Garden water feature with only a solar panel to run it.

PeteHerts

Hello everyone.

Maybe a bit of a strange one this but my neighbour has bought a water garden feature but it only has a solar panel to run the pump and it has to be in direct sunlight to work so I was wondering if a rechargeable battery kit could be spliced in so it could charge the batteries and run the pump when in direct sunlight but then run off the batteries when the sun goes in or as long as possible.

Many thanks.

Pete.

Ectophile

The answer has to be "yes". It could be done.


But it requires a proper battery charger designed to be run off a solar panel. Just hooking up some rechargeable batteries to a solar panel is unlikely to do anything useful. Either they will never charge properly, or they will be over-charged and damaged on a sunny day.

Davesnave

Be thankful the neighbour hasn't found the resources to go mains power.

I've visited open gardens in our local town and experienced the noise generated by a water feature which resembled a badly plumbed toilet and koi pond pumps that wouldn't have looked out of place at the sewage works.


If one buys a house next to a waterfall or fast flowing stream that's a choice, but a neighbour with perpetually gushing water in their garden doesn't sit well with all of us, especially those those bladders don't function as well as they used to!

PDC

Pump kits do exist which run a batery backup inline with a solar panel, primrose.co.uk seem to be a main seller and also sell on Amazon.

Not sure if it would be practical to DIY it unless you were into elecronics.