Solar power for the Water Garden – What products are the best products ?

Tips on how to choose solar (photovoltaic) panels, solar pumps and solar lighting

First of all if you are really interested in getting a lot of power out of the sun, then you need something pretty efficient and panels that will actually give you power on a dull day. Rather than looking for a kit, buy a seperate solar panel to suit the job you have in mind for it. In our case it will be to run a 12volt pump. Once you have the power require by the pump, sourcing the panel should be easy.

For methods of measuring and evaluating what power you need from a photovoltaic panel : www.wholesalesolar.com/
When shopping for a solar electric system, always check the PTC rating (a PVUsa Test Conditions Rating) and the warranted minimum power rating of the solar panels that are used in the system. This very often differs quite considerably from the STC rating (Standard Conditions Rating), which is very often what a manufacturer will advertise as the power produced by that panel. Here's a link showing you a comparison of several 170 watt solar panels that are currently listed on the state of California’s website. http://www.partsonsale.com/mitsucomparison.html

Solar panels are manufactured in batches or lots with each solar panel varying in performance from the next one. So it seems prudent to assume that a manufacturer would send only the best panel from a production lot to be evaluated for it's PTC rating.

When shopping for a solar electric system, always look for the solar panels that have the longest factory warranties possible. 25 years should be the minimum. And beware of dealers that offer their own warranties beyond the manufacturers warranty. A 30 solar panel warranty may sound good at first glance, but do you really believe for a moment that the dealer will be around 30 years from now!

The part the system depends upon the most is the inverter that converts the D/C from the photovoltaic cells to A/C, which is the type of current your pump is likely to run on. Make sure this has a good long guarantee. The dealer is not doing you any favors by offering you a 5year inverter warranty because in the States it is a legal requirement. Always ask for at least a 10year warranty on the system's inverter.

For big solar panels, make sure you have professionally engineered racks to support them otherwise they will just buckle under the first storm.

Here is an extra from a Questions and Answers forum to someone very wise about solar power and to whom you can send you questions.
www.speciesatrisk2004.ca/best-panel-solar.php
The question was: Who makes the best solar panels? – The person had rung around a lot of people but they were only interested in supplying and installing.

"Expensive - - if you want to have to best, you will have to pay the price. As a corollary, things that cost about the same all work about as well as each other. There are many sites that show prices on panels. The highest price panels usually have the highest efficiency, but that is only a factor if you have a limited space to place them in - - so high price panels are more than likely quite unnecessary. Usually the limit on how much PV you put up is either your own financial resources, or your household expected energy consumption, since the value of excess energy put back into the grid will be cancelled at each yearly reckoning. Of course, a larger system might permit putting in an electrically heated hot-tub, or nightly recharging the added batteries in your modified hybrid vehicle. I'm going to put up over 6KW on my garage roof (about 30 KW-h / day in California), because the yield is such a high form of energy that can be used so universally. I'm sure I'll find something to do with it. - The best panel is the one that does the job required and costs the least installed. There is no reason why you can not design and install your own system. BP, Sharp, Photowatt are all good panels. You imply that you want to do your own installation. Fine. So why do you want some else to hand you a design? You ask what is the best equipment to buy. The answer to this is that the best equipment to buy is the equipment that best suits your needs. So the question is; What are your needs? What do you want to run from solar? How many watts does it use? How long is it run for? - You must be looking for solar thermal water heating panels. Not electric (PV) panels. So, I posted this in alt.solar.thermal. There are many there that know a lot about solar water heating. One thing for sure : Solar water heating is almost certainly cost-effective nowadays, so it is worth looking into. - Lots of companies do. There is no one best design, each works best in different ways and circumstances, with different pros and cons. You need a complete system design, and it sounds like thats what you need assistance with."

WATER FEATURES

Both the Atlantis and the Nautilus have excellent 12volt versions that are very effective and reliable for a small pondThere is no doubt that out of the readily available pump units for water features, the range available from Oase are the best. If you are contempleting a kit to save all the hassle, then the panels that come with the kits are more than adequate for the task they are put to.The Solar Set 35 - the water course set - featuring the Atlantis pump, will be available from this site at £699.99.

