preparedness.

Don't let Monk's Alt-Majal of solar doom intimidate you...

12 volt pump. 12 volt batteries. $500 in panels.

You can redneck this thing, Panda! Get your feet wet and start learning. ;-)

This is the most energy-efficient well pump that I know of. I have had a manual version installed alongside my AC well pump for years, but could now easily adapt it with one of their DC motors and run it off the 24V tap on my Outback Power rig:

[link to www.simplepump.com]

Continued.......

Typical electric Ac motor like a pump is 746 watts per HP. You need to double that for start up, 1500 watts at your disposal per each HP. go look at your existing water pump and see what it's HP rating is.

A word on inverters, most low cost inverters are Modified Sine Wave, which if you looked at the wave form , it would be more like a square wave or a step pyramid looking wave. Most thingswill work on MSW but some will not.
Digital clocks will not keep time on MSW or circuitry that relied on internal clock speed might still work , but behave a little screwy. This is because the circuitry is looking for the electric companies steady beat of 60hz to keep time by reading its peaks. In MSW, that peak is missing , so time drifts.
Electric motors on MSW sound ragged like a bearing is going bad and will run slightly warmer. Most people say this does not harm the motors ,but it sure is louder and hearing your refrigerator sound like that is unnerving.

Full sine wave inverters are three times as much and harder to find or at least find one one sale.

My previous replies were too complex for the direction you wanted to go.
Talkin all that volts x amps stuff.

Here's how you do it for under under 100 bucks......might not work in your area ... I live in Florida so the water table is practically below your feet.

Buy a pitcher pump from Harbor Freight or local hardware store .,..should cost about 50 bucks or so. Pitcher pump is an old cowboy type of pump.

Assuming you have an above ground pump and tank, not submersible :

From your well casing aka the metal pipe that come up from the ground, install a metal tee fitting. The top of the tee fitting should continue to your existing pump piping , however install a metal ball valve there so you can shut off the water supply to the electric pump.

Comming out of the side of the metal tee fitting, install a threaded piece pipe 8 to 10 inches or so with a metal 90 elbow . Install another ball valve on after the Elbow. Install another short pipe comming out of ball valve. Install pitcher pump on that pipe.

To use electric pump as normal... Keep ball valve going to pitcher pump closed.

To use pitcher pump in SHTF or trial run.....shut of breaker to pump!
If you still have pressure in your tank, just open up the ball valve on the pitcher pump side and water from pressureized tank will back flow and flow backwards out of the pitcher pump, thus self priming and flushing out dirt and bugs.. If no pressure in tank, then just pour about a toll on of water into top of pitcher pump to prime. Now close the valve to the electric side and have the valve on the pitcher pump open.

I survived a Florida hurricane with this technic.

^^^^^^
Good info.

Solar powered submarines won't work

Don't waste your time

How about a windmill?

O.P have you researched reflective solar energy. There is a smart American gent from a uni, who has developed a backyard size unit, a footprint of 10 foot by 6 foot & 6 foot high. It uses the heating aspect of solar energy (higher energy efficient...close to 80% compared to the 18% of pv panels) & a steam turbine to turn a generator. I think he's using molten salt in the primary stage so the unit keeps producing power long after the sun goes down. Interesting stuff

if you don't know what an inverter is, don't spend $10K on solar equipment

If water pumping is your primary need, you have options. A diesel or propane generator and a large cistern can be used for emergencies.

Diesel and propane can be stored in quantity and remain usable for several years, and they have pumps and gennys (like a older lister type) which will continue to work even after an emp...

Alernative energy sources can also be added to this configuration in time and the fuel and genny provide a backup.

But this is still a "cheap" and effective way to make power.

Coming back to the issues stated by OP, quote:
I want to make a water well off solar for those shtf purposes.


It is clear that you will not need any inverter for that purpose!

Any inverter has some loss due to conversion, heating, it affects the overall reliability of the system making less reliable and more complex, producing a dangerous voltage to deal with, when you are supposedly, in conditions of SHTF.

It was a poster which said this issue, but you need to find 12V or 24V electric pump and no need inverter (like for 110 or 220V) which again is dangerous for SHTF condition.

Those gens, during SHTF, will attract an unwanted attention!
Two 1.5 x 1 yard panels, 400W in total, with a 12V or 24V DC electromotor pump, will work silently and stealthily in SHTF.

If you suspending the panels just 1 yard from the soil in surrounded by the bushes, it will be also very difficult to be spotted....

By no means generators which make a huge noise, even you are burying and it consume fuel. It's a definitely no-no for a SHTF situation.

No, they are not noise makers...



But op has lots of options to make power for a water pump.