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> and may only come within tens of dollars of accurately predicting your water bill. Whenever I've had to water new grass seed I've always been surprised by my

> and may only come within tens of dollars of accurately predicting your water bill. Whenever I've had to water new grass seed I've always been surprised by my water bill.

hinkley 2y ago
There’s a guy on Reddit a couple days ago showing off his softball sized watermelon he grew with a $100 watering bill. The struggle is real.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  $100 is like 14HCF where I live (though it includes sweage). [edit] 14, not 12HCF.
  - hinkley 2y ago
    That’s the problem with irrigation. You get charged for the sewage cost of that much water even though it doesn’t end up there. Unless you’re a farmer.
tptacek 2y ago
There's a note on the draft of this post with like 6 comments from people on our team about how the water bill is a bad example. I stand by what I wrote!
genewitch 2y ago
my well only costs me electricity and has no meter - well, i have a meter somewhere, i just never installed it. I know for a fact it uses 9A to run, so it would cost me 30¢ or so, all-in, to run it for an hour. it's somewhere around 10-12GPM, so 600-700 gallons for 30c I've wanted to put it on solar the entire time i've had it but the start current is 18A and an inverter that can handle that is (or maybe was, idk) real expensive, considering. anyhow if you saw the area around my house, in the dog days of summer, right now, you'd think it had been raining non-stop all summer - in fact, it hasn't really rained at all since the beginning of june when we had 12" - i've personally watered 6+" over about 1/3rd of an acre, so like 50,000 gallons since then. edit: oh crap i forgot the reason i wanted to comment on this at all! My neighbor recently had some issues with a pipe running along the bottom of his house that sprung a leak and they got a surprise $600 water bill - no forgiveness. the water company did, in fact, have the audacity to tell my neighbor "there's a light on the meter if you have a leak." His meter is like a quarter mile from his house, first of all. and second of all, when they read the meter and saw the light, why didn't they go across the street and knock on his door, or make a note to call/mail? I'll tell you why. $600
- idlewords 2y ago
  Inverters have gotten a lot more capable and quite cheap; you should take a second look. Also look up "soft starters", they're devices designed to reduce start current on motors. They get mostly used for solar and generator A/C, but would work with a well pump, and might put it in the range of your current inverter. Speaking as someone who has had to run a gasoline generator to pump well water and is about to move it to solar, with great rejoicing.
  - genewitch 2y ago
    thanks, what brand, if any, do you recommend?
    - idlewords 2y ago
      I recently did an inverter replacement and my solar guy recommended this model: https://eg4electronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EG4-18KPV-12LV-Spec-Sheet.pdf https://eg4electronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EG4-18... Max output is 50A, so it should be plenty for your pump and mine. You can also chain them together if you want huge battery capacity.
      - genewitch 2y ago
        thank you, very much. !! oh wow, they actually support the full open-circuit voltage that my panels can be series linked* to reach! the only thing i saw many years ago was like... the power wall! Not only that, it can run every panel i currently own all by itself. that is a leap forward, compared to the last time i checked (a decade ago or so, it was depressing to want a separate solar grid, you need the grid tie stuff so you can run your house if the power goes out, but i mostly wanted the solar to manage water and lights and if possible, the small window/wall aircons that i use to keep servers cool.

> and may only come within tens of dollars of accurately predicting your water bill. Whenever I've had to water new grass seed I've always been surprised by my water bill.

hinkley 2y ago

There’s a guy on Reddit a couple days ago showing off his softball sized watermelon he grew with a $100 watering bill. The struggle is real.

aidenn0 2y ago
$100 is like 14HCF where I live (though it includes sweage). [edit] 14, not 12HCF.
- hinkley 2y ago
  That’s the problem with irrigation. You get charged for the sewage cost of that much water even though it doesn’t end up there. Unless you’re a farmer.

tptacek 2y ago

There's a note on the draft of this post with like 6 comments from people on our team about how the water bill is a bad example. I stand by what I wrote!

genewitch 2y ago

my well only costs me electricity and has no meter - well, i have a meter somewhere, i just never installed it. I know for a fact it uses 9A to run, so it would cost me 30¢ or so, all-in, to run it for an hour. it's somewhere around 10-12GPM, so 600-700 gallons for 30c I've wanted to put it on solar the entire time i've had it but the start current is 18A and an inverter that can handle that is (or maybe was, idk) real expensive, considering. anyhow if you saw the area around my house, in the dog days of summer, right now, you'd think it had been raining non-stop all summer - in fact, it hasn't really rained at all since the beginning of june when we had 12" - i've personally watered 6+" over about 1/3rd of an acre, so like 50,000 gallons since then. edit: oh crap i forgot the reason i wanted to comment on this at all! My neighbor recently had some issues with a pipe running along the bottom of his house that sprung a leak and they got a surprise $600 water bill - no forgiveness. the water company did, in fact, have the audacity to tell my neighbor "there's a light on the meter if you have a leak." His meter is like a quarter mile from his house, first of all. and second of all, when they read the meter and saw the light, why didn't they go across the street and knock on his door, or make a note to call/mail? I'll tell you why. $600

idlewords 2y ago
Inverters have gotten a lot more capable and quite cheap; you should take a second look. Also look up "soft starters", they're devices designed to reduce start current on motors. They get mostly used for solar and generator A/C, but would work with a well pump, and might put it in the range of your current inverter. Speaking as someone who has had to run a gasoline generator to pump well water and is about to move it to solar, with great rejoicing.
- genewitch 2y ago
  thanks, what brand, if any, do you recommend?
  - idlewords 2y ago
    I recently did an inverter replacement and my solar guy recommended this model: https://eg4electronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EG4-18KPV-12LV-Spec-Sheet.pdf https://eg4electronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EG4-18... Max output is 50A, so it should be plenty for your pump and mine. You can also chain them together if you want huge battery capacity.
    - genewitch 2y ago
      thank you, very much. !! oh wow, they actually support the full open-circuit voltage that my panels can be series linked* to reach! the only thing i saw many years ago was like... the power wall! Not only that, it can run every panel i currently own all by itself. that is a leap forward, compared to the last time i checked (a decade ago or so, it was depressing to want a separate solar grid, you need the grid tie stuff so you can run your house if the power goes out, but i mostly wanted the solar to manage water and lights and if possible, the small window/wall aircons that i use to keep servers cool.