The Solar Set 20 - the Fountain Set - featuring the Nautilus pump will be available from this site at £529.99Sunjet Solar pump capable of shooting a jet up to 99inches

If you are looking for the 'cheap and cheerful' try some on like:
www.earthwhile.co.uk or http://www.taylorsgardenbuildings.co.uk/store/customer/product.php?productid=19358

like the:
Sunjet Solar 900 pond pump. Ftn height 99”/250cm £218
Tatlor's Garden Buildings say :“The exclusive partnership with RWE Solutions, the third largest utility company in the world enables these products to offer superior performance and charging even in low light.”
Or there is:
http://www.taylorsgardenbuildings.co.uk/store/customer/product.php?productid=19346
The Ethical Superstore does a lot of these from the same manufacturer on:
http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/advanced_search_result.php?x=0&y=0&keyw...

Many of these products come from Smartsolar: http://smartsolar.com/uk/index.php
Like the:
The Sunjet Magic 290 pump and light.Sunjet Magic 290 Solar Floating Fountain £79.99The Sunjet 290 in daylight

A floating illuminated fountain powered by solar energy. The Sunjet Magic is a fountain by day and a multi coloured illuminated fountain by night.

Features:
Solar by day / battery by night or in cloudy weather
Powered by a remote solar panel and battery station
Cycles through multiple colours
Battery capacity: with light up to 15 hours operation, without light up to 24 hours operation
Maximum fountain height up to 20" / 50cm
No wiring, simple to install and enjoy
No operating costs
Two year warranty

A floating fountain with a remote panel is more effective than one that is integral.: The Wagner Hawaii also has battery backupThe Green Shop sells Wagner Solar lamps and fountains : (www.greenshop.co.uk/acatalog/Greenshop_online_Water_pumps_96.html)
So does Maidenhead Aquatics (http://www.maidenheadaquatics.co.uk/eshop/product_info.php?products_id=1995)
for instance they do:
Wagner Hawaii Solar Powered Pond Pump with Battery Back-up
online reduced from £99.99 to £79.99

• This solar fountain set can run at any time whether the sun is shining or not.
• Use either floating or submerged
• Works for up to 10 hours on a fully charged battery
• Independent of mains electricity, thanks to solar energy, the pump runs automatically when the sun is shining or with battery back up when its not.
• The solar panel angle is set for ideal alignment with the sun and includes a sturdy support stand with ground spike, which can be placed anywhere, making it perfect even for shady ponds.
• Easy to remove and clean the foam filter
• Pump Flow: 280 Litres per hour with full & direct sun, with a max head of 1.1m.
• Max Fountain spray height is 85cm with full & direct sun or a maximum of 35cm while on back up battery
• Pump is 4 - 7.5volt DC powered by solar panel or Rechargeable4.5volt NiCad battery with sufficient power for up to 10 hours of operation being stored in the battery.
• The solar panel comes complete with it's own adjustable stand, ground spike and 5 metres of cable.
• The solar panel can either run the pump directly or charge the battery. At the press of a button the battery then powers the pump for up to three hours via the built in timer.
• Solar panel including the frame is 26cm (10") wide x 21cm (8") height x 50mm (2") thick, with a max output in direct sun of 1500 mW.

The pump can be installed in the following ways;

• Floating Unit (first image below) Size including float, Diameter 25cm x Depth 10cm.
• Submerged in shallower ponds (second image below) Size including upside down float as base anchor, Diameter 25cm x Depth 10cm
• Powering a small feature (third image below) size of unit is Diameter 10cm x height 11cm.
• The kit contains three different style fountain nozzles and three nozzle extension pieces, each 70mm long, as shown in image 4 below. However, if a 10mm tube is attached to the outlet in place of fountain heads a small water feature can be powered.

The Solar wall fountain from Ample TechnologyIf you feel that even the slightly more expensive products just don’t fulfil you imagination, there is a company that will build a solar water feature to your design. The company is Ample Technology fromSolar water pump and panel with battery Xiamen in the People’s Republic of China (http://www.ample-cn.com). They pride themselves on their customer service, the quality of their products and the speed at which they can deliver.
If it has complicated circuitry they reckon to have a dummy model up and running in less than an hour. If it involves your design of ornament, in whatever material, they will have it in production and for sale in less than a month.
I thought I had a good idea, I thought a traditional wall fountain would be perfect to be solar driven. No, they had already done it. In fact they have hundreds if not thousands or designs, some of them you don’t want to know about, like the solar snail or the frog with the glowing tummy. They produce 10 new designs a month.
Their minimum stocking order is 200,whether it is your design is theirs, but I am sure you wouldn’t find that a problem if your idea is really that good!

A lot of what you see in other company catalogues have come from here in the first place.