Today, we hooked up the DC water pump.

The glue on the PVC pipes wasn’t dry yet when I was there, so we didn’t get to fully test it out. But the idea is that the water main flows into the 900L water tank with a float valve to stop it when it is full. Then the outlet from the water tank goes to the water pump. The water pump goes back into the house main.

If the pump is having problems, we can adjust a few valves and just run the water main directly into the house (bypassing the tank and the pump).

We ran a wire from the solar controller box to the pump, but I want to test on some lead acid batteries first to get everything working.

Here is a wider view with the water tank:

It is a plastic tank that has a fake “wood plank” look. It isn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, but we thought it fit in with the style of the house a bit better than a giant round black one.

Between the drought and the road construction nearby, the water tank will be quite helpful during the occasional water outages. (And the pump is helpful when the pressure drops, which is fairly often in Thailand.)

But under normal circumstances, the water pressure from the main works okay. (Not great, but okay.)