Solar pump article
    Nice article. I thought I’d pass on two things that seem to work for us.
    Rather than use a battery to store power between the panels and the pump, we pump into a large (2,000 gallon) tank at the top of our hill. It gives us 15 PSI at most places on the hill, which is fine for operating drip tape. The line from the pump to the tank is also our supply line. So we have a filter at the pump. The tank evens out the pressure on the line. And if only a few lines are on, extra water is pumped into the tank. This let us us irrigate into the evening. I suspect it’s more efficient than storing power in the battery and turning the pump on and off as needed.
    We also have been testing out some low pressure sprinklers called “Wobblers”. We can run them off the line and spray out about a 10-foot radius. We have a set of them mounted on PVC pipes that irrigate directly sowed crops — carrots, beets and our cover crops. They put out a big droplet so they don’t suffer wind blow and get into the ground more than a mist.

Paul Lacrampe and Katie Hover
Lacrover Farm
Friday Harbor, WA