Design and Construction of a Portable Solar Water Pump

3000 Litter per Hour

Rusman Sinaga

, Julius A. Tanesab

, Marthen D. Elu Beily

and Agusthinus S. Sampeallo

Electrical Engineering Department, State Polytechnic of Kupang, Jalan Adisucipto Penfui Kupang, Indonesia

Electrical Engineering Department, Nusa Cendana University, Jalan Adisucipto Kupang, Indonesia

Keywords: Portable, Solar, Pump, Water, Head.

Abstract: The solar water pumping systems are considered as one of the most promising areas in photovoltaic

applications. This study aimed to produce a prototype of a Portable Solar Water Pump (PSWP) with a flow

rate of water 3000 liters per hour and determine the effect of pump head in the flow rate of water on PSWP.

This research was preceded by the design and construct a prototype of the PSWP system and then performed

simulations test. The experiment was carried out with variations of the pump head to find a water flow rate of

3000 Lph. The results showed that the estimate to get a flow rate of water 3000 Lph, the pump head was at

1.5 m. The pump head affects the flow rate of water. If the pump head (H) increases 1 m, the flow rate of

water (A) will decrease 389.66 Lph. The regression equation model can be write Q = - 289.66 H + 3445.8, on

= 79.08%, which means of 79.08% Q is effect by H, and 20.92% is affected by other variables.

1 INTRODUCTION

Water is a necessity for survival that is needed by

humans for drinking and household needs. Besides

that water is also needed for irrigation, construction,

and electricity production. Water has a very important

role in the development of any country. Quality of life

in any country is very dependent on the quantity and

quality of available water resources. It is estimated

that an average of 100 liters of water is needed per

person per day for daily survival (Theodolfi and

Waangsir, 2014). Although a large amount of quality

water is available, there are still many that do not

meet the availability of water, especially in rural areas

that still do not get electricity supply from the

National Electric Company (PLN) to operate water

pumps, including rural areas in Kupang Regency

which have an electrification ratio still 60%. The

average household that has not received electricity

supply is located in remote rural areas that are

difficult to reach by the PLN (Sinaga et al., 2019);

(Sinaga et al., 2017).

Conventionally, electricity which is largely

generated by burning fossil fuels, has been supplied

from the national electricity grid, this poses a problem

for supplying water to remote areas that cannot be

connected directly to the network to obtain national

electricity. The negative impact of burning fossil fuels

on the environment is increasing, the researchers are

becoming more focused on developing a standalone

water pump system that can be supported by

renewable energy sources. Several renewable energy

sources can be used for pumping water, one of which

is solar photovoltaic (PV), because it is a clean and

naturally available energy source.

The use of solar electricity can support government

programs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

where the emission reduction target is contained in

Law 16 of 2016 concerning Paris Approval of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change. Indonesia's Nationally Determined

Contribution (NDC) is a reduction in GHG emissions

by 2030 by 29% on its own and 4l% if there is

international cooperation because the use of solar

modules will reduce the process of supplying

electricity through fossil fuel power plants that cause

CO2 emissions (UN-RI, 2016).

Farmers in Kupang Regency are in dire need of

water pumps; however, the source of electricity is an

obstacle for farmers in the villages who have no

electricity. Besides the problem of providing a source

of electricity, the current SWP system problem is still

limited to the permanent SWP system, so it cannot be

used interchangeably between farmer groups who

have not been able to buy permanent SWP. The

1210

Sinaga, R., Tanesab, J., Beily, M. and Sampeallo, A.

Design and Construction of a Portable Solar Water Pump 3000 Litter per Hour.

DOI: 10.5220/0010962500003260

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science (iCAST-ES 2021), pages 1210-1216

ISBN: 978-989-758-615-6; ISSN: 2975-8246

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

existence of portable SWP that it is expected to be

able to flow water in farmland alternately between

farmer groups and the time of use is adjusted to water

needs based on the area of agricultural land owned.

The research includes designing, constructing, and

simulation tests of a PSWP 3000 Lph as needed. This

study aimed to produce a prototype of a Portable Solar

Water Pump (PSWP) with a flow rate of water 3000

liters per hour and determine the effect of pump head

in the flow rate of water on PSWP. So that this PSWP

3000 Lph can be offered to the users who need

especially farmers in rural areas who do not yet have

access to PLN electricity.. The uniqueness of this

PSWP system is that it can be moved so that each

farmer can use alternately.

