Solar Powered Well Pump Filling Our Pond - How Many Gallons Per Minute? - - - RPS Solar Pumps 

It certainly does have some appeal! I'm going to have to think on it a bit!

Yes it has been very dry! Good point about placement. Would hate for it to be underwater. The berm would be a good storm shelter. Kinda from from our house though.

Still considering that, my one fear is that it would become stagnant water vs the rest of the pond.

@@IndyFarmLife ah, good point.

Open loop geothermal! I looked into that when we built. Still something I wouldn't mind doing

​@@IndyFarmLifeAny fish in the pond will be happier about it. I

Most definitely! Water gets warm in the summer!

Good to know and good guess! How did you measure that? Have you been sitting and watching it/estimating, or were you able to pull that info from the controller somehow? I'm close to getting it setup with my generator. I want to see if I can get this thing running 12+ hours a day.

@Dobrinich Yes, a lot of factors at play! I will say, though, that we are starting to see it come up noticeably. I'm going to provide an update video in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Thanks Pete! I have actually been struggling with what to do there. I thought about doing what you suggest, but in theory, it should never be low enough to run in. Still not sure what I'll do. At minimum I may lay a pipe in and just cap it on the end outside of the pond.

@@IndyFarmLife I have a similar issue with run off, I installed a irrigation gate that can be opened if the pond is low enough. In the event the pond level is up, then I have a solar powered pump installed that runs during the day to slowly pump the run off into the pond. The solar pump system is still a work in progress, working on the solar array size and the pump rate. But it does work, but currently is too slow.

@@IndyFarmLife you still the grasshopper mower diesel 721 d

@@IndyFarmLife you still have the 721d diesel grasshopper tractor

I sure do!

Sounds easy....and cheap...but yes! Ha

@@IndyFarmLife You already have a solar pond heater. It's called the sun.

@Bigfoot14000 🤣🤣true!!!

If I don't pump overnight, it would have that time recharge. Once it's full I don't think I'll have a need for night time pumping. We just have this initial hurdle to get over.

Noted! The earlier the better!

I may have to do that! Would be an awesome feature.

@IndyFarmLife it would make pumping more hours a day convenient. It might take more than 1 battery to go 24/7. Staying with solar makes it easier to automate.

Multiple people have suggested this. I need to figure it out.

@IndyFarmLife not to over complicate, but 1 more thing. If you'll add an expansion tank and a pressure switch like a household well has your pump will cycle on and off while maintaining a constant flow of water. It will more than likely make your pump last twice as long.

22 gpm is 2.94 cubic feet/min

Deceiving, I suppose! You saw the 5 gallon bucket tests in their entirety. It's moving some serious water

@@IndyFarmLife it was very deceptive. That pump is moving some serious water. The only thing I’d be worried about is running the well dry. I’ve done that once before

Yea, that's always in the back of a my mind, but that's the reason I drilled a dedicated well for the pond and didn't pull from the house well. Suppose they could be pulling from the same "pocket" but it at least gives a little piece of mind.

@@IndyFarmLife as long as the refresh rate is high enough to replenish the well. You are somewhat correct or correct about pulling from the same pocket of water. But as long as you do good water management you should be good.

Catching 40lb cats sounds fun! But it also sounds like they may bite at just about anything? ha

71 days from today, that could be a pretty good guess!

I would love to do that. This controller isn't built to accept batteries out of the box, but there has to be a way.

The pump is currently only running when the sun is out, so about 8 hrs a day. That was likely at par with evaporation during that hot week. If I get it running 24/7 then it will no doubt outpace evaporation.

Thank you! You and me both! PS I meant to tell you that I think you helped my neighbor buy a fan for his barn. Hopefully he used you link!

@@IndyFarmLife right on! I love that fan!

Thanks! Time will tell!

I would say that yes, it will be full ON 5/4/25, however, my hope is that it is also full by 12/31/24 ha

I think that's in the wheelhouse of possibilities!

That would be awesome! We would likely need some big rains to help it along, which would mean a short season of fall leaves. As much as I want the pond full, I don't want the beauty of fall to pass by quickly!

Not too far off! 22 gpm when we have full sun

I would be very pleased with that if so!!

Awesome! So you have seen it all! There will be many more updates to come!

Probably a little deceiving from that far away. That's a 2" piece of PVC it's running out of. You saw the 5 gallon bucket test in full. It's moving some serious water.

@@IndyFarmLife I was working backwards based on what I thought the solar + pump setup could generate. :-) Then saw the next 30 seconds or so of video and realized how wrong I was.... Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing. Looks like it is going to be an amazing setup for your family.

@@SenatorPerry Ahh I'm with you now! Yea, it's an impressive little setup! We shall see what it can do. We are supposed to get the tail end of the latest storm/hurricane coming up later this week. (hope everyone is safe) That should raise the pond a fair amount.

Dang that's crazy! Yes a heat exchanger may be needed next year if it drops the water temp too much. Time will tell!

That would be pretty quick! The overflow could be adjusted up or down. I have it maxed our right now. I.e. If I raise it anymore, we will overflow our banks. The pond is already fully stock! I have a video on that out there. I put pond dye in about every 60 or 70 days. The aerator is run off grid power....for now!

Ha why the doubt?

@@IndyFarmLife harbor freight printed 4 or 4.5 gallon you got a good well thow

@notaquitter that is a Lowes bucket

@@IndyFarmLife oops lol sorry

I presume you saw that it was about 22gpm. I was impressed by the figures myself!

@@IndyFarmLife gotta say the math for me was a pain to figure out then when i did it a bit in my head i got a fair rough amounted area on the amount did a lil division etc got the estimate but yeah i love the idea of a solar power well pump for a pond

@@IndyFarmLife yeah i noticed actually i in my own downtime sometimes watch well fracking for something to do if i get bored iv kind of found how that's done to be interesting for a well pump dig and how they set a well in ground to water level tho never did think about a 12v solar hooked to a well pump to be honest about it hey free power for the pump to the pond so even when powers out doesn't stop running at least love that idea as well even when powers out its running complete redundant off solar power my own opinion on that is man i find that idea epic 12v for a water well pump to a pond smart self sustain power low work needed hey to be honest i love that idea in general : D power failure no problem for the pond anymore so hey that is a total win in my own book on that one bein said

Haha thanks! I went through it a little fast but I think it all makes sense. 🙃 Time will tell! I think the weather will be a big factor as to when it's full.

Possibly so. I'm not an expert. As designed this system/controller isn't built to accept batteries, but I would like to learn more about why not, and also see if it's possible. I may contact RPS.

Man that would be awesome! We are likely going to need some rain to help us out if so. My personal guess is December 9th.

The solar panels could hook directly to batteries and to the pump, but this controller isn't built for that. They do have some that are. Someone smarter than me would have to explain it all.

@@IndyFarmLife so I believe the solution would be the wires from the solar panels would go into a charge controller for the batteries, which decides which rate of charge, and when to stop charging the batteries. Then you could run your pump off of the Batteries, which would also be DC. And you could also possibly hook a inverter to it to have AC power at that location. You would also need some fuses in there and maybe a shunt to be able to tell what level your batteries are at. There are lots of videos about people making DIY battery backup systems that will show you what you need and how to connect it if you're interested

Thanks for the info! That's not something I have ever really looked into, but may. Would be a really cool setup. I'll have to dive deeper. There is a pond joke in there somewhere ha

As currently designed, this system doesn't accept battery backup, but I would like to explore that. Perhaps I'll reach out to RPS and see what options I have.