Runnig a pump from a Solar panel.

[Vic Halom]

I'm designing a simple solar water heater for college and need to know if I can run the pump from a solar photovoltaic panel. So the pump only operates during sunny periods. Appreciate there isn't a simple answer to this question but as this is just the planning stage need to know if It's possible.

[guydewdney]

yes - this system is commercially available. Solar twin I think its called. Alternativly, make your own, using a 12v central heating pump (yes - they do exist)

[Vic Halom]

Thanks, we covered solartwin at college, hence the project. Might go over to fleabay and look at inline fuel pumps.

[ericw]

Vic,
I would suggest one of these, Ebay item# 330410899736, rather than a fuel pump. Suppose to run from a PV panel. Cannot vouch for that, but works well in a 12v battery backed system.

[Contadino]

The pump needs to be able to deal with high temperature water, so an inline fuel pump may not be suitable.

I got mine from the US - it's an El Cid from Ivan Systems - but there is a German company that makes a similar one.  Can't remember the company name, but I think it begins with L.  I thought Navitron sells (sold?) them.  The reason they're better for the job is because the pumps are variable speed - as in they go faster in full sun and slower in overcast conditions.

[SteveH]

 Did a forum search, as this has been asked before:-


http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3526.60.html (Page 3 onward)

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,8240.0.html

 hope this helps...

 Steve...

[KenB]

Hi,

I tried this 5 years ago with a 10W solar panel.

I finally found a peristaltic pump that would pump about 60 litres per hour which maximised the temperature rise in the solar panel.

10W is on the lower margin of what you can run a small dc pump on.  15 to 20W would be much better, or do as I did and use a buffer battery.

I now have 150W of pV and a 200Wpeak inverter to run a standard Wilo DCH circulation pump - which uses about 30W on low speed setting.


Ken

[billi]

Hello

yes Navitron sell those Laing Ecocirc  Solar pumps  as well
http://www.navitron.org.uk/product_detail.php?proID=401&catID=122

My folks run one with a 40 watt PV   on their 10 m2 solar panel , performed very well  and supposed to increase the efficiency of a solar installation


that is the performance table  of it in various light conditions  we got from the solar supplier


Billi




 

[Contadino]

10W is on the lower margin of what you can run a small dc pump on.  15 to 20W would be much better, or do as I did and use a buffer battery.

Mine is a 5w pump, running off a 10w panel.  I have 2sqm of collector.  I could've got a 5w panel but the bloke at Ivan Systems said that if there was glycol in the circuit, it sometimes needs the extra 5w on cold mornings as the fluid gets a bit gloopy.  However, now that I have a diff temp controller in place, I really doubt that issue ever happens.  The 10w panel now charges the batteries in the diff temp controller as well as runs the pump (i.e. when the collector is cooler than the store, but the sun is out, the batteries get charged, otherwise the sun is used to run the pump.)