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Recommendation for an (ideally used) small-ish solar panel for a water feature?

Apologies if this doesn't fit the community

I've been helping my neighbor replace his lawn with a garden - last summer our project was building a terraced raised bed thing with secondhand soil and secondhand cinder blocks, and some new pavers in the front. I'd very much like to set up a water feature on that raised bed. He spends most days sitting on his porch, reading scifi novels and talking to folks walking by, so he could hear it while he's out there. I know it's kind of a silly luxury so I'm trying to use used components and I'd really like to set it up using a solar panel to power the pump.

I can handle the wiring and electronics with some guidance, but I know very little about pumps and solar panels for finding something that'll fit our use case. I think ideally it'd be a secondhand panel a few feet in size and a pump that can handle a varying amount of power based on the time of day. I'd like to move more than a trickle of water, and I'll make sure there's some shade plants so we don't lose much water to evaporation, though we don't get many droughts where we are.

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  • I perhaps can help you with this. I'm working in a company that is helping smallholder farmers over the world to increase their crop yield. We used to start with a small hydropowered waterwheel but moved to solar due to the reach of the sun. I am the technical person that is sourcing pumps, solar panels, inverters etc for irrigation.

    So far as I can read your question you don't need a lot of water and also not a lot of pressure. It is quite easy to calculate.

    • Hydraulic power need (W) / efficiencies = electric power requirement (W)-> *1.3 = solar panel (Wp)

    • Hydraulic power = 9,81 * height differencence of water (m) * liter per second you want to pump

    • Efficiencies = centrifugal pumps are approx 35% eff so (hydraulicp/0,35) *1,33= panelsize

    • halve a liter per second is sufficient for halve an acre (2020m2) of crops.

    Please if you have more questions I would glad to be of help

    • As an example case, if you need to pump from the pond nearby, 2m height difference and pump 0,25liter per second. ((0,25 *2 *9,81)/0,35)*1,33 = 18,6W ->20wp panel. I did not take into account the hose size butn0,25liter per second is not a lot. And every meter height difference added will add an extra 10W to the panel

      • Thank you for your help! My closest analogy is fish tank pumps (measured in gallons per hour), and I'm kind of guessing based on converting units, but I think ,25 liters per second is more than enough. I only need to lift the water around 40cm.

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