Delta Pro won't run my Well Pump....

[MichaelK]

You didn't do your homework. This information is readily available, right on this site. Here I've cut and pasted the pump chart that you should have been able to find yourself.


Looking at the 1/2hp 115V pump, you can see it has a starting surge of ~55A. That's 6325W of startup surge. You'll need a low-frequency transformer-based inverter to start this. Your typical AiO can only handle a starting surge for only 8-16 milliseconds. Look for an inverter that can handle that starting surge for> 500 milliseconds.

Is it doable, yes, for sure. Is it doable for <1500$. Most likely not. My Conext SW4024 might handle it. I've not run a pump on it, but it can start a 1.6hp air-compressor, and a 3cuft cement mixer.

 

[sunsurfer]

This seems to be a common problem with people going off-grid,to get the well setup powered. I see it gets allot of people. Soft start is really the best option for off-grid, especially for deep wells. OPs well is not to deep but there are not to many options in the fractional HP 120v well pumps. A 1/6 HP would likely work fine but no one makes a good one that I know of. I would avoid the DC solar well pumps that run valves and diaphrams, the are not reliable enough for me.

My water is down 150'. I went with a Grundfos softstart (SQ-160). Its 1/2 HP and pulls about 1000watts. I'm getting about 9.5 gallons a minute into a holding tank, then I pressure from there. 150' is pushing towards the limits of 120v for decent flow. I have ran it with HF inverters no problem. Small inverter generators can handle it just fine.

I'm putting in an irrigation pump to move water out of the creek from a well/vault. I'm looking at a much higher power pump, maybe 1.5HP/3 phase 240v. I'm going to just get a budget pump and run it off an off the shelf VFD. No startup surge and I can very the output.

There are lots of options, just have to get creative.

 

[740GLE]

40ft well? Isn’t that considered shallow for a well? Is it a dug well? A DC pump will run that all day long, keep efficiency high and skip running it on AC.

 

[tomy2]

This seems to be a common problem with people going off-grid,to get the well setup powered. I see it gets allot of people. Soft start is really the best option for off-grid, especially for deep wells. OPs well is not to deep but there are not to many options in the fractional HP 120v well pumps. A 1/6 HP would likely work fine but no one makes a good one that I know of. I would avoid the DC solar well pumps that run valves and diaphrams, the are not reliable enough for me.

My water is down 150'. I went with a Grundfos softstart (SQ-160). Its 1/2 HP and pulls about 1000watts. I'm getting about 9.5 gallons a minute into a holding tank, then I pressure from there. 150' is pushing towards the limits of 120v for decent flow. I have ran it with HF inverters no problem. Small inverter generators can handle it just fine.

I'm putting in an irrigation pump to move water out of the creek from a well/vault. I'm looking at a much higher power pump, maybe 1.5HP/3 phase 240v. I'm going to just get a budget pump and run it off an off the shelf VFD. No startup surge and I can very the output.

There are lots of options, just have to get creative.

l bought the Grundfos SQ-5 specifically to use off solar. it only uses 6amps at 120V, soft start and pumps 5gal/min. enough if you have a storage tank. my pge site, shows it using about 500watts over a one hour period, the pump is down 175 feet, the recommended max, and the water level is 145 feet. it is set to go on after a 250 gallon drop, about what we use per day. so it only uses one half kw/day or . $.45 cents. since l have grid power, l have not got around to rewiring it to solar, because l had a lot more espensive things to hookup first . so it uses way less amps than the graph above would indicate.

 

[Jim in Florida]

You can add pressure tanks to your existing pressure tank and your well pump will run longer but it will start up less often. The down side is cost and space. The upside you will extend the life of your pump and have more water on hand if you can’t power the pump. I currently run two 80 gallon pressure tanks and thinking about adding more.