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It's good to see more companies investing in DC well and water pumps. DC pumps are an absolute must for off grid irrigation. Nearly all current well pumps are
by ed25519FUUU 5y ago
It's good to see more companies investing in DC well and water pumps. DC pumps are an absolute must for off grid irrigation.
Nearly all current well pumps are impossible to use off grid with solar panels without a HUGE battery and inverter because they're high voltage (or worse 3 phase) and use an ENORMOUS amount of amps when the pump first starts up.
To give you an idea, a wimpy 1 HP 220v well pump can draw 35 amps for the first 5 or 10 seconds when it starts up. That would require TWO Tesla power walls to support.
- Andys 5y agoI run such an AC pump, and I had good success adding a VFD controller instead of buying a new DC pump. It still runs off AC but internally runs off DC and back to AC again. It now has soft start and variable speed control, and draws about 30% less power than before.
- 20after4 5y agoIs this possible with a single phase pump or only 3 phase? All of the VFDs I've had experience with are only for 3 phase motors although they run from single phase AC input. The average well pump in the US isn't going to be 3 phase, however...
- ed25519FUUU 5y agoI think all VFDs are 3-phase, but you can get a similar effect using an soft start, which is common in the RV world for starting a compressor/AC on battery power.
- Andys 5y agoMine's single phase, and it works with a single phase VFD.