Home-Built Solar Water Pumping Kit

Home-Built Solar Water Pumping Kit ENERGY Miscellaneous Donnie Cox of Haworth Okla recently sent FARM SHOW photos of a portable solar-powered setup he uses to provide pond water to his cattle “Several years back we had a pond dug on our property ” says Cox “I wanted to keep cattle out of it so I ran an electric fence around the perimeter Then I installed a 100-gal tank outside the fence and hooked up a float valve in it to a DC pump “To power both the electric fence and the pump I bought four 40-watt solar panels and set them on a home-built metal frame that’s bolted to a wooden platform The panels are wired to a pair of 12-volt batteries located inside a wooden box on the platform The panels keep the batteries charged and the batteries keep the pump going ” Cox says his solar panel setup has come in handy for doing other jobs too “Last summer I moved the system up to our yard where my great granddaughter keeps show goats inside a pen I also installed a DC-AC inverter so that she can use a big fan to keep the goats cool during hot summer weather I’ve even used the panels to power Christmas lights that decorate a tree in our pasture ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Donnie W Cox 2139 Union Grove Road Haworth Okla 74740 ph 580 212-5848; donniewcox@gmail com

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