The Solar Water Pump (SWP) requires solar

energy as primary energy to be converted into

electrical energy through solar modules. The results

of the study prove that in Kupang District the

intensity of sunlight is very optimum in the dry

season. In the morning, afternoon, and evening

sunlight radiation is very influential on the energy

output of solar panels (Sinaga, 2011). Changes in the

intensity of sunlight and the angle of incidence of

sunlight greatly affect the voltage received by solar

panels. The intensity of solar radiation on average in

East Nusa Tenggara is 5,117 Wh / m2 / day, which

has the potential to generate electricity (Rahardjo and

I. Fitriana. 2015)

The performance of solar modules in the form of

maximum power output varies with the seasons. At

the end of the summer or the dry season, solar panel

performance tends to increase. Based on a review of

cost-efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly

criteria in reducing CO2 emissions, the best choice

for supplying small-scale electrical energy is to use

the solar modules and with the power supply using

solar modules capable of moving water pumps

(Sinaga et al., 2017)

Photovoltaic (PV) modules utilize solar energy

directly to produce electricity which can be used to

power electrically operated water pumps. Over the

past few years, researchers have focused on

developing efficient solar-powered water pumping

systems. This system has proven reliable even in bad

weather conditions, and a recent search revealed that

the largest PV system installed in the world is the

Tengger Desert Solar Park in China with an installed

capacity of 1500 MW. Many aspects of solar water

pumping systems have been investigated, such as

overall efficiency, the efficiency of individual

components, economic viability, and optimization of

their size. In economic terms, problems related to the

use of fossil fuels such as availability, transportation

costs, prices, and effects on the environment while the

price of solar modules is declining due to

advancements in Photovoltaic (PV) technology

thereby adding to the increased feasibility of using

solar water pump systems (Foster and Cota, 2014).

The results of the study of Sinaga et al. 2019 in

Kupang show that the price level of the installation of

an off-grid PV system is at the level of 0.29-0.31 US

$ / kWh.

The Solar Water Pump (SWP) system has been a

real focus of interest for researchers for decades along

with increasing awareness about the energy crisis.

There are various design possibilities for developing

SWP. However, the most common are those

involving solar modules (Aliyua et al., 2017). Picture

1 shows a schematic diagram of a general SWP

system consisting of a power collection system, a

power conditioning unit, a water pump, and a

reservoir. Water pumps installed at the source of

water and pumping from the source to the reservoir

which is higher than the ground level. The difference

in height from the water pump to the inlet reservoir is

known as the pump head. This pomp head (H) is an

important parameter in designing SWP.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of a solar water pump system

(Aliyua et al., 2017).

Solar energy collection systems an important role

in the performance of SWP system (Nogueira et al.,

2015); (Sinaga and Beily, 2019); (Sinaga et al., 2019).

Several aspects of solar energy collection systems

have been studied in the literature which has a direct

effect on the overall efficiency of SWP. The

advantages of DC water pumps compared to AC

include portability and energy saving, while AC has a

longer life and high speed. Although the performance

of commercially operated water pumps is

commercially available, some researchers study the

performance of water pumps. The researcher has

evaluated the performance of submersible centrifugal

pumps for solar water pumping and reports subsystem

efficiencies ranging from 20% to 30% for water

pumps installed in four different locations in Tunisia

Design and Construction of a Portable Solar Water Pump 3000 Litter per Hour

1211

(Belgacem, 2012). Two-person of the researcher also

do research about optimized linear actuator design for

use as a water pump system (Wade and Short, 2012).

This research presented a design that utilizes current

from the solar module to flow through copper

windings so as to induce a magnetic flux in the metal

core made of iron which causes it to move upward.

This research also report an acceptable agreement

between optimized results and experimental data.

Research results show that the efficiency estimated at

7.8% with a 6A supply current to the actuator.

The pump head has a significant effect on the

overall efficiency of SWP. In this case Benghanem, et

al. (2014), studied the effects of various pump heads

on the overall performance of the pump system. They

tested pump heads ranging from 50 to 80 m. The

analysis shows that increasing the pump head reduces

the overall efficiency of the system. A decrease in

efficiency at a higher pump head can make the whole

system economically unfeasible.

An important parameter that also influences the

performance of the water pump system is an effective

and efficient design of the control system. The

researcher Campana et al. (2014), proposed a control

system that interacts between water supply and

demand. Water and groundwater responses need to be

considered in supplying of water needed to produce

energy optimization and water savings

Another control system proposed by Sallem et al.

