Solar Power for swimming pool pump?

[LannaGuy]

any experiences? recommendations? any help appreciated

[Chaichara]

Depends on the size of your pool. You know how much it costs to run your pump every day for six hours and whether the ROI is going to be worth your while.. One of the sponsors here is an official agent for Lorentz, one of the world leading groups in solar energy technology. You'd probably have nothing to lose by contacting them. One thing is for sure, you're not going to opt for a solar system without going to the the people who install it, who will probably also be only too pleased to introduce you to some of their clients.

[sappersrest]

Need to know what size pump to you have, or plan to operate ? maybe you might get an answer from the sparks forum.

[IMHO]

Lorentz are the only company I'm aware of that make direct PV (Photovoltaic solar panel) powered pumps, and there are dealers in Thailand that have sold and installed several times before:

https://www.lorentz.de/en/products/solar-pool-pumps.html

However there's some things you need to consider:

1. They're expensive. Really expensive.

2. They only run when the sun shines - which means 4-5 hours on normal days, less on cloudy/rainy days - so only useful in pools with manually dosed chlorine. Not a good fit with pools using a Chlorinator, Bionizer, or UV Irradiation because they all need to run in unison with the main pump.

3. They are not a good choice if you're ever going to have night time pool parties, as for these you will probably want to run your pump at night.

IMHO, these are really only candidates for large pools where multiple pumps are needed anyway. Run some of the main pumps on solar, keep some running on mains.

That said, it is possible to piece together other ways to reduce your bill with solar:

1. Install a grid-tied solar PV+Inverter system to offset the electric bill of running your pump(s). This is the most cost effective way. It does not keep your pumps running during power outages though.

2. Install a hybrid solar system where some of the PV harvest runs the pump during the day, and excess generation is either stored in batteries / fed to the grid if the batteries are already full. Such a system could be designed just to provide some backup power when the mains is out, or add more batteries (a lot more) and go fully off-grid.

The big thing to bear in mind is that typical pumps are going to need somewhere between 4x to 8x their normal power rating for start-up. So trying to DIY your own direct-PV powered 220V pump means you'll need 4x to 8x the PV you'd otherwise need, plus a much bigger inverter. The Lorentz solar pump is brushless DC, and it's controller soft starts the pump to control start-up current draw / keep the PV array size simple to calculate.

The other thing you need to consider is daily runtime needed. In an outdoor pool you should be aiming to turnover the complete water volume twice per day. Doing that in just 4-5 hours takes a lot more pump, and a lot more filter than doing it over say 8-10 hours/day. As noted, if running a powered sanitation system, you'll probably be aiming for 8-12 hours/day runtime, and would also want the sanitizer box to the powered the same as the pump.

Edited March 19, 2016 by IMHO

[LannaGuy]

thanks for all the advice, not sure where to go with this (maybe a dual system?), but have contacted Lorentz

[bobholds]

YES, its a great way of running your pool for nothing! electric wise anyway. And Lorentz is the way to go for sure they have teamed up with Swimmingpoolsthailand.com and have already put together swimming pool "SETS" with Small, Medium and Large depending on you pool size, each Lorentz set has Panels, Pumps etc and swimmingpoolsthailand can match up filters, chlorinators and plumbing etc., all balanced to work together properly.. The modern equipment is much different nowadays NO BATTERIES - NO CONVERTERS and are especially suited to swimming pool pumps as you can leave you pump on constantly... when its daylight it runs... when its dark it stops!! No timers required! so in theory you will get more filtering and more flow than a convention pump running say 4 to six hours. Swimmingpoolsthailand and Lorentz have also completed the first HYBRED system in Hang Dong, Chiangmai with a solar pump to run the pool for free and an AC pump for a more effective backwash... works great for larger pools or larger filters. PM me for details or any extra help

[Naam]

Swimmingpoolsthailand and Lorentz have also completed the first HYBRED system in Hang Dong, Chiangmai with a solar pump to run the pool for free...

...after shelling out a nice bundle for initial setup. what about giving us a ball bark figure for let's say a 1hp pump with panels and accessories?

[LannaGuy]

YES, its a great way of running your pool for nothing! electric wise anyway. And Lorentz is the way to go for sure they have teamed up with Swimmingpoolsthailand.com and have already put together swimming pool "SETS" with Small, Medium and Large depending on you pool size, each Lorentz set has Panels, Pumps etc and swimmingpoolsthailand can match up filters, chlorinators and plumbing etc., all balanced to work together properly.. The modern equipment is much different nowadays NO BATTERIES - NO CONVERTERS and are especially suited to swimming pool pumps as you can leave you pump on constantly... when its daylight it runs... when its dark it stops!! No timers required! so in theory you will get more filtering and more flow than a convention pump running say 4 to six hours. Swimmingpoolsthailand and Lorentz have also completed the first HYBRED system in Hang Dong, Chiangmai with a solar pump to run the pool for free and an AC pump for a more effective backwash... works great for larger pools or larger filters. PM me for details or any extra help

sent you a PM but be nice to share more info here... I live in chiang mai and would love to get a system and my swimming pool builder needs to buy the equipment soon - how heavy are the panels? do you go on to AC once it get's dark? I'm getting a pump room built is the pump a similar size to the normal AC pump?

