Solar panels for a borehole pump

[Jakes]

Hi guys

 

A friend offered me solar borehole pump. It's a lot more than what I will need, but it can make sense to use it. It comes with an MPPT-controller box and the motor/pump combination. There's no solar panels with the pump.

 

The inscription on the pump says: 220V (underscored, for DC) and 3kW.

 

I will not need an output of more than 1kW.

 

Is it possible to use less generating capacity from the solar panels than what the ability of the pump is?

 

I was thinking along the lines of using 5 x 240W/48V panels, connected in series.

 

Can that be done?

 

Thanks again.

[Wetkit]

Hi Jakes,

 

Man, you lucky to have a friend like that.

Of pumps I know nothing, so the best would be to take some photo's of it and send it to somebody that deals with that specific pump on a daily basis, like the supplier.

How deep the well is, how far you looking to pump the water and the size of the pump makes a big diffrence to the power required.

 

The biggest problem with pumps is always the start-up current. With your set-up you only going to get 5Amps, but if that would be enough to get the pump going, i'm not sure.

 

Good luck!

[Jakes]

Hi W

 

I'm using a gps to measure height above sea level. Really don't know how accurate it is, but here goes.

• The borehole is 255m above sea level.
• The tank will probably be at 310m.
• The borehole is 60m deep.
• I'd like the pump to be about 40m below ground level.
• The water level seems to stabilize at about 10m below ground level if I pump 1200l/m, which is more than enough for our needs.

Reading about the pumps coming from the east, some of them seem to be able to lift the water to a height of 140m, using an 850W/48V motor. The power is supplied by panels of 1000W.

 

Any ideas if I will be able to make this one work?