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RE: Off-Grid: Complete Solar Power System Flow
You did a good job with your system. I looked into it for our house and the cost came in at about 3X what you spent. It isn't an apples to apples comparison because I was looking at a grid-tie system designed and installed by others, but it is still a big difference.
How do you run a well pump on such a small inverter? We could run on about 3000 Watts most of the time, but our well pump will choke a 5500 Watt generator.
That is over 7 HP. Might want to have it checked? Is it a very deep well (1000 ft)?
The well pump I am looking at, is 500 watts rated at 1/2 HP and will raise from 200 ft.
But he did do a good job, on his solar system! A lot of people fall down on storage, but he has a good size.
:)The well is 270 feet and the pump is rated for 8A/230V. It never tripped the breaker on the generator, so I guess it was OK, but it was certainly a big load when it was starting up.
If I was seriously thinking about going off the grid I think I would shop around for a low current pump and put in a cistern. You could pump at a trickle all day long and keep the cistern full, then use and on-demand pressure pump like in an RV.
I like the way you think, that is what I am building! I already bought the on demand pump, and plan to use a couple of bulk container to keep 500 gallons up top.
The well will come in at 80 feet, and I will drill it about 40 feet deeper for the pump. We are 1/2 mile from a hydroelectric lake, so it won't dry up.
Nice! Have you thought about preventing algae growth in the bulk containers?
Yes I will paint them black. If that is not enough, and I have some growth, I have a UV source around a glass tube I will add; with a small circulating pump, to clean it up.
Currently I draw water from my cistern - down the hill to the cabin - with a 300 foot gravity powered siphon - it has stayed primed with a dpigot at the bottom of the hose for 3 weeks now lol :) We'll use a small pump when we build the main house. No current plans to put in a well, but our neighbors went down about 150 feet. Back when I was considering a well, I read that often the will driller will set people up with a pump that is much more powerful than really needed and to request or purchase a smaller power pump for offgrid. The air compressor and the hot tub pulled over 2000 watts - did not crush the inverter, but really drained the batteries. I disconnected the hot tub jets and heater :)
You sound like a hardcore off-grid guy. I could never talk my family into that.
I was always up for it, my wife had been on a few homesteader message boards for a little while and was having thoughts about it, and my 9 year old son enjoys the outdoors and all the extra time with retired mum and dad - and he still has his tablets and internet for down time (what most people would probably miss these days :) Extra work for me - keeping all the utilities available off-grid - which gets easier as more structure is built - but other than that we dont feel isolated or missing much from on-grid life. We just do things a little different now - a nice slower pace :)