I really want to write a little series of articles that, when combined, show a couple points that bug the crap out of me. But…I’m really not sure on where to start. Let me touch on the general points first, then maybe a starting point will manifest.

 

 

 

 

Points to Ponder –

• You gotta know a bunch of stuff to go off-grid and/or work a homestead…or you need to be willing and able to learn.
• Businesses are usually stupid…or don’t really care that much about their customers.
• The simplest solution is usually the best/right solution.
• There are some really great products out there…but they are usually really well hidden.
• Don’t ever trust salesmen.
• Mother nature rules…and can trash mankind whenever she wants.
• Trying to be self-sufficient is a pain in the a$$…and expen$sive.

Yeah, you kinda get an idea of just how frustrated I might be?

Let me start all the way back at the beginning…

We bought our place 10 years ago…and I can’t express how grateful we are for God bringing us here. Fortunately for us it already had a well on it. Yup, that is an expensive necessity around these parts. Once we closed on the place I contacted a local well company to pull the pump and test the well…and refurb it if needed. We got lucky…the well was in great shape and needed no work on it.

There was no power at the well to run the pump and the pump, although working fine, was 30 years old and 220vAC. I went to a then local well supply house, outlined my situation, they recommended a new pump set-up, and we bought it. I installed it myself a couple years later and all was fine…till we needed to irrigate the garden, yard, and small orchard.

So we found out…not enough storage, not enough pump flow, WAY inconvenient to use a generator to run the pump…just not the right way to supply our water needs. So again, I contacted a now local solar business guy that I was friends with for advice. “Solar pump!!!” was his suggestion and he supplied me a quote. More money than we wanted to spend…but it “would cure our problems.”

I installed it myself and all was good…kinda. We weren’t getting the flow we needed (amount of water pumped out of the well) and we could only run the well during the day when the sun was shinning. And then disaster struck…a thunderstorm. “ZAP!!” A nearby lightening strike took out the well control module. It was under warranty but we had to send it in. Ahhhhhh…it would take at least a week, probably two, to get it back. Solution from the company…”buy a back-up controller”. Another $500 down the drain…but we kept on pumping.

Turns out that when the nearby lightening strike hit there was transient voltage that spread out towards our place and was absorbed by the signal wire between the well control module and the storage tank’s float switch…700’ in between. The hit wasn’t bad enough to show any damage on the controller’s circuit board…but enough voltage to kill the display board which in-turn killed the operational ability of the module.