(2010), uses of fuzzy management algorithms to

control the connection period between solar modules,

batteries, and water pumps. The results of this study

indicate that with the use of a fuzzy management

algorithm control system, there has been an increase

in the use of water pumps for more than 5 hours.

The design configuration of the SWP system has

been used, among others, the configuration of the DC

system and AC with a battery storage system (Chandel

et al., 2015); (Susanto et al.,2018). The results of the

study SWP AC with a battery storage system by

Tukiman et al. (2013) showed that for the use of a 550

Watt AC pump, 220 Volt at the head of 8 m, resulting

in a water discharge of 3000 liters/hour. While the

results of the study SWP DC systems by Priambodo et

al. (2019), using a 45 Watt 12 Volt DC pump, at the

head of 4 m, produces a flow rate of water up to 1912

liters/hour.

This research is developing of previous research,

especially in the design of the SWP system. The

novelty of the research is the SWP system in the

special needs of 3000 litters per hour which can be

moved. PSWP can be used by each farmer group as

needed and is safer against electric shock because it

uses a DC system.

2 METHODS

This research was preceded by the design and

construct a prototype of the PSWP system and then

performed simulations test. The experiment was

carried out with variations of the pump head to find a

water flow rate of 3000 Lph. The research process is

presented in Figure 2.

2.1 Selection of Parameters Water

Pumping Systems

The formulation for determining the water pump

power capacity is presented in equation (1) (Tukiman

et al., 2013):

P 

𝑄𝐻𝜌

𝐹𝑐. ƞ

(1)

Where: P: Water pump power (Watt), Q: flow rate of

water (m

/hour), H: Total pump head, Ƞ: Efficiency

(%), 𝜌 : water density (Kg/m

), Fc: Power unit

conversion factor.

PV Module and

Wagon

Panel Box &

Protection

Battery

SCC

Reservoir

Simulation

Water Pump Piping

Start

DESIGN SWP 3000 Lph

Testing of SWP Systems

IL (A) VL (A)

Data

Analysis

Recomendation

End

Water Sources

Installation SWP 3000 Lph

SR Q f(h)

Figure 2: The research process.

iCAST-ES 2021 - International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science

1212

To produce a flow rate of water up to 3 m

/hour or

3000 Liters per hour (Lph) it takes a water pump

capacity (Pp) 163 Watt, but the water pump on the

market (Ppm) is 180 Watt, the water pump capacity

needed to produce a water discharge of 3000 Lph is 180

Watt. The results of the calculation of the power

capacity required water pump are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Calculation of the power capacity of water pump.

2.2 Selection of Parameters Solar

Energy Systems

First, it is assumed that this solar energy system uses

a PV module at 100 Wp. The question is how many

modules are needed to use 180 Watt water pump

capacity?

The water pump energy needed to flow water

from a water source to a certain time interval is

formulated as in equation (2).

E = P x tp (Wh)

(2)

Where E is Energy of water pump (Wh), P is the

power of water pump (Watt) and tp is the duration of

the use of water pumps (Hour). While the energy of

PV module (E

) is presented in equation (3).





(Wh/Wp)

(3)

The power of PV module (P

) uses the formula in

equation (4).





(Watt/Wp)

(4)

Where ti is solar module irradiation time. The number

of PV modules (N

) uses can be formulated by

equation (5).

x Ad (5)

Where Ad is Autonomy Day. PV module capacity

) formulated by equation (6).

= N

x 100 (Wp) (6)

The capacity of battery (Cb) formulated by

equation (7), while the number of batteries (Nub)

formulated using equation (8). Then the parameters

of the solar energy system are presented in Table 2.

Cb =



  

(Ah)

(7)

Nub =



   

(8)

Table 2: Parameters of solar energy system.

2.3 Construction of PSWP

The material used of the PSWP construction consists

of PV modules, submersible pumps, batteries,

wagons and box panels containing controllers,

protection components, push-button switches, cable

terminals, cable installations. The Construction of

PSWP is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Construction of PSWP.

3 RESULT

PSWP test results show that solar radiation affects the

battery charging current (Ic). However, the current

flowing into the water pump (Ip) is not affected by

solar radiation, because the electrical energy to the

water pump is sourced from the battery. The battery

is continuously charged as long as the PV module

receives sunlight.

