Solar Power for Pond vs. house system

3 Posts
May 26, 2006 06:53 pm
Solar Power for Pond vs. house system

Hello, we have two ponds with waterfalls, one of which pumps about 2000 gallons per  hour and is 1/3HP.  We have another smaller pond..I don't have the details on that pump.  We have been told that the pond pumps, which run 24/7/365 account for about 1/3 of our electric bill which runs about 1000kwh/mo.  We have looked into full solar systems for the house, but I am wondering if there is a way to do a small solar system for the big pond, and then buy a solar powered pump system for the smaller pond,and have a better cost/benefit.  We'd have to have storage because the pond pumps really need to run 24 hrs.  We are on 2.5 acres, w/great open exposures, so it would be easy to install a small system.  Thoughts?  Thanks..  
 
May 27, 2006 06:01 am
Re: Solar Power for Pond vs. house system

Wow! 1,000 kWh @ month. Not a lot to some. A lot to me considering its use. Profitable I would hope. Well, thats none of business anyway.

1,000 kWh @ month or another way to look at would be - 33,333 watt hours in a 24 hour period! If the hours of equvilent full rated charge (from Photovotaic - PV) for your region where as high as 5 hours a day averaged over a year then it would take nothing less than a 6,667 watt PV array. At somewhere around $5.00 per watt not installed this would come to $33,335.00. What you are spending now is about $90.00 a month so at that rated it would take more than 30 years to pay for the PV modules.

To give you an idea for comparison. Here we use PV to provide electricity to 2 households, 5 people in all, and we consume on average over a year about 867 kWh per year and we live comfortably. Thats less than 1 - lighted billboard sign that one might see along our countries highways. Very seldom do we have to run a generator to supplement charge the battery bank. Typically in the winter months.

But hey! This is just my opinion on the matter, dont take it as the final word. I am at odds with the PV industry in general right now because of this so called "shortage" of raw stock (for making PV material) that seemed to happen almost overnight. It is responsible for the increase in cost of PV modules. The PV industry as well as its supporting electrical and electronic industries, even though they could be called Saints when compared to other industries, are not above reproach.

 
351 Posts
May 27, 2006 10:55 am
Re: Solar Power for Pond vs. house system

If you install a system for the ponds, you will need solar panels, and inverter and batteries.

Rather than investing in a lot of batteries, I would recommend that you install a grid tie inverter (no batteries) and PV panels at the house.  This system could be initally sized just to offset the pond usage of electricity. Or, you could take the money saved by not buying batteries, and put it towards additional PV panels that would help offset some of the rest of your electric bill.

I would also give some consideration to the need for running fountains 24/7. Even with fish in the ponds (unless the ponds are real small), there is no need to be running fountains 24/7.  I would look at putting timers on the pumps to shut them down late at night.

You might want to buy a Kill-A-Watt meter (about 30 bucks).  By plugging the pumps into it, you can get a real measure of just how much electricy they are using.  It would also be useful in measureing the consumption of power for other devices.

 
462 Posts
Jun 8, 2006 01:17 pm
Re: Solar Power for Pond vs. house system

...are the waterfalls powefull enough to create some electricity or operate a waterwheel to move water or operater a pump?
 

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