PROBLEM: how do you pump water from a dam 300m from home, up a hill which is approx. 30m in height, without installing a power supply at the dam.

SOLUTION:  Install a solar powered pump. 

This customer had a spring fed dam which they needed to transfer water from to service guests in their B&B Cottage.   The previous pump arrangement was an old Diesel pump which was inconsistent and expensive.  The pump needed priming every time water was required, as the suction line and foot valve sat in a very small stream and was always stuck in mud.  This meant that the owner was constantly driving back and forth up and down his property checking on its performance or even re-fuelling every few hours.

The cost of installing power to the dam would be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and then you have the ongoing power costs of running an electric pump, coupled with regular power outages which sometimes last for days in this part of Vic.  The decision to install a solar powered pump at the dam was not only about savings costs, but also reliability of water supply to the tanks. 

The Solar pump installed by Century Rain was to pump approximately 300m from the dam to the tanks with a rise of 30m.  We also installed a back-up firefighter pump should the owner need a quick short-term transfer of water when the solar is not at its peak. The transfer pipe we installed from the solar pump to the tanks was “mole ploughed” instead of open trenched through horse paddocks, which eliminated the risk of horses tripping or injuring themselves in soft ground after backfilling of trenches.

The guys at Century Rain have followed up with the property owner every few weeks, and the response every time is one of gratitude.  “He can’t speak highly enough of his new installation,  or thank us enough for recommending the solar pump install” says Rob from Century Rain.