Today was a busy day, but not much of anything exciting. We spent the day putting the finishing touches on other projects that were mostly completed but just needed a little bit something to be “done”. We: Crimped the permanent wires and connectors needed to run the solar powered DC water pump that was previously installed….
Digging a trench with our DIY excavator
As some of you might remember, we built our own DIY excavator back in May/June of last year. Since then, it hasn’t gotten much use. The main reason for this is that the workers that we’ve hired are more familiar digging with hand tools than with the excavator, so they seem to avoid using it….
All three solar powered circulation pumps are up and running
After testing the first solar panel powered pump for more than a month, we recently installed the solar panels on the second pump shed. It took a little longer to get the solar controller wired up to another hand wired prototype pump motor controller, but today was the first day that that was turned on…
New thatch roofing on the pump sheds
While I designed the pump sheds around the pond out of polycarbonate because it is a lightweight, inexpensice, easy to source, weather proof and versatile material, I always intended to cover it in thatch (spelled จาก in Thai) for aesthetic reasons. After I saw the thatch roof on the chicken coop, I’ve been reminding the…
Solar panels for second pump shed installed
We’ve been running one of the pumps in the first pump shed using solar power for about one month now. The pump in the shed on the opposite side of the pond has been dormant since we first tested it after installing it. But as of yesterday, we now have the solar panels set up…
Pond circulation pump has been on nonstop for almost a month
Pond circulation pump has been on nonstop for almost a month, and it is still going strong. 🙂 After fixing the problems with the pump motor controller circuit, we left the motor on 24 hours per day and 7 days per week running off of only the 2 solar panels next to it. I am…
Solar powered circulation pump update
On December 23, I was quite happy that the new prototype pump controller circuit didn’t blow out in the 30 seconds or so that it took to burn out before I worked out a solution to the voltage spike issue. From that point, I left the pump running 24 hours a day until today, and…
First real solar powered pump test
Today I ran the solar powered pump the entire day for the first time. I am very pleased with the results. Ever since I solved the voltage spike issues we’ve been having with all of our power electronics circuits over the years, I’ve been very excited to actually try out the new pump controller circuit…
Solar panels update
We’ve connected up the solar panels to batteries and a charge controller now. 2x 280W solar panels mounted near a pump shed You can see the pump shed behind the solar panels, the battery shed on the ground to the left, and the edge of the electrical box sticking out from the back left support…
New solar installation
Having finished construction and testing of the water circulation pumps, the next step is to find a permanent power source. I’ve always been interested in the potential of solar for bringing power to any point on the land without needing an electrical grid connection. These pumps are ideally suited to solar, being almost 30x more…
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