I’m not sure if this is possible, but figured this was the best place to ask.

I had a well drilled on my property that I hope to have a house built on. It might be a couple/few years down the road for the house. The well is 300’ deep, they hit water around 60’, static water level at 23’.

In the mean time I’d like to put in a 110v well pump lowered down to about 75’ from surface, and be able to pump water up to some kind of faucet at the top of the well.

I plan to power it with a 1500 watt solar generator that I already have.

Is this possible?

Any decent, affordable well pumps that can be recommended? For under $250?

This will just be used for my off-grid camp for now.

I would have a different pump installed when I have my house built.

I don’t know for sure, but I would bet a 110v pump will drain that battery in short order.
You would need to know the AH of the battery and the amp draw of the pump under load.
If you need to move a lot of water you’ll need a lot of battery, or a small genset.

https://www.rpswaterpumps.com/

Cost is a killer + power to lift + flow rate....

I was poking around this sort of thing when I was looking at some land and
figured out at least for me was to have a smaller generator run for "short"
periods of time for the well and fill a cistern that a lower power solar setup
would tap into it.

For about 300 foot down some of the math was showing 5hp  - 8hp needed.
Nothing I spotted in that price range would work.  You can reduce power needed
by reducing the GPM rating and lift height.

And everything I spotted for my usage would have been 230volts.   I was looking
in the wet part of Texas and everything I saw drove me to a small generator versus
simple solar setup.   Even 2hp submersible pumps were hitting at 1k....

I only plan on lowering the pump to about 75’ if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the link. I plan to look into those.

Attached File

Skip the AC conversion.  Go with a pump designed for solar.  The price has come down and reliability is good.  They have replaced windmills in much of Texas.


Set a small storage tank (250 - 500 gallons) on a 20' platform.  When full, this gives you 10 - 15 PSI of pressure. Enough for sinks and toilets...but it would make for a really whimpy shower.   You can use a RV pump and a small battery if you need more pressure.

Wire the well pump directly to the solar panels.  If the sun is out, there is a 1/2 to 2 gpm stream of water going into the tank.  Let the tank overflow into a stock/wildlife pond.

two ways to reduce power usage:  shorter lift - so 75 foot would take less power.
Also, reduce the GPM flow rate to reduce power needs.  I did see a link at
RPS Water pump that took 110.   But based on the write up, the cost listed will
rise due to the need for additional parts.


back in the day, this would have peaked my interest.  

https://shop.rpssolarpumps.com/collections/off-grid-homes



Who knows if it is the same RPS store as the other one.

Remember to add in a "well house" structure to help keep things tidy.   By
well house, something that can be done cheap and sort of look like an
extra large dog house that keeps things from bumping into the hardware.

My wild guess is the total cost to get some water out of the ground will exceed 1k.

Surge current will probably be the killer.  Most inverters can handle about 2X the rating current for a brief time but motors are MOTHERFUCKERS to get started.  To give you an idea.  I have a 6500 watt system and 5KW LiFePo battery.  That can pump about 100A momentary loads.  I can run miter saws, microwaves, electric kettles, fridge, and everything else from that but the 15A table saw is impossible to start.  The moment it is switched on the battery breaker pops.

So my guess is there is little hope of getting a 120V pump to run from a 1500W inverter and battery.  They are basically a dead short when they are started and if they can't spin up fast enough the protections on the inverter are going to kick in.

That same table saw CAN be started with a little 2000W Honda Generator.  I think the momentum of the engine and the fact that it will drop voltage pretty hard give the motor just enough time to spin up.  You can tell it's far more of a spin up on that than say on utility power but it does get up to speed and operates fine while it's on.  I figure it's not doing that poor generator any favors but it's like 10 years old now anyway.  It's done it's job and then some.


Anyway, inductive loads are really hard on inverters and 120V needs twice the current a similar 240V motor needs.  I'd think you would need a soft-start to get that pump to run from that small a system.

These answers are getting discouraging.

It must be a lot more to this than I was thinking.

I am using 1 285 watt solar panel to power dc pump at 80' depth. Fills 5k tank in 4 days,Total cost pump and panel 250$ I do off grid solar. My proiperty and my brothers is off grid. I am ion socal if you need help. I have panels, inverters, batteries and racking.

At my old ranch we used a specialized DC well pump with a solar controller and no battery. It was slow
(1 GPM) but it ran for hours and hours all day until the tank was full, and after that by the end of the
day the tank was always full. It only needed a single panel.

every time I tried to buy something like this on any site I end up with
something that gets tossed out because it just don't work.

ECO-WORTHY-Stainless-Solar-Powered-Submersible
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RZ7LMZV?

I went thru a lot of failed items for a simple transfer pump before
I just went screw it - and bought hardware designed for an RV
van.

Are your numbers correct?  Hit water at 60', static at 23'?  Why is the hole 300' deep?  Lots of solar systems for livestock wells, need a cistern to hold it, water tower would be nice!

So what are good brands on the DC pumps? Sun is one mentioned

If your budget is unlimited, Grundfos.

By my mathidiot on a napkin calculations, you need to keep the pump HP under 1.5 to stay around 75% of 1500w.

What's the constant output rating of the generator?  Size the pump to that and leave some headroom. 745 watts = 1 hp.  

Watts = volts * amps.

IF it's a solar generator count on it draining your batts unless you have a lot more solar panels than the kit normally comes with (solar is infamous for not making full rated output).

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If you get that sorted, you might look into putting a sand trap in the pump line, and than after that one of those 1 micron whole house filters, if you plan to use the water for something besides irrigation or greywater.

Obv get the water tested before you drink it.

So similar scenario here.
I bought that eco worthy pump listed a few posts up wired to 300 watts of  Amazon return renogy solar panels and the 12v solar controller already on my property it pumps into a 50 gallon drum I’ve got at my well head connected to a 12v rv on demand pump. Wasn’t super expensive and has been running for a year so far. Very little use though I maybe am there 2 days a month!

Got a link to the pump you're using?

The numbers are correct. I was on-site while it was being drilled. He stated he was going to 300’ so there would be that much water in my well.

Everyone in my area’s well is at least 300’ deep. I grew up here. There are a few different well drillers in the area.

Just a recap to better explain what I’m looking for.


I just want a pump to lower down between 50 - 75 feet.

It will only be used to pump water to a spigot at the top of the well.

I’ll only plug it up to electricity when I’m using it.

I’ll probably be pumping less than 20 gallons of water at a time. Every two or three days. There could be times where I’ll go a month without using it.


That’s really all I’m looking for. No reserve tank. No constant pumping.

I built a well bucket out of 4” pvc pipe with a foot valve at the bottom to lower down with a rope, and hoist back up to get water out. I just wanted to see if there was a simple way to install a pump down to get water to the top also.

Around here you can’t even get the pipe for that. I recently had mine redone. It was in the $5000 range for pipe and pump. Mine is 2hp and runs on 220. Your results may vary.

Not sure where your math comes from but I have a 3/4 hp, 5 gpm pump, name brand, new cost $640, at 285 feet. It draws about 3.8 amps (240 v) when running. 900 watts. As long as OP just needs a little water solar can easily power that. Yes, it will take a hefty inverter, and I don't know that I would leave the inverter powered all the time because parasitic draw on a large inverter isn't small. But it's very easily doable.

OP, some things to keep in mind. Pump depth isn't what sets motor current. Pressure (which is a combination of depth to water level & pressure of the water at the surface) and pump motor size are the 2 primary factors affecting watts.

I can help you with well & water advice, as far as solar systems I'm better leaving that to others.