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Correct me if I am wrong.

Ok friends,

Now that I have come to conclude that AP cannot run without electricity or rather there is no other alternate which is economical. I am thinking of using Bilge pump, which operates at 12V DC. By using this I think I can use batteries to power the pump. By this I think I will not be consuming much Electricity thereby saving cost. Will this idea of mine work out?.

If this idea of mine will work, I would like some one to fine tune the idea and help me.

Regards

Nagaraj

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Permalink Reply by Richard Wyman on June 8, 2011 at 8:05am

I don't think most bilge pumps are made to run continuously, which could be a problem depending on system design. I haven't don't a lot of research on them though.

Another option is batteries and an inverter. It does add another cost, but you would have a wider selection of pumps, and you could run aeration off it too.

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Permalink Reply by Chris McMahon on June 8, 2011 at 12:38pm

I am working on a 24 volt system. It will have a water pump, bilge pump, and an air pump. Because I live in the desert it should work well on solar and batteries. I am not sure what the total cost is going to be yet. Even though running it on the grid is working I want to make an off the grid system.

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on June 8, 2011 at 4:18pm

It may be true that 12 V bilge pump can run directly off the battery, however, you should do some very careful research into the exact power consumption of the pumps before deciding that the bilge pumps will be the more economical way to go (also the fact that you may need to replace them more often as they are not normally designed for 24/7 multi year operation, (they are designed to keep bait fish alive in a holding tank on a boat trip and that sort of short term thing.)

You will have to do a little research and studying up on Batteries, chargers, inverters, and pumps. Now I don't know how you will be charging the batteries but solar power stuff is a whole line of study in itself. I've learned with my battery backup to get a really good inverter and that the fancy battery charger wasn't such a good deal. Of course with a solar set up you will need a good charge controller as well.

You might want to sign up with Friendlies for their newsletters since they are working on off grid system designs and will hopefully have plans to sell soon.