The current absorbed by the water pump is greater

than the battery charging current so that this PSWP is

designed to operate within a maximum of 2 hours.

The highest battery charging current (Ic) is 4.3

Amperes when the solar radiation is 981 w / m

, while

the highest water pump (Ip) current is 12.30 Amperes.

The graph of Solar Radiation (SR), battery charge

current (Ic), and water pump current (Ip) are

presented in Figure 4.

QHǷ PpPpm

/hour

)

(

)

(

)

(

Watt

)

(

Watt

)

Submersible pump 3 15 1 367 75% 163 180

Load Type Fc ɳ

ti P

(Wh/Wp) h W/Wp

Submersible pump 180 2 360 3,6 4 0,9

Ad N

DoD

Day Unit Wp %

Cb (Ah) Vb (Volt) NUb

11 90 50% 60 12 1

Load Type P (W) tp (h) E (Wh)

Battery

Design and Construction of a Portable Solar Water Pump 3000 Litter per Hour

1213

Figure 4: Graph of solar radiation (SR), battery charge

current (Ic), and water pump current (Ip).

The data of the test for the pump head (H) and the

flow rate of water (Q) shows, if the H increase, the Q

will be decreased. The maximum of the Q at the H 0.5

m is 4,286 Lph, while the minimum of the Q at the

level 1,412 Lph on the H 8 m, While the achievement

of Q at the 3000 Lph is estimated to be at H 1.5 m.

The graph of the H vs Q is present in Figure 5

Figure 5: The graph of H vs Q.

The data of the test for the pump head (H) and the

power of the water pump (Pp) shows that if the H

increase, Pp will be decreased. The maximum of Pp at

125.46 Watt and the minimum of Pp at 100 Watt. The

graph of H vs Pp is present in Figure 6.

Figure 6: The graph of H vs Pp.

The battery charging current (Ic) is affected by

Solar Radiation (SR). An increase in SR of 1 W / m

the Ic will be increased by 0.0044 Amperes. The

equation regression model is Ic = 0.0044 SR with R

= 99.99%, which means that 99.99% Ic is affected by

solar radiation and 0.01% is effect by other variables.

The effect of SR on the Ic is presented in Figure 7.

Figure 7: The effect of SR on the Ic.

The pump head affects the flow rate of water: if

the pump head (H) increases 1 m, the flow rate of

water (Q) will decrease 289.66 Lph. The regression

equation model is Q = -289.66 H + 3445.8, with R

79.08%, meaning 79.08% Q is effected by H, and

20.92% is affected by other variables. The effect of H

on Q is presented in Figure 8.

iCAST-ES 2021 - International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science

1214

Figure 8: The Effect of H on Q.

The water flow rate (Q) is affected by the power of

the pump (Pp). If the Pp increase Pp 1 Watt, then Q will

increase 72.819 Lph. Regression equation estimation

models can be written Q = 72.819 Pp - 5609.9, while

= 80.73%, which means that 80.73% Q is effected

Pp and 19.27% is affected other variables. The effect

of Pp on Q is presented in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Effect of Pp on Q.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The results showed that the estimate to get a flow rate

of water 3000 Lph, the pump head was at 1.5 m. The

pump head affects the flow rate of water. If the pump

head (H) increases 1 m, the flow rate of water (Q) will

decrease 389.66 Lph. The regression equation model

can be write Q = - 289.66 H + 3445.8, on R

79.08%, which means of 79.08% Q is effect by H, and

20.92% is affected by other variables.

The battery charging current (Ic) is affected by

solar radiation (SR). If SR increases of 1 W / m

, so

Ic will be increased by 0.0044 Amperes. The equation

regression model can be written Ic = 0.0044 SR on R

= 99.99%, which means that 99.99% of Ic is affected

by solar radiation and 0.01% is effect other variables.

The water flow rate (Q) is affected by the power

of the pump (Pp). If the Pp increases 1 Watt than Q

will increase 72.819 Lph. Regression equation

estimation models can be written Q = 72.819x -

5609.9, while R

= 80.73%, which means that 80.73%

Q is effected Pp and 19.27% is affected other

variables.

Recommendation: PSWP 100Wp-180W60Ah,

can be used to produce a water flow of 3000 liters per

hour at a pump head of 1.5 m. if the pump head is

more than 1.5 m, the water flow obtained is less than

3000 liters per hour.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank State Polytechnic of

Kupang for financial support through the routine

research program.

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