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Solar pumps Solar pumps, solar water features. Solar pumps for fountains and water features, they are a great idea, why not use a solar pump to pump water on your allotment, wont cost anything to run, and if they are slow they can fill a barrel during the day, why not? We have been checking out solar pumps, or solar operated pumps as they should be called. There are a whole variety on the market costing from a few pounds to more than a few hundred. The better ones have a separate solar panel that can be positioned to point towards the sun (some have the panel "built in" which then gets covered in water) But it seems to us that you need 2 things for a solar pump to work, one of them is bright sunshine, the other is a big solar panel. The bigger the solar panel the less light required to work. We also found that as well as being slow at the best of times solar pumps can not pump to a great height (head) so if for example you have a river nearby and you want to put a solar operated pump in this to pump water to a barrel give up now, the best we have found can only pump just over 3 feet, the barrel will be taller than this and then you have the the distance from the water to the barrel. Yes it is "green" to use solar pumps, but the truth seems to be they are just not efficient enough to be of much use. If you have a solar operated pump, be it in a water feature or fountain, then please send us a picture and tell us what your opinion is. We have since found a solar pump evaluation test click here Solar pond filter? see our page here
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