Anyone with experience of a solar powered pond pumps?

[mod mom]

In 2004 I dug a circular 11' diameter pond 2 feet deep in our yard. We were going to run electricity out to the area when I read about solar powered pond pumps. The area I dug my hole was located in deep shade as our yard has many very mature trees. I have been hemming and hawing about whether to continue or relocate the pond to the small area of our yard which gets sun. Yesterday I went out and bought a dogwood tree and planted in the shade pond and started to re-dig (which is a hell of alot of work since our yard is very rocky) in the sunny area. I figure it is the least I can do to help the environment.

I have always gotten such great advice from this forum, that I thought I would see if anyone here had advice.

Out to dig...peace!

[Tikki]

1. I am, also, interested in this....

I would prefer to build a pond with a solar powered pump.

Tikki

[mike_c]

2. look here....

http://www.siliconsolar.com/solar-fountain-pumps.php

[mod mom]

7. Thanks you for this information.

My husband is an architect who specializes in sustainability. I'll let him look at this and make a decision.

[IDemo]

3. I buried one of these 15 years ago for a small pond->

And I have had 'designs' on putting in a small (90 gallon) upper pond, feeding a stream/waterfall into the main one. I have a 900 gph pump for the job, currently using just a 300 gph. I've had serious second thoughts about the "earth-friendliness" of continuing the project. It would probably take a fairly good solar panel to power, but I'm not sure of the exact power requirements of the pump.

I've even pondered :) removing the thing and filling it in to add to the garden area. Gets old dealing with the algae every year, not to mention fending off the blue herons.

[NV Whino]

4. I tried to find a solar pump for my wine barrel ponds (5)

I couldn't find anything for any reasonable price that could push the water up hill about 9'. You have an 11' pond, which means, if you want a center fountain you have to push water at least 5.5'... and then a bit more to get the fountain effect. If you are doing a waterfall, it could mean less distance, but a waterfall at one end might not circulate the water enough.

So don't be fooled by these cute fountain pumps, the panels are too small to power the pump and push the water as far as you might need to go. I'm no expert on the technicalities, but I would guess you would need one or more 3 x 5 foot solar panels to power the size pump you will need to get the effect you want and to circulate the water properly.

Call the guys in that last link and tell them what you need to do. I bet they can come up with an answer. Might be costly, though.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I'm going to put in a small water feature this year and found a

solar pump on ebay that will allow you to place the solar collector 15' from the pump itself. I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how it works, but they have different size pumps with different capacities as far as water flow capacity.

[hunter]

6. I haven't had much luck with 12 volt stuff.

My current experiment uses a conventional submersable pump, a solar panel, and an inverter.

It works, but I'm not at all convinced the pump and the cheap inverter are working happily together. My bets are on the inverter dying first.

How big of a pump do you intend to use?

[mod mom]

8. Thanks everyone for your input.

:hi: