Deep water... [RE-wrenches]

[Gary Higbee, Solutions from the Land]

Hi Wrenches,

I'd appreciate some help with a water-pumping/household design I'm working
on. I'm fine with the array-sizing for the household, but the water-pumping
is a challenge. We've got a lift of about 425' from the water in the well to
the big tank. We'd also like as close to 5,000 gallons per day as possible.
At this point my client understands this will greatly exceed his budget, but
would still like to get at least 2,000 gallons per day. I'll give you a few
parameters and pose a few questions:

PARAMETERS
location=near Yakima WA (east of cascades)
tracking hours per day in summer=10
well-depth=330'
static-level depth=230'
available gpm=over 50 (small aquifer)
additional lift up hill to 5,000 gallon tank=175'
design total lift with drawdown=425'
desired gallons per day summer=5,000 (probably unrealistic, given budget)
minimum gallons per day summer=around 2,000

ADDITIONSL
My client already has a propane generator (which will need the autostart
stuff). It appears that the initial system budget won't allow much of an
array, so we're looking at inverter(s), batteries, well-pump, with generator
charging to start with.

ESSENTIALS
Pumping scheme that lifts 2,000 gallons plus per day in the summer, with a
lift of 425'. Includes something like 6kwH/day domestic use. Winter water
pumping needs will be dramatically less, but much less sun means we'll want
to use the large solar arrays for both water pumping AND domestic use. The
challenge here is that ideally we might like something like a Solarjack SCS
pump (running PV-direct at 180 volts) for summer pumping, but also be able
to use the same array for inverter/domestic use. This way we don't have a
big pumping array sitting around in the winter, when we'll need all we can
get for the house.

OPTIONS/QUESTIONS
At this point I see several options, but all have challenges (sounds like
real life!):

1) Use a Solarjack SCS pump. We'd need a big, efficient transformer to
convert a 48-volt nominal battery bank into the 180 volts at almost 8 amps
the Solarjack SCS pump wants. Running the model 4-550 with PCB8-180
controller would give around 3,000 gallons in our 10 tracking hours--a good
number. Any ideas?

2) Use two Sunrise pumps. This lets us use a 48-volt system for pumping and
inverter. The problem here is that we may be just out of reach of the model
5222 (1.6 gpm @ 400'), and we would be looking at the model 5218 and 1.2
gpm. Doubling this (two pumps) gives us 2.4gpm. Running this for 10 tracking
hours only gives us about 1400 gallons per day for something over $4,000 in
pumps/controllers. But it does so with great efficiency (about half the
array of the above). It probably isn't practical to size the battery bank so
that we continue to run the pumps long after dark, so we seem limited
something like 2,000 gallons per day.

3) Use an AC pump with one SW inverter and a T-240 transformer. In my
conversations with Trace I'm told to stick with something like a 3/4hp
maximum for one SW (4024, 4048), with a locked-rotor amps safely in the
range of the inverter. Since we don't want to dump the household stuff every
time the pump starts this could be challenging for a 425' lift.

4) Use an AC pump with two DR 3624 inverters (two SW's are likely out of the
budget) for a high-surge 240-volt source. This sounds workable but we're not
getting sine-wave to the house (oh-well), and we're sorely lacking in
generator control (750' from the house, in the snow and ice!).

5) Go with a big AC pump, and do the water pumping with the generator. This
is likely the cheapest short-term solution, but it sounds yucky!

HELP!?
I'd sure appreciate some ideas here.

THANK YOU!

Gary

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Gary Higbee  (ghigbee at efn.org)
             (541)607-1818
    Solutions from the Land--solar,
  wind, and hydro site analysis, design,
            and installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




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