Solar Water Pumps: June 2014

Pond Solar Pump

Updated: 06-16-2014

We attempted to drill a well on a rather difficult Arbuckle formation and opted to use water out of a collection pond we use as a small, but ineffective duck pond. When dry during the summer after pumping, we will harvest the rich soil and use it on gardens or wallow areas, which will also increase the holding capacity of the pond. We can also plant some millet if we wanted for forage improvement for ducks. The half-acre pond catches 100 acres of rainfall and can easily fill up in a day. Instead of trying to make the well, we will use the solar pump setup to place in the pond and pump up the pasture to some spreader dams that were built in some clayish soils. We obtained our pump from the folks at Advanced Power, who were great to answer questions and comment on our specific installation.

The pump is placed in a 5 gallon bucket with rope and float for retrieval via canoe. The pump can easily pump the 20-30 feet of uphill head pressure and as long as we run 1″ PVC pipe, the resistance of the flow can handle the 750′ of travel distance. We made one box near the pond to connect the 1/2 inch black pipe from the pump to the PVC and added a backflow preventer to keep the water from flowing back during cloudy periods of the day. We will have to disconnect the pump during the winter as there is no way in this set up to protect the piping from freezing and blowing the pump due to back pressure. Small price to pay to get the water up the hill to the future quail oasis locations.

We had an interesting opportunity due to the topography to run the flow in two directions using gravity and a simple inexpensive 9 volt landscape system timer. We placed the solenoid valve in the box at the top of the hill below the rock overflow which is about 2 feet above. We set the timer to open for a few hours a day at different times which opens the pipe flowing downhill in the opposite direction. When the valve closes, the pump pushes the flow back up the rock overflow which is directed the opposite direction.

The valve and landscape timer have been used for over a year in another installation with great reliability. The two 9 volt batteries have lasted over a year. For the cost of about $100, the functionality can’t be beaten. You can order the valve here.

(UPDATE: The valve just mentioned works well on pressurized systems. There is almost no pressure created by the solar pump and after installing the Hunter valve, we discovered that the valve wasn’t opening. After reading the trouble shooting page, we deduced the valve needed pressure, but we needed confirmation. We had a simple garden hose timer on hand (about $30) to regulate the bird dog misting system and tested it to see if water would flow through it when we held it vertically. The valve did open with just gravity pressure, so we rebuilt the manifold with the new timer and brass garden hose fittings to connect to the 1″ PVC piping. Once set we tested the functionality and it works just as designed. When the timer allows, the valve opens and water refuses to flow uphill to the rock structure and instead flows downhill in the desired direction. You can order this valve here. )

Click here for a helpful list of parts for making drip and irrigation improvements.

The installation worked as intended and yields about 3 gallons per minute, enough to saturate the soils over time and allow a diversity of plants for bugging and cooling during the hot summers.

View the video of the water flowing from the rock structure here.

Valve box left of rock stack	Water Flowing to spreader dam system

Overflow about 2 feet above valve	Black pipe to be trimmed



Right pipe from pump, valve closes for water to rocks Hunter valve that didn’t work w/o pressure	Garden Hose timer designed for slow flow and pressure worked in this design installation (pics are flipped to each other but flow the same)