September 21, 20232 yr I opened this topic a while ago and since then, we are now living on the farm so would like to raise the subject again as I have had no progress. We have 9 solar panels that run a 220v 1.1kw submersible pump run through an inverter and capacitor ( see pic ). There is no power. It's in the bush and 300m away from the house. When the sun comes up, the pump runs and when the sun sets, the water stops. The pumped water is emptied into 2 x 5000l tanks each with a non powered overflow. When the water overflows one tank, I switch to the next one manually or let it run down a small stream. I am ( simply? ) wanting to control the pump times so that I don't waste water. Have tried countless geyser timers but they just pop when the power comes on. Too many amps I think. Would love a switch at the house ( 300m ) to turn it on and off manually but I guess the cabling would be too long and expensive. The geyser timer doesn't work. I have asked a number of solar guys in the area but it just seems so complicated and they don't seem willing. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Complete electrical novice but youtube friendly...
September 21, 20232 yr 1.1 kw is only 5 A, but the motor probably draws more when it starts up. You could have the timer control a relay, and let the relay handle the actual feed of power. A further problem is that the timer won't have power (because there is no power). It'll run off battery until it gets 220V AC from somewhere, but that really means that at best it'll run off battery half the time. Will the battery last? Will the time "creep"? I'd look at some other trigger for that relay. Maybe a level triggered switch in both tanks. When both tanks are full, don't pump. Extra points if you have something that switches off at 100% full and comes back on at, say, 90%, otherwise the system will be cycling on and off throughout the day, with the motor constantly starting up.
September 21, 20232 yr I opened this topic a while ago and since then, we are now living on the farm so would like to raise the subject again as I have had no progress. We have 9 solar panels that run a 220v 1.1kw submersible pump run through an inverter and capacitor ( see pic ). There is no power. It's in the bush and 300m away from the house. When the sun comes up, the pump runs and when the sun sets, the water stops. The pumped water is emptied into 2 x 5000l tanks each with a non powered overflow. When the water overflows one tank, I switch to the next one manually or let it run down a small stream. I am ( simply? ) wanting to control the pump times so that I don't waste water. Have tried countless geyser timers but they just pop when the power comes on. Too many amps I think. Would love a switch at the house ( 300m ) to turn it on and off manually but I guess the cabling would be too long and expensive. The geyser timer doesn't work. I have asked a number of solar guys in the area but it just seems so complicated and they don't seem willing. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Complete electrical novice but youtube friendly... Do you have 24/7 wifi at home? Do you have a cell signal at the pump?
September 21, 20232 yr Scorp have 24/7 wifi at home but no signal at pump. Then you can try a timer again but use a relay on the output to switch the pump on based on the hours you need it to pump. Example below. Edited September 21, 20232 yr by Scorp007
September 21, 20232 yr Seems like that inverter has level sensor inputs (from a pdf of a pump solar vfd that at least looks the same): My advice would be to get somebody qualified to use that to achieve what you want to achieve. Snippet from here: https://www.invt.com/uploads/file1/20230803/GD100-PV Series VFD Manual_V1.8.pdf
September 21, 20232 yr Hi Chris, here's some info on our experience re boreholes on our farm. When we bought we had several remote boreholes powered by expensive DC pumps coupled to a few panels, running all day like you have. Our main issue became theft, as the panels and then pumps became targets. I moved to running 220V from the house to the pumps, and installing cheap 220v pumps at the sites. I was then able to control the pumps via smart switches as a bonus, and the thefts disappeared. 300m is a long run, but you could use a smaller pump to reduce the loading and guage of wire. 10% losses in the cable are acceptable IMO. The fact that you want to time the pump implies it's bigger than abs necessary? We're off grid, and all the pumps are supplies by our home setup. Cheers Ian
September 21, 20232 yr Seems like that inverter has level sensor inputs (from a pdf of a pump solar vfd that at least looks the same): My advice would be to get somebody qualified to use that to achieve what you want to achieve. Snippet from here: https://www.invt.com/uploads/file1/20230803/GD100-PV Series VFD Manual_V1.8.pdf Depending on price one can consider a long range router and drive a Sonoff via battery. Battery will only be used to drive a relay to start and thus only use battery power for itself and the relay coil. PV is already available to charge the battery. Even a cheap lead acid can be used at the low power needed. Using an APP driven timer allows you to switch off when the tanks are full. A major plus vs a fixed time setting. Edited September 21, 20232 yr by Scorp007
September 21, 20232 yr Depending on price one can consider a long range router and drive a Sonoff via battery. Battery will only be used to drive a relay to start and thus only use battery power for itself and the relay coil. PV is already available to charge the battery. Even a cheap lead acid can be used at the low power needed. Depending on location, I can certainly assist with setting up a long range WiFi link. Mikrotik point to point connection.
September 22, 20232 yr Author Thanks all for the replies. Helps a lot. We have a good electrician in the town and will get him out to decipher the info and can perhaps set something up based on the above. We are looking into extended wifi used on farms where a wifi signal is triangulated over a distance of 300 to 800m. That may not only give us more possibilities but we could set up wifi cameras for safety too.
September 22, 20232 yr There are also smart switches available that run on the GSM Cell phone network https://www.giga.co.za/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=683 Another alternative is to use a Zigbee compatible smart switch. Zigbee is an alternative to wifi that is long range using low power so you can run it of a battery comfortably. You would need a zigbee bridge on your network as well to communicate with the Zigbee switch
September 22, 20232 yr Or one of these, runs on the 433mhz frequency so would probably get 300metres if it is line of sight https://tuya-smarthome.co.za/shop/remote-controls-for-smart-wifi-with-433mhz-option-long-mid-range/
September 22, 20232 yr There are also smart switches available that run on the GSM Cell phone network https://www.giga.co.za/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=683 Another alternative is to use a Zigbee compatible smart switch. Zigbee is an alternative to wifi that is long range using low power so you can run it of a battery comfortably. You would need a zigbee bridge on your network as well to communicate with the Zigbee switch The OP indicated no cell signal at pump so the GSM option is excluded. The long range remote is a good option and cheap to implement for remote on/off.
September 23, 20232 yr Or one of these, runs on the 433mhz frequency so would probably get 300metres if it is line of sight https://tuya-smarthome.co.za/shop/remote-controls-for-smart-wifi-with-433mhz-option-long-mid-range/ The Switch actually says 1000mtr range so should work https://tuya-smarthome.co.za/shop/long-range-wireless-switch-16a-remote-control-433mhz-1km/
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