Solar Swimming Pool Pump and Associated Panels

[frogeyepete]

I have a swimming pool 8mx4m in the South of Spain. When I am out of the country, the swimming pool pump accounts for most of the electricity consumption. It was a 600w AC pump and my monthly bill for electricity had recently increased to around 130 Euros. Some of this cost would be to daily standing charge, but most of it (probably around 100 Euros would be for consumption).

The system I bought is: https://www.wccsolar.net/product-pa...YxIKLH9dr8aWmOkQ9KAYe_ZBoCtJgQAvD_BwE&lang=en

The basic system comprises a 500w DC pump and two 450w solar panels. Being a bit of a pessimist, I purchased an extra two panels, so I have 4 panels in total. The original two panels were supposed to be wired in series, so wired the extra panels in series and then connected them in parallel with the original ones. The complete system including the extra panels cost 1,400 Euros approx.

Overall I am very happy with it. It pumps surprisingly well even with a partially obscured sun. My only concern is that the pump never draws its rated capacity of 500w. It could be that it gets up to 2,500 rpm and just doesn´t need any more power as there is very little head involved. Even with full sun at the hottest time of day it only draws 420w maximum. The panels are mounted almost horizontally so I would expect a loss of power for this. I don´t understand why there should be such a small difference between bright open sun and partially obscured sun.

It pumps from early in the morning until the sun is almost going down, and even with just 100w of power the pump operates to some extent. If anyone can tell me why I don´t see 500w on the controller, I would be very grateful.

I am hoping that the system should pay for itself in less that two years. I have kept the original pump just in case.

 

[OzSolar]

Thank for sharing your success with solar pool pumping.

Overall I am very happy with it. It pumps surprisingly well even with a partially obscured sun. My only concern is that the pump never draws its rated capacity of 500w. It could be that it gets up to 2,500 rpm and just doesn´t need any more power as there is very little head involved.

That's exactly what is going on. The pump is able to reach it's max RPM on 420 watts.

 

[629658]

Check out the Pentair Intelliflo pump. It’s infinitely variable speed and mine sips 160w at 30gpm. Great pump

 

[alfsauve]

I looked at this for my set up but living in northern Georgia, USA, I can only get about 4-5 hours a day of useable sunlight plus in the winter I need to run it 24/7 when the temp drops below freezing.

Glaf this worked out for you.

 

[frogeyepete]

Thank for sharing your success with solar pool pumping.



That's exactly what is going on. The pump is able to reach it's max RPM on 420 watts.

Thank you for your reply. It great to get confirmation that the limited wattage is the pump and not the panels. If the system lasts, it will be fantastic!

 

[OzSolar]

Check out the Pentair Intelliflo pump. It’s infinitely variable speed and mine sips 160w at 30gpm. Great pump

Probably not infinitely variable but still a VFD can produce some amazing power savings. We use them in industrial applications quite often. Getting ready to put one on a 100hp 480v dust collector motor at a cabinet shop. Something as small as a 1hp pool pump might not pencil out for most folks though.

 

[629658]

Probably not infinitely variable but still a VFD can produce some amazing power savings. We use them in industrial applications quite often. Getting ready to put one on a 100hp 480v dust collector motor at a cabinet shop. Something as small as a 1hp pool pump might not pencil out for most folks though.

It was an expensive pump but it works well. When I installed it I measured loads at 100 rpm increments and I found 2 sweet spots in the curve. So I use 160watts normal operation so it’s light on the loads. We just added storage to our solar system so we are off grid 22 hrs a day. That would not be possible without this pump.