A Solar question for people smarter than I | Alternative Energy

A Solar question for people smarter than I

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MountainMedic

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21 Feb ’15 - 2:30 pm

Some of you may know that I am embarking upon OperationLlama- Getting 4 llamas to train as packers for hunting and general amusement. I am starting from literal scratch and the learning curve is steep! In addition to learning about the animals and their needs, I am also neck deep in learning about different types of fences, ways to build barns, the price of grass hay.......

Which leads me to this post-

Llamas don't drink a lot of water, but just like everybody else they need access to it. Which poses a problem living in Montana. We don't really have the budget for a dedicated well right now down where the barn is going. And our main well is very far away, the expense of trenching and extending water all the way down there is likely high (although I haven't looked too heavily into that option, no way would that be cheap).

I have been looking into heated water tanks/buckets. We don't have power down there either. We may be able to remedy that, but I also wanted to look into a small solar unit. If prices are comparable I'd of course prefer a self sustaining solar system. If its actually cheaper, even better.

SO....... I found these units http://www.valleyvet.....1b2166c62d

I need to figure out if running two of these off of a small/med solar unit during winter is feasible.

I have NO idea about these things, and many of you here have tackled similar questions in the past. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

MountainMedic

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21 Feb ’15 - 2:32 pm

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21 Feb ’15 - 4:04 pm

I always thought this would be an interesting project to try

http://www.builditso.....veTank.htm

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21 Feb ’15 - 4:56 pm

but back to your original question I think the solar panel system will be quite cost prohibitive to run that for what you are going to get out of it, it says it draws 130 watts, so if you want it plugged in for for say 6 hours it is going to draw 780 watts, Montana gets 4.5 hours a day without taking in account efficiency of the panels you would need one 180W panel to run it. Then you run into an inverter, batteries, charge controller, etc and you could be looking at $500 easily and it still might freeze on you. These aren't hard numbers just thoughts off the top of my head, @porkchopsmmm would be able to give better advice on it

do you have constant wind there? I wonder if a small wind turbine would be a better option

MountainMedic

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21 Feb ’15 - 6:47 pm

KVR said
I always thought this would be an interesting project to try

http://www.builditso.....veTank.htm

Yeah, I have come across those plans and the commercial versions. I just don't see that really doing the job when it gets and stays below 20 for a week or two.

I need to talk to an electrician and see how much it will cost to go traditional. The pole is right there, I guess it wont be too crazy. we'll see. I'll be hauling buckets for the first winter. Could be worse I suppose.

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21 Feb ’15 - 7:02 pm

wonder how well a 12v aerator pump at the bottom of the bucket would do.

We usually fill our cows bucket twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The bucket is totally empty in the afternoon, in the morning it is usually half frozen and I have to break it out by smashing it on a post. I have talked to several farmers in the area and all except for my friend with the frost free spigot haul water twice a day to their animals.

My concern with using anything 120v is heaters have been known to crack and kill an animal

PorkChopsMmm

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23 Feb ’15 - 9:54 am

Dude, you really should think about renting a trencher and running electrical out there. Since your loads won't be crazy high you won't need super thick cabling. Rent a trencher, drop in some ground rated electrical with some 'detectable tape', and call it a day. At your barn you can sink a shallow well (well, if your ground water is high enough) and pull your water from there.

Setting up a solar or even wind solution will be expensive and hauling water out to the barn is expensive and hard work.

I trenched a ~225' run with conduit for electrical and a 1" water line and it was hard work but I basically did it all myself in one day.

Pics were posted on here. How far are you from the pole? How far are you from the well... in feet? Running water horizontal is not a big deal and you can trench a line going out there. If you are worried about water in the line freezing if you can't trench it deep enough you could always set up something to circulate water out at the barn with electricity and the running water.