Originally Posted By: JKB

I've been thru pretty much all of Gast's rocking piston and diaphragm pumps, and it looks like most of the AC rigs could be run directly off of solar because of the type of motor it is. May need a soft start and something to kick it in when the sun comes out tho.

I have a 1/3hp 3 phase motor here. Theoretically, you could run it off a single 280W panel with an ABB (Power One) micro inverter running 240V split phase into a VFD, then to the motor. Need a couple more gizmo as well.

Problem is, the Micro is a grid tie unit and I need to figure out a way to loop back and trick it into thinking it's on the grid. ABB said no work without grid.

Scratching my head a bit, but that's because I had to go to a fiberglass factory today laugh


JKB my gosh man what do you do for a living!!?? You make it sound so simple!!

I don't have a motor picked out at all. Just kind of started looking around on the Gast site. A while back Esshup told me I'd need 11.5 psi and 4-4.5 cfm so I was just looking through all the different pumps at ones close to those specs. Seemed like I was going to be in the 1/3 hp range. It all depends on where I am going to come in price-wise on this, but I have not totally ruled out throwing in a battery on this thing to keep me going at night too.

On another topic, one day I do hope to have solar on my house so this would be a good way to get my feet wet.

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