offgriddle
"FOREVER BEGINNING"
I'm guessing that no-one here has ever pulled a well-pump hundreds of feet out of the ground. Statements like "just replace it with a soft-start pump" is sort of like leaning over the shoulder of a guy trying to tune his car, and telling him "why don't you just remove the engine and replace it with a new one".
It's absurd to me about how much guessing and speculation is going on here. Before I started installing a single watt of solar at my cabin, I had already determined exactly what my running and startup power needs were. To run my 1hp pump, I installed 4500W of panels, which can power the pump from about 8:30 in the morning till 4:30 in the afternoon. I'm using a Schneider split-phase 120/240V inverter. There's no way I'd ever attempt using a voltage converter on a smaller base system. Do it right, or don't do it at all! It's just too much work pulling a pump out of the ground!
Indeed, I've pulled and installed three deep well pumps from 200' plus, two were mine, one was a friends. Yes it's a chore.
Right now I use my gasoline generator to make the 240AC to run my five year old deep well pump and I loathe the noise and polluting fumes and expense of doing that.
My plan is to acquire a 240AC inverter that makes at least 4000 watts to operate my existing well pump. The inverter will of course be wired into my main breaker panel just as if it was grid power. I will also have a manual transfer switch so I can switch over and run the generator when my solar batteries are low, which would also charge batteries and run the well pump of course.
I have no plans to bring the grid to me and the only reason why I am not doing the above described now is that I have to save up money to purchase the 240 inverter and expand my PV array and battery bank to support the larger inverter and amperage demand.
Keep on truckin.
OG