“Could be worse,” same wag said. “Could be raining.”
So it’s raining, and I’m having some problems right now and don’t want to compound them with dead batteries so I’m going off line until this clears up. As to the water situation…
This has always been a weak spot in my preps. Although I seriously have a Plan E for acquiring water, I don’t have a good way to store any other than the main tank. I’m currently on Plan C.
Something weird is happening with the pump’s electrical system. I’m measuring 33 volts from the solar panel even in heavy overcast, which is not actually possible. 32 of those volts are going to the 12-volt pump, which oddly enough is not running. Jury’s out on whether the pump has some sort of high-voltage cutout, but I’m unaware of one. I think the solar panel may have shorted to where we’re getting unreasonably high voltage at essentially no amperage, but I’m frankly guessing. If it ever stops raining I’d like to try an experiment involving the tractor’s battery, but right now I’m just hunkering and hauling water.
More later, when I can.
Yup, them electrons is tricky. With no load on the panel, the voltage can skootch way up. Questions to make it plain I’ll be no help: Do you float a battery to run the pump without Mr. Sun, or does the panel go straight to the pump? Do you get your water pressure from gravity feed or is the system under pressure from a pump (not the one filling the tank)?
My “12 volt” solar panel produces a little over 19 volts no-load(sunny day), but drops to 11 point something when I connect my nimh charger to it. My guess is your solar panel(24 volt?) is doing something similar when connected to the pump. I’d try connecting a known good battery to the pump and see what happens.
A while back you mentioned a galvanized fitting that got eaten by the hard water. Could your pump be working fine but have a hole in some galvanized part so the water is just pumping/dropping back into the well and not getting to the tank?