Solar powered garden fountain

[wolst73]

Current system is 40w panel charging 12v 18ah battery through charge controller being used to run 6-3W LED lights for 3 hrs a night through 700mA flex block buck boost led driver. During sunny days battery is fully charged so thought I had some extra power available. Bought a small garden fountain (shiny sphere that water bubbles out the top and runs down). It is run by 120V AC 0.082A 60hz pump (jebao WP-450). http://jebaopump.com/products/wp-450...-fountain-pump

Original idea was to use an dc to ac inverter to power it but not sure if that would work and would be cheaper to replace the pump with a dc pump.

Want pump to run during the day so don't think I can connect to above system as lights run for 3 hours after the panel output drops. I do have another panel, battery and charge controller so I could set up another system. Not sure on exact specs of panel but slightly smaller than the above panel. Batter is 12v 3ah.

If you set charge controller to have load on during the daylight hours, any idea of amperage coming out? Comparable flow rate dc submersible pumps on amazon have a 400mA to 1A max. Do u need something like the led driver to reduce amps??

Any advice on different setups or suitable pump would be greatly appreciated. I can try to provide further details if needed.

[Logan5]

Is this fountain more than 2000' from grid power? solar w/ battery power cost 5 to 10 times as much as grid. run a 20a 120v circuit and enjoy your fountain for a fraction of the cost of solar/battery

[Amy@altE]

If you just want the pump to run during the day, get a cheap 12VDC pump and connect directly to the solar panel. Done. Don't waste money on battery and controller.

[SunEagle]

If you just want the pump to run during the day, get a cheap 12VDC pump and connect directly to the solar panel. Done. Don't waste money on battery and controller.

I agree with Amy. To keep it simple just run a 12vDC pump from a properly sized panel.

Unless the OP needs to run the pump every day to keep the water "turned over" or oxygenated. Then they would need some type of power source (like a battery) when the sun is not out. At that point it might be better to run a calculation as to what that solar / battery system will cost vs just running power from the house.

[wolst73]

See below

[wolst73]

Thanks for your responses!

I had thought of just using the panel directly to the pump but was worried about the amps coming from the panel and didn't want to burn out the motor. From previous tests I believe the panel produces about 0.5 A. Here are a couple of the pumps I found on Amazon. The first one's maximum rated current is 400 mA. The second one is 960 mA. Is it better to go a bit above or well below max?

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00JWJIC0K?tag=vglnk-ca-c90-20

https://www.amazon.ca/SODIAL-Fountain-Submersible-Brushless-460LPH/dp/B00M2QFAWS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1494748810&sr=8-7&keywords=dc+submersible+pump

Potentially I could hook it up to the solar panel during the day and also hook it to the LED (700mA) driver so that it is on for the three hours that the lights are on at night?