We’ve had a lot of outages, but none more than 2 weeks, and we used our portable generators and extension cords. But in a longer grid down, we’d need a better solution.
I feel like it’s a race to see how much we can get done before the next crash, and we are too far behind as it stands. We are on a well. I have tried to convince hubby to at least get a stand by that we could flip a switch every week and draw enough water for that. He always just shrugs and says I can have that rigged to the portable generator within minutes.
Finally, he’s beginning to listen, but he has to finish his current project first and he’s not sure how much more that is going to cost. SMH.
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Be warned that a generator has to be pretty strong to drive a well. Might be worth the effort to make sure yours will pull the load before thirsty.
My dads well needed a 7500 watt generator to spin up. His 5000 watt Honda did not cut it.
Because well motors are so small diameter, their start current is very large. Think of it as a bicycle with pedals only 4 inches long. Takes crazy torque to get going.
“Be warned that a generator has to be pretty strong to drive a well. Might be worth the effort to make sure yours will pull the load before thirsty.
My dads well needed a 7500 watt generator to spin up. His 5000 watt Honda did not cut it.
Because well motors are so small diameter, their start current is very large. “
I was out of town all week with only an iPad which is not logged onto FR. I wanted to add to your discussion about well pumps:
We have a 285’ well with a 10 GPM pump @ 260’ — Over the decades I have planted over 300 trees and irrigating these trees has put massive stress on the pump.
My irrigation system is only 3 GPM so the pump would constantly switch ON and off which destroyed the first pump after 10 years.
The second pump had a ‘cycle stop’ valve which prevented the pump from cycling. Unfortunately the downside of a cycle stop valve is that the pump motor overheats and destroys the pump (no-one told me about this...)
Currently we have a Franklin Sub-Drive system and it’s fantastic!
The pump controller changes the 240 1 phase voltage into a three phase voltage and sends it to the three phase pump motor. this allows an 8 GPM pump to soft start and pump at a mere 1.5 GPM and it has infinite speeds up to 12 GPM.
IF you are looking for a way to power a pump with a generator/inverter this is could be a perfect system for you.
I believe that the the pump wire needs to have ‘3 wires + a ground’ (ours had this) to pass the three phase power to the pump motor.
https://franklinwater.com/products/drives-protection/residentiallight-commercial/subdrivemonodrive/
Hope this helps!