How do i hook up a solar panel to a pump?

Question

do i need to use a battery?

for pumping water through pipes and back to the pool

Answer 1

The simplest arrangement would be a centrifugal pump with a DC motor, and enough solar panels to generate the necessary voltage and current.

I expect you are going to use this to heat the water, so it won't have to run when there is no sun.  Batteries would not be of any use in this case.

Search the Internet for small dc centrifugal pump

Answer 2

You may need to store enough energy in a source to CONSISTENTLY generate the energy you need, determined by the specs of the pump and your needs, during the night time, shade, storms, etc..

I use a large bank of gel cell batteries that trickle charge from the panels to run AC appliances.  Then that goes to a capacitor that STORES the energy to the capacity I need (similar to a dam that releases water when it is needed) .... if you are only running one small DC device you don't need to capacitate that energy. Just use enough batteries (or one, or none, depending on your needs) in "parallel" or "series" (see the bottom-most link) to get the Volts and Amps (amps, more importantly) that you need.

http://www.powerstream.com/Amps-Watts.ht...

Watts=Volts x Amps

So if your pump is 12VDC and say .5 Amps  you need 6 Watts of power..you can figure the energy coming off of your panel and battery bank to determine (with a Volt/Amp meter)  any of the variables.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/y...

Kudos on using NATURAL power!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH, P.S.  You know the electric meter you have outside your house is a WATT meter...we know the house is 120V so that is not a measure of your usage.

To figure the power consumption of say a light bulb..or a bunch of light bulbs - (I'll do one for simplicity):

Light bulb:  60W of POWER  @ 120V of VOLTAGE

Amps (CURRENT) is then:

A=W/V or 60W/120V   equals  0.5A of current.

Then you can add up the AMPS on any given circuit (breaker/fuse) in your panel to see if it will trip when all the devices are on.

SO  for ten 120W light bulbs  (1200W total) on 120VAC you need 10 AMPs + 20% overhead.  AND don't be fooled by low voltage - AMPS (and a ground) kill you not volts or watts (as little as .1A can kill you - thus lighting strike survivors that get hit tens of thousands of volts (and high tension line workers that energize themselves to the lines).  

It's not too confusing if you break it down into the basics.  Get a basic electricity book at your local supply shop for a few bucks for the basics.

Answer 3

I would use pipes or tubing.  The power source would of course be determined by the type of pump you are using.  It must be sized and selected based upon its requirements.