Petrol Water Pump

[Peasgood]

A 200 amp 12v lithium battery should power your pump for one hour ish, you would need a 2000W inverter to do it. I would think your ibc would be empty in much less than 1 hour unless your hose size and length restricts the flow a lot.

You can charge the battery pretty quick with a suitable charge controller if your alternator is up to it.

[openspaceman]

21 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

A 200 amp 12v lithium battery should power your pump for one hour ish, you would need a 2000W inverter to do it. I would think your ibc would be empty in much less than 1 hour unless your hose size and length restricts the flow a lot.

You can charge the battery pretty quick with a suitable charge controller if your alternator is up to it.

It's interesting how things have progressed since the beginning of this thread; back in the days I was contracting I used to run a 13hp 200A welding genset with it's 4kVA 240V windings. My wife and I could just about lift it into the Land Rover.

 

Last month I had some site welding to do so I took my 200A inverter welder and a 5kW portable power station(30kg) with 3kWh 48V battery(38kg) and welded for about 30 minutes, I still had 70% capacity when I finished. It ran my 2kW compressor at home which the 4kVA generator struggled to start.

 

I had to return the power station under warranty ( after 2 inverters failed to power up) and if I do it again it will be using a more modular approach but I think I will stick with a 48V domestic battery.

[peds]

1 hour ago, Peasgood said:

A 200 amp 12v lithium battery should power your pump for one hour ish, you would need a 2000W inverter to do it. I would think your ibc would be empty in much less than 1 hour unless your hose size and length restricts the flow a lot.

You can charge the battery pretty quick with a suitable charge controller if your alternator is up to it.

 

Nice one Peas, it is indeed a 2kw inverter I've got. I'll give it a go on the campervan setup at some point then, it sounds like it could be a go-er. If I were to do any wiring in the work van in the future for it I'd probably want to be a bit more belt-and-braces than the jonky first-attempt affair in the camper, but it'll do for an experiment, anyway. 

 

Regarding the size of my hose, I've had no complaints so far... 

[peds]

53 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

It's interesting how things have progressed since the beginning of this thread; back in the days I was contracting I used to run a 13hp 200A welding genset with it's 4kVA 240V windings. My wife and I could just about lift it into the Land Rover.

 

Last month I had some site welding to do so I took my 200A inverter welder and a 5kW portable power station(30kg) with 3kWh 48V battery(38kg) and welded for about 30 minutes, I still had 70% capacity when I finished. It ran my 2kW compressor at home which the 4kVA generator struggled to start.

 

I had to return the power station under warranty ( after 2 inverters failed to power up) and if I do it again it will be using a more modular approach but I think I will stick with a 48V domestic battery.

 

I tried my best to keep up with this, but I lost track pretty quickly. I think I understand the gist of it, but i wouldn't want to be quizzed on the details. Electrics really isn't a language I'm fluent in. 

[Peasgood]

You do need to experiment because your 2000W inverter is probably 2000 peak rather than constant and your pump may well peak higher than that at startup. In theory it should be 1100W when running so the theory says it will be ok. Please bear in mind I am more of an enthusiastic amateur rather than a pro sparky.

[GarethM]

I'd try hooking up a small 1000w heater or something around the house to see how it fairs.

 

But a small pump is only going to give you a few hundred litres a minute at zero head

[openspaceman]

9 hours ago, Peasgood said:

You do need to experiment because your 2000W inverter is probably 2000 peak rather than constant and your pump may well peak higher than that at startup. In theory it should be 1100W when running so the theory says it will be ok. Please bear in mind I am more of an enthusiastic amateur rather than a pro sparky.

They mostly seem rated as 2000W constant with a much higher peak for a few seconds, presumably because it;s the semiconductors dissipating heat that's the limiting factor.

 

If you charge from a modern vehicle  with an "intelligent" alternator that is controlled by the vehicle ECU it will need a bit more than hooking it up via a simple split charger, a DC to DC charger may be required.

 

Be aware that, ignoring conversion losses, at 1kW you will be drawing 83A from a 12V battery so the cable and connections will need to be good to avoid heating up, one reason I would go with 48V unless charging from a vehicle was required.