New to this and need help.

[JoeR203]

I want to run my 115 watt pond pump, a 10-15 watt UV light and a small air pump in my Koi pond. Quite simply....what do I need? Do I need to have a panel kit that produces at least 130 watts or do I just need something smaller to keep the battery charged and let the inverter handle the load? Will a 200 watt inverter do the job? Will the pump be able to run 24/7 on solar power alone? How many batteries would I need to keep things running all day and night?Thanks for the help.



Joe

[Mike90250]

Going the solar route will be very expensive. for koi, you will need to plan for backup power for 3 days clouds/rain. If the pump stops, the fish die, right ?

Check out my reply (#2) in Self Powered Tree

http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showthread.php?p=4705#post4705

for an idea how to add up the loads, come up with a 24hour watt hour requirement. Then I'll do the calcs for you.

I'll quote myself: This is an expensive replacement for a 200', $40 extension cord

[JoeR203]

Thanks for the quick response. The fish won't die if the pump stops. The pump is a pre-filter that sucks in debris and then sends it to an above ground filter system. This above ground filter has the UV light that kills the algea. The water comes out of this filter and becomes the waterfall that keeps the water circulating. The air pump is for adding oxygen into the water in warm weather. The pond is somewhere around 600 gallons and has mostly goldfish right now. (Much cheaper to replace than Koi) I'm just looking for a way to cut back on the electric bill since the pump, UV light and air pump are running 24/7.

[Mike90250]

I want to run my 115 watt pond pump, a 10-15 watt UV light and a small air pump in my Koi pond. Quite simply....what do I need? Do I need to have a panel kit that produces at least 130 watts or do I just need something smaller to keep the battery charged and let the inverter handle the load? Will a 200 watt inverter do the job? Will the pump be able to run 24/7 on solar power alone? How many batteries would I need to keep things running all day and night?Thanks for the help.
Joe

I'll work for a single 24 hr period. Add more PV and battery for each additional day !

Light 20W
pump 150W
total ______ 270W x 24 hr = 6,480 watt hours (6.5KW) OMG ! This is going to cost you. Say your utility charges you 15cents KW, a 24 hour run will cost you $0.975 per day to run.

A small 2KW Grid-tie system (no batteries = 95% efficient) would cost about $10,000 This would roughly feed into the grid, about 6KW in a 5 hour solar day.

http://sunelec.com/index.php?main_page=2870_watt_grid_tie_system

An off grid system, with batteries, is only about 60% efficient, with all the other losses added in.

http://sunelec.com/index.php?main_page=2400_watt_off_grid_system