This is a really good idea. During the El Nino I was considering "borrowing" some water from the river below our place (about 120ft down, vert. and horiz.) but my biggest problem was possible theft (even a rope I'd hidden away to help myself get back up mysteriously disappeared). Also make sure this is very well secured when the rains do come, ours would need to be pretty well secured when the river becomes torrential.
I thought right away about the pump burn out from no water. I have a similar problem. There are inexpensive sensors the “notice” when the water drops below acceptable level and turns the pump off. It comes back on when the water gets to acceptable level. Since nothing runs at night you don’t have to worry about it then. The complex part for non-electrical types like me is wiring the pump thru the sensor to the solar panels. But I happen to know it can be done. I just don’t personally know how.
This is a really good suggestion. I might hunt around for either a float switch or some kind of conductivity switch that could be wired right into the pump's power cord to provide a shutoff if the water level in the "borehole" drops below a certain level. Thank you, Barbara.
This is a really good idea. During the El Nino I was considering "borrowing" some water from the river below our place (about 120ft down, vert. and horiz.) but my biggest problem was possible theft (even a rope I'd hidden away to help myself get back up mysteriously disappeared). Also make sure this is very well secured when the rains do come, ours would need to be pretty well secured when the river becomes torrential.
I thought right away about the pump burn out from no water. I have a similar problem. There are inexpensive sensors the “notice” when the water drops below acceptable level and turns the pump off. It comes back on when the water gets to acceptable level. Since nothing runs at night you don’t have to worry about it then. The complex part for non-electrical types like me is wiring the pump thru the sensor to the solar panels. But I happen to know it can be done. I just don’t personally know how.
This is a really good suggestion. I might hunt around for either a float switch or some kind of conductivity switch that could be wired right into the pump's power cord to provide a shutoff if the water level in the "borehole" drops below a certain level. Thank you, Barbara.
Let me try to send you a link to the one I found and see what you think. If nothing else you can Google the key words and find others.