Vacuum options in the woods ( Battery or solar )

[Maplesapper]

Looking to run a mainline in the woods- far away from power and no downslope.

Does anyone have a good solution for running a vacuum in the woods- battery or solar power ?

[whity]

Looking to run a mainline in the woods- far away from power and no downslope.

Does anyone have a good solution for running a vacuum in the woods- battery or solar power ?

Look up Shurflo pump setups. We run 4 in our woods, all on marine batteries and solar chargers.

[NhShaun]

Look up Shurflo pump setups. We run 4 in our woods, all on marine batteries and solar chargers. Are you running mainline or 5/16,3/16 straight into a manifold before each pump? And how many watts of solar, Ah batter storage do you have for each pump station?

[wmick]

I run a couple small 12 volt pumps (1.7Amp max) together on a pair of truck batteries, along with 3 40watt solar panels... I find the solar panels don't keep up, and I need to charge the batteries fairly regularly... Especially this year, with the mild temps, I've been leaving the pumps run 24 hours a day lately.

On a side note... If its OK, I'd like to share a little related brainstorming, I've been doing... And invite any thoughts or ideas... (note: my trees are a couple miles from my home and sugaring equipment... I pump the sap to a trailer on the road and take it home)
This year, rather than carrying batteries in and out to charge them, I left a generator in the woods to run battery chargers periodically... but it is still a pain in the butt because it takes 2 or 3 hours to bring the batteries back up, with 10Amp chargers. So a fair bit of time or trips back and forth. An added bonus, was installing a 120v submersible pump, permanently, in my sap tank with a permanent 3/4" pipe to the road... (so, no more carrying pumps and hoses in and out) Just fire the generator up to run the pump and charge batteries at the same time) ... Now, I'm thinking that I could find a generator with electric start... and get a propane conversion kit. (available for most common small engines)... With propane you don't need to "choke" it, etc... and devise a controller that will fire the generator up whenever the batteries dip below 11.5V and run for an hour or two, to run the chargers.. This would allow me the convenience of being able to run some bigger 12V diaphragm pumps, while drastically reducing the man-hours spent re-charging batteries. I've thought about running a very small gas powered vacuum pump 24/7, but even the smallest of engines will break the bank in fuel costs for me.

Update... Just found a built in,"RV" style , propane, electric start 3400W generator on kijiji... (Canada's Craigslist) for $150 CDN. Will be picking it up tonight. :cool: Starting to come together already....

[NhShaun]

I run a couple small 12 volt pumps (1.7Amp max) together on a pair of truck batteries, along with 3 40watt solar panels... I find the solar panels don't keep up, and I need to charge the batteries fairly regularly... Especially this year, with the mild temps, I've been leaving the pumps run 24 hours a day lately.Jeeze that's a minimal draw for pumps, The Shurlo 4008 says 7.5amp max, not sure what it draws on average.

[toothfairy050]

How about a battery powered timer to start the generator to charge batteries a a regular basis.

[wmick]

Jeeze that's a minimal draw for pumps, The Shurlo 4008 says 7.5amp max, not sure what it draws on average.

Yep... but the shurflo is a much better unit with more diaphragms.... I don't know either, what it actually draws... Would be nice if someone on here has been tracking that.... I am just guessing, but with no restriction on the outlet, and just pulling vacuum, the energy required would be equivalent of 14.7 psi (perfect vacuum) or less... and according the chart in this spec sheet, that would put the pump at about 4 amps. This is just supposition on my part.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81fsZQoRlVS.pdf

[DrTimPerkins]

....with no restriction on the outlet, and just pulling vacuum, the energy required would be equivalent of 14.7 psi (perfect vacuum) or less...

Pretty sure that's not the way these things work....otherwise this pump is capable of pulling over 4X a perfect vacuum. :rolleyes: So unless you're planning on violating the laws of physics in a really big way, you'll need to do some rethinking of your calculations. :D

[Biz]

I have set up a bunch of these Shurflo pumps, and the 3gpm 4008's always draw between 1.0 - 1.5 amps when used to draw vacuum on a typical sap line. My controllers measure pump current draw to detect an overcurrent condition or blown fuse so the current is always known. The current does increase if flow and/or pressure increases, maybe it will see 7.5 amps in certain situations, but they will not see high flow or high pressure in a typical sap vacuum setup. The 3gpm pump will run about 35 hours on a fully charged deep cycle marine battery.

I have measured up to 11-12 amps on a 5gpm pump when transferring sap uphill on a 550' long piece of 1/2" pipe with a 55' elevation.

Dave


Jeeze that's a minimal draw for pumps, The Shurlo 4008 says 7.5amp max, not sure what it draws on average.

[wmick]

Pretty sure that's not the way these things work....otherwise this pump is capable of pulling over 4X a perfect vacuum. :rolleyes: So unless you're planning on violating the laws of physics in a really big way, you'll need to do some rethinking of your calculations. :D

I will do that.... Now you've got me thinking.... I'm aware that we cant get below 0 psia.... but I'm thinking.... With a positive displacement pump... Does it take the same amount of energy to draw a 30ft column of water as it would to push a 30ft column of water?? I'm thinking it would.... Not ??

[DrTimPerkins]

Does it take the same amount of energy to draw a 30ft column of water as it would to push a 30ft column of water?? I'm thinking it would.... Not ??

Very doubtful. The maximum water column you can pull with suction is 33.9 ft (in a perfect vacuum at sea level). You can pump water MUCH higher than you can pull it (suction).