Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

My name is Connor and I have been enrolled in an advanced engineering course since mid January. The entire class revolves around the principle of creating a product based upon a problem in the real world. I decided to tackle one of the largest issues in the world, abundance of clean water. After weeks of research, I discovered that there are large freshwater aquifers in Africa and decided to take an advantage of these. Since there is no electricity in the vast majority of Africa, I decided to make a self reliant, solar powered bilge pump with a solar tracker equipped. The reason I am posting on this forum is because for this project I need an "expert". As long as you have some form of credentials and work somewhere professionally, pretty much just not out of home, you qualify! All i need from my expert is suggestions and advice for improvement in my design. So far I have obtained all the materials I need and am just starting to build. The materials for my project include; a 10W solar panel, 12 volt battery, 500gph auto bilge pump, solar charge controller, bilge switch, and other miscellaneous materials (fuses, wires, meters, etc.). I appreciate all help on any level of expertise, the more knowledge you have on the subject whether it is knowledge of electronics, the earth, or solar energy, all help is sincerely appreciated! Reply if you have questions, comments, or need more details!

Thank you,

Connor

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Good luck with your project! A few things to consider:

1) A pump of that size typically draws nearly 2A at 12V, so it will be looking for 24 watts. You have a battery so that's covered, but the system won't be able to run around the clock. For planning purposes, assume 8 hours of good solid sun per day. Your panel can be expected to put out 80Wh per day. If the pump wants 20-24 watts, that gives you 4 hours of runtime per day. Is that enough?

2) Bilge pumps are intended to pick up water from the hull of a boat. They are designed to withstand stray amounts of fuel and oil without hurting themselves or setting that fuel on fire (which is great for a boat) but they don't have protection against silt & rocks. Depending on how you position the pump you may need to include filtering to keep any small rocks and silt out of the pump.

Otherwise it does sound like you've covered your bases.

Howard

Thank you Howard! I have taken all of those suggestions into consideration and realize that 4 hours is a suitable time for the pump to be running. Also, thanks for the filter suggestion, never thought of that and I will definitely include that in my final prototype design. Thank you again for your suggestions, every little bit helps!