Ralph Day
23rd December 2008, 07:14
Hi all
My home has a well with a submersible Grundfos soft start 1kw pump. This provides all drinking water requirements and can service the whole house system as well. The house also has a 13600li:)ter cistern tank which collects rainwater off of the house roof. It's contents can service the whole house system using a Dankoff booster pump. Here are the particulars:
Grundfos submersible model 10SQ05A-160
Conergy Flowlight booster model 2920-155vac
The submersible can provide 10 gallons per minute while the booster can provide about 2.5 gpm. The lesser flow is perfectly sufficient for all house loads except recycling the water softner...requires more flow for backflushing etc. However, the water softner is not required when using rainwater:)
Particulars: 2 adults, 1 dog, 1 full bathroom, 1 composting toilet (male use only so far), 4 loads laundry per week...front loader Kenmore washer. The toilet and washer are real water misers.
Power consumption figures were obtained using a Kill-a-Watt meter over a 7 day period for each pump. Each pump was used as the house supply pressure source for a 7 day period.
Grundfos submersible: .590Kwhrs. That's just over half a kilowatt for a weeks worth of water use!
Booster pump: .230Kwhrs. Thats less than half of the Grundfos requirement for a week! Great for off grid living.
This last week I checked just what the drinking water requirement was of both figures (meter on the well only...providing drinking water only) and it was .02-.03kwhrs, so almost negligable. I guesstimate 5 gallons of drinking water used in a week.
So my bottom line is: I'll try and use the booster pump system more during the gloomy winter months when PV production is lowest.
Problems? The tank is outside and some amount of it will freeze in the winter...less water gets in in the winter, unless there's a thaw. Hopfully theré'd be enough water to get us through the winter. When there's lots of power in the summer and fall...the well doesn't have enough capacity to provide for the whole house (only drinking water), so we regularly use the booster pump all summer when there's oodles of power. A real balancing act.
Hope this helps anyone building or planning an off-grid home
Ralph
Ps in our original estimates for water pump power consumptions were about 1kw per day.
My home has a well with a submersible Grundfos soft start 1kw pump. This provides all drinking water requirements and can service the whole house system as well. The house also has a 13600li:)ter cistern tank which collects rainwater off of the house roof. It's contents can service the whole house system using a Dankoff booster pump. Here are the particulars:
Grundfos submersible model 10SQ05A-160
Conergy Flowlight booster model 2920-155vac
The submersible can provide 10 gallons per minute while the booster can provide about 2.5 gpm. The lesser flow is perfectly sufficient for all house loads except recycling the water softner...requires more flow for backflushing etc. However, the water softner is not required when using rainwater:)
Particulars: 2 adults, 1 dog, 1 full bathroom, 1 composting toilet (male use only so far), 4 loads laundry per week...front loader Kenmore washer. The toilet and washer are real water misers.
Power consumption figures were obtained using a Kill-a-Watt meter over a 7 day period for each pump. Each pump was used as the house supply pressure source for a 7 day period.
Grundfos submersible: .590Kwhrs. That's just over half a kilowatt for a weeks worth of water use!
Booster pump: .230Kwhrs. Thats less than half of the Grundfos requirement for a week! Great for off grid living.
This last week I checked just what the drinking water requirement was of both figures (meter on the well only...providing drinking water only) and it was .02-.03kwhrs, so almost negligable. I guesstimate 5 gallons of drinking water used in a week.
So my bottom line is: I'll try and use the booster pump system more during the gloomy winter months when PV production is lowest.
Problems? The tank is outside and some amount of it will freeze in the winter...less water gets in in the winter, unless there's a thaw. Hopfully theré'd be enough water to get us through the winter. When there's lots of power in the summer and fall...the well doesn't have enough capacity to provide for the whole house (only drinking water), so we regularly use the booster pump all summer when there's oodles of power. A real balancing act.
Hope this helps anyone building or planning an off-grid home
Ralph
Ps in our original estimates for water pump power consumptions were about 1kw per day.