Solar panels for vacuum pump

[Beerclouds]

Hi everyone.....im trying to set up my lines so i have vacuum but having difficulty getting my system to work like i seen on youtube...so im thinkin on just running my pump continuously...the thing im wondering is ..i have a 250watt solar panel and want to know if that will charge my deep cycle battery after running all nite...i have a solar charge controller to hook up the panels and hope that 250 will be enough to top the battery after running all nite

[maple flats]

Good question, will the panel be in a location where it will get full sun? Will the day be sunny? (that is the hard part, I know, I have 6320 watts of solar, of that only 1480 is battery back up.) How much power does your pump use in watts? What type of charge controller is it, PWM or MPPT? The latter will get you the most power but it costs far more. How many AH deep cycle battery will you have.
Basically, you have a couple of options. The first is to have 2 such batteries, use one while you charge the second on house current. Another is to have a back up plan to charge the battery if there is not enough sun. Remember, especially if you have just 1 battery that it will be drawing power all day and all night. In the daytime whatever the solar generates, first goes to run the pump, only the excess goes to charge the battery. Many producers on this site use 12V deep cycle batteries to run a pump but I'm not aware of any that use a 250 watt solar panel and CC to maintain the battery.
If your charge controller (CC) was 100% efficient, which it is not, a 250 watt panel in full sun under test conditions will generate 250 watts per hour. On my 1480 watt system I have very rarely seen even a brief moment where I got 1480 watts coming in. The few that came close or even exceeded the 1480 watts were when the temperature was quite cold (the panel will generate more power at -20F than at +40F in full sun). However I'll guess that on the good days (sun wise) you should be ok, on a rainy day you will still run for 24 hrs but won't have enough energy left to get you thru the second night. Give me the pump, battery and the CC specs and I'll try to get more specific.

[bmbmkr]

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/conversions/common/watts-amps.php

250 watts makes 20+ amps at 12V. With a shurflo or equivalent pulling up to 10 amps, you should have a 10 amp surplus to charge the battery during sunlight hours if your panel is producing 100%. There are lots of variables though, and in my opinion, and what I am doing this year is running two batteries on each pump and using a temp controller to switch the pump on & off. I used 100 watt panels last year and would get about 4 days out of a battery- I have an additional panel and battery for each shurflo this year and with t he addition of temp controllers, I won't have to be 4 places at once to turn the pumps on when the woods thaw. Good luck!

[Biz]

The Shurflo pumps draw substantially less than max current when used for vacuum. I have seen less than 1.5 amps draw on a Shurflo 4008 3gpm pump, and about 2 amps max on a 4048 pump normally. My system last year had a 100W solar charger and single deep cycle marine battery. If the pump was shut down at night, the battery would maintain charge. But where there was a 2-3 day warm period, overcast weather, the battery would go low and needed recharging or swapping out. Age of battery is a factor also, mine was 3-4 years old. Bottom line, with 100 watt solar charger you may need to recharge the battery once or twice during the season.

[Beerclouds]

Hi dave...i have an aqua pro pump model# AP3000 3.0gpm....the battery is an interstate deep cycle 12v and the c.c. is just a generic brand off amazon model z30 12v2160621607

[Beerclouds]

I have been attempting to hook up an inkbird itc 1000f but to no success...ive watched almost every video on youtube and still cant make it turn my pump on....im on the verge of a padded room soon...

[Biz]

The Aqua Pro pump should draw about the same power as the Shurflo 4008, 1.2 to 1.4 amps, and your 250W panel should be more than adequate to keep the battery charged. Check out my website, you can get a 3-D controller that monitors and automates everything including a bypass valve.

Dave

[maple flats]