[sappersrest]

I went to the agricultural fair a few weeks ago at Mae Joe university the guys there had built a setup for pumping water using solar panels might be worth looking on their website , School of renewable energy.

[IMHO]

YES, its a great way of running your pool for nothing! electric wise anyway. And Lorentz is the way to go for sure they have teamed up with Swimmingpoolsthailand.com and have already put together swimming pool "SETS" with Small, Medium and Large depending on you pool size, each Lorentz set has Panels, Pumps etc and swimmingpoolsthailand can match up filters, chlorinators and plumbing etc., all balanced to work together properly.. The modern equipment is much different nowadays NO BATTERIES - NO CONVERTERS and are especially suited to swimming pool pumps as you can leave you pump on constantly... when its daylight it runs... when its dark it stops!! No timers required! so in theory you will get more filtering and more flow than a convention pump running say 4 to six hours. Swimmingpoolsthailand and Lorentz have also completed the first HYBRED system in Hang Dong, Chiangmai with a solar pump to run the pool for free and an AC pump for a more effective backwash... works great for larger pools or larger filters. PM me for details or any extra help

Here's the PV harvest (DC) for a 4,800 watt (around 4x what you'd use for the smaller Lorentz pump), 12 degrees West of South facing array, on a typical 25 degree angle roof, in Thailand, yesterday:

Midnight - 5AM: 0 watts

6AM: 34 watts

7AM: 359 watts

8AM: 992 watts

10AM: 1801 watts

11AM: 2332 watts

12 Noon: 2622 watts

1 PM: 2964 watts

2 PM: 2930 watts

3PM: 2609 watts

4PM: 1744 watts

5PM: 617 watts

6PM: 22 watts

7PM-Midnight: 0 watts

(note: yes, the heat and being slightly off-South reduces output significantly)

While these aren't the numbers for a Lorentz pump PV array, you can see how it works.

Sure the pump might "run" for more than 4-5 hours, but outside of the peak harvesting times (this time of year that's 10:30 - 3:30) it's not going to pump an meaningful amount of water - the watts just aren't there.

And a correction: There is a converter involved - it's not just the Lorentz pump - there's also an MPPT controller/Brushless DC motor controller box involved in the system.

Anyways, yes, a hybrid system is needed if using this... but for the cost of all that, you could save more money just doing a grid-tied PV system. Sorry

Edited March 22, 2016 by IMHO

[IMHO]

YES, its a great way of running your pool for nothing! electric wise anyway. And Lorentz is the way to go for sure they have teamed up with Swimmingpoolsthailand.com and have already put together swimming pool "SETS" with Small, Medium and Large depending on you pool size, each Lorentz set has Panels, Pumps etc and swimmingpoolsthailand can match up filters, chlorinators and plumbing etc., all balanced to work together properly.. The modern equipment is much different nowadays NO BATTERIES - NO CONVERTERS and are especially suited to swimming pool pumps as you can leave you pump on constantly... when its daylight it runs... when its dark it stops!! No timers required! so in theory you will get more filtering and more flow than a convention pump running say 4 to six hours. Swimmingpoolsthailand and Lorentz have also completed the first HYBRED system in Hang Dong, Chiangmai with a solar pump to run the pool for free and an AC pump for a more effective backwash... works great for larger pools or larger filters. PM me for details or any extra help

sent you a PM but be nice to share more info here... I live in chiang mai and would love to get a system and my swimming pool builder needs to buy the equipment soon - how heavy are the panels? do you go on to AC once it get's dark? I'm getting a pump room built is the pump a similar size to the normal AC pump?

I can answer some of these...

A typical 250 watt panel (1.6M x 1.0M) weighs around 18-20KG. Not very heavy.

As you can see from my PV harvest log, you're going to need AC/Mains powered pumps from about 3:30PM onwards to keep flow rates normal.

The Lorentz pump is normal sized, but the things you'll need to consider are:

1. There's the Lorentz controller box which needs to be installed

2. You're going to need a second mains-powered main pump

3. You're going to need an electrically controlled and timed valve to switch the suction side between both pumps, if only using a single filter & return circuit.

4. You're going to need a custom designed electrical control box.