Deep water... [RE-wrenches]

[jay peltz]

Hi Gary,

Yes the new "soft start" ( I can't remember the new numbers) are very impressive, work fine on the SW
series inverters and truly don't have surge. They are a really good choice for inverter AC pumps.
They cost around $1000 retail if I remember right.  You can contact Preferred pumps out in
california, Fresno I believe or any other Grundfos dealer and they can tell you the specs.

Jay

"Gary Higbee, Solutions from the Land" wrote:

> Hi Wrenches,
>
> Thanks so much for the input for my 425' deep, "big water" client.
>
> Yes, the most important element in this system is conservation, and we're
> not going to be economical if we're using compact fluorescent bulbs in the
> home while we're gushing water all over the land! Good point about strongly
> stressing this.
>
> I do see wind as a possibility, though this is hilly terrain, he's down a
> slope, and he wants something installed very soon (i.e., doesn't want to
> wait for monitoring).
>
> My client just plain wants lots of water, though he's backed down from 5,000
> gallons a day, thank goodness. We're still at a couple thousand gallons or
> so in the summer. At this point we're leaning towards as large an AC pump as
> his generator can handle for summer use--pumped into a 5,000 gallon holding
> tank on the hill. I'm not thrilled with this, but his budget doesn't allow
> 2-3KW of PV's at this time, he's already got a decent generator, and he
> still wants quite a bit of water. My biggest concern is that if he puts in a
> 2hp electric pump (which would probably be most efficient in loading up the
> generator) it probably wouldn't be practical to run the pump from inverters,
> assuming there was enough array for it. I could see the possibility of
> adding a Sunrise for general domestic use in the non-irrigation season,
> though this would go in under the big AC pump, and should probably be done
> at the same time.
>
> In one sense I'd like to go with the largest AC pump a SW4024 or 4048 could
> handle, even though it would be run from a generator most of the time. At
> least then we'd have a possible upgrade path. I'm not excited about the home
> computer crashing whenever the pump starts, though! So it seems that either
> we've got two big SW's (too expensive), two big DR's (generator-control
> lacking, less efficient motor operation), or detaching the irrigation
> pumping from the household stuff (our likely direction).
>
> This is an interesting example of where my personal philosophy is
> challenged. My client--a wonderful guy, and retired firefighter (hmm, could
> this be related to wanting lots of water?)--wants to "green" a harsh place.
> It's hard to imagine using so much water in this particular place. I suspect
> that once the propane generator bill starts mounting this will further
> promote water conservation (drip lines, mulching, sticking with
> drought-tolerant species). I suspect that the system will adjust itself in
> time (a Permaculture perspective, perhaps). For now it looks like we'll
> detach the pumping from the household system, and I'll try to keep some
> future options open.
>
> I am steering toward the most efficient AC pump we can find--maybe one of
> the new Grundfos models. Any of you have experience with any of the newer,
> efficeint "soft-start" models?
>
> Again, thanks!
>
> 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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