Hi dave...i have an aqua pro pump model# AP3000 3.0gpm....the battery is an interstate deep cycle 12v and the c.c. is just a generic brand off amazon model z30 12v2160621607
I'm not familiar with that pump but if I can read the label correctly, it uses 3.5A at 12V. That would be when moving water or sap, air and intermittent sap would be less. That battery is too small, you want almost double that AH rating. The charge controller is a PWM, (pulse width modulation) type. PWM sends the same voltage all of the time, but it varies the length of the pulse depending the SOC (state of charge) of the battery. They are much cheaper but still might be OK. Solar is getting much cheaper, back when I bought my first 2 panels (150 watts each) they cost $410 each. Now you can buy far higher efficiency panels at about $1-1.25/watt. Get some from well under $1/watt. I suggest if you really want to try solar, you get one more panel the same as the one you have, not just the samw wattage. Different panels do not play well together. Each panel has specific specs on it's performance. If you run 2 panels together that are not exactly the same specs, the better one will only perform at the one with the lower spec in any category. That is why I have 2 systems, I had 8 panels by Kyocera 185 watt. I wanted more but they had been discontinued. When I looked at Kyocera 220 watt panels and compared the specs, if I added 4840 watts worth and coupled them to the 8@ 185 watts array(1480 watts) my best input would have been just 5050 watts rather than the 6320 I now get. Tha't because the specs don't match.
With 2 panels (500 watts total) and if placed in a sunny location, along with a top of the line deep cycle lead acid battery you might be able to get 3-5 days before needing a recharge if the days are sunny. If cloudy you might get 2 days (even on mostly cloudy days you will get some power). If you use your small existing battery to connect when you take the big one for a charge, it should run 1 night.

[minehart gap]

I have been attempting to hook up an inkbird itc 1000f but to no success...ive watched almost every video on youtube and still cant make it turn my pump on....im on the verge of a padded room soon...

Beerclouds, George from youtube channel Barley and Hops gives a tutorial on setting up a rainbird temperature control. His application is to control a heating element that I found useful for my syrup bottler but hopefully it will give enough information to you to help set up a pump control. Hope this helps, if not, George seems to be a smart guy and takes phone calls so maybe he can point you in the right direction if the video doesn't give enough information.

Looking at the product information, I would think that you would want it set for cool mode but I know from my controller that the other parameters are just as important if not more.

[Greenthumb]

Just a random thought on the shurflow 4008 12volt pump . Could you just hook it to a cheap old car battery charger if you had power near the pump ? Would that run the pump and not cause Any problem. I have a old charger I don’t use and power and am going to use 3/16 lines on about 75 taps with three lines. Figured this saves me buying a battery that I don’t have now.

[maple flats]

If the charger has an output of 8 or more amps. Reading the specs that pump at it's highest pressure output uses 6.8A, thus an 8A out charger will work regardless of the load on the pump. If the output pressure never exceeds 30 or even 40 PSI a 6A is big enough.

[Biz]

A battery charger is designed to charge a battery, so it may not act the same as a regulated power supply, if you want to power the pump directly. Especially if it is a cheap charger. The battery acts like a capacitor which smooths out the 60 cycle AC line fluctuations. Maybe it will work OK, but I would suggest checking the pump voltage with a voltmeter to make sure the pump voltage is between 11-14 volts when running. You could find a small lead acid battery like from a lawn tractor, motorcycle etc that is not being used and keep it connected if this is a problem.

Dave

[Greenthumb]

so just hook the pump and charger to the battery leads at the same time would this work. I do have a old lawn a garden battery that does not hold a charge could I do that.

[Biz]

That should work.


so just hook the pump and charger to the battery leads at the same time would this work. I do have a old lawn a garden battery that does not hold a charge could I do that.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Do you have a temperature controller? All you need to do it set it to turn the pump on and off at certain temperatures. Im using a simple Inkbird controller on 2 systems. It turns the pumps on and off and runs a ball valve. So when the pumps are off the valve is open in case I run out of battery the sap will bypass the pump and gravity flow.

[toothfairy050]

West Summer Sugar. I was wondering were you bought the by pass valve that opens when the pump is off?

[West Sumner Sugar]

West Summer Sugar. I was wondering were you bought the by pass valve that opens when the pump is off?

It all in the programing and wiring of your system. I use normally open ball valves so at night when the pump turns off, the valve goes back to and open position, bypassing the pump allowing for gravity. In the morning, the pump kicks on, the valve closes and all sap flows through the pump. I usually get my valves on ebay.

[toothfairy050]

Thanks for the info

[Beerclouds]

That is what is was attempting to do was run a temp controller but i set the parameters to turn off and on the pump and either the pump doesnt turn on or shut off at desired temps...

[West Sumner Sugar]

That is what is was attempting to do was run a temp controller but i set the parameters to turn off and on the pump and either the pump doesnt turn on or shut off at desired temps...

What controller are you using? And are you using heating or cooling mode? I believe my Inkbird controller is in cooling mode meaning as the temp goes up, it thinks it needs to cool so it turns on the pump.