I'll start with a photo because I truly could not imagine how this electrical system went together until I saw it all mounted. Thank goodness Husband has an engineering brain. I have previously posted about putting up the solar array and running the wires to the combiner box; setting up the batteries; and mounting the charge controller and inverter. Once these things were in place Husband added a DC switch panel so that we could get our water system operational. The DC switch is the black part that looks like no wires are running to it (that is because they come in the back). So....DC appliances run directly off of the batteries. The main appliance we will run with DC power is our delivery pump. I made the following diagram of our water system to show the major components. While I can't seem to wrap my head around electricity very easily, I do understand the plumbing!
While Husband was busy with electrical components, I plumbed the system. As I previously mentioned our submersible pump (in the well) is also a DC pump and it has two 75 watt panels dedicated solely to that appliance. The submersible pump fills a storage tank. In order to have pressurized lines in the house you either have to build the storage tank up (like a water tower) to get a gravity system, or you have to have some sort of delivery pump. We have a DC delivery pump and a pressure tank. The pressure tank is basically a tank with an inflatable bladder. The delivery pump pushes water into the tank and lines to the house to a maximum pressure and then shuts off. When the pressure gets to a particular low point the pump turns back on. The pressure switch is the monitor for how pressurized the lines are and it connects and breaks the circuit to the delivery pump when needed. The only thing I left off of the diagram is a check valve that is installed directly off the discharge from the delivery pump.
Here is how it looked before I started putting it all together. The black tank is the storage tank and the grey one is the pressure tank.
And the final product! I admit that I had to redo a number of fittings after the first attempt due to leaks. On the second attempt I purchased the PVC pipe cleaner and used that on all pipes and fittings prior to using the primer and cement. I had much better results and highly recommend not skipping that step! No leaks!!
I also added a hose bib in case we need to drain the storage tank and a main line shut off. The pressure switch and pressure tank took a little adjustment in terms of inflating the tank to the right amount and setting the switch. We have the cut on at 15 psi and the off at 30. This gives good pressure to the faucets and toilet. My next job is to plumb the hot water line...this is only the cold!
Outside the PVC runs in the trench and then I switch to PEX before entering the house as that is how the rough in was installed when we built the house. I really prefer PEX and am looking forward to completing the hot water loop with that instead of PVC. Also in the trench you can see the 2 inch pipe which is attached to the top of the storage tank. When the tank is full the overflow runs through this pipe and is collected in an outside storage tank (which I will add soon). We will use that water for irrigation.
So just this week we were able to turn on faucets for the first time! I've been filling buckets to fill the back of the toilet and hauling water for hand washing for quite a long time, but now the water is connected and we have indoor plumbing - cold only for the time being - but it is so very exciting!
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