1296 solar water features

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Has any one in Puglia come across solar water features ........[/QUOTE]
Sounds gross... oh hang on that's not what you meant.

FWIW, the ones sold commercially are generally rubbish, really, really pants. THe solar panels provided are far too small and the pumps are poor quality. You can do it yourself much better by buying a 40W solar panel (£150 ish) and a decent 12 volt water pump (£40 ish).

The pump needs to be continuously rated, otherwise it will burn out, other than that there's nothing much to worry about.

thanks ...sound a great idea...how big is the panel tho'...not bigger than fountain/pond/whatever i hope ?! :confused:

Loved the joke BTW !!! :)

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]thanks ...sound a great idea...how big is the panel tho'...not bigger than fountain/pond/whatever i hope ?! :confused:[/QUOTE]

A 40w panel is 0.6 x 0.6 metres, so not huge and it will supply about 2.5 amps which is enough to drive a 12V pond pump. I've used an LVM Amazon as the pond pump in the past, shop around the nertnet and you can get them for about £20 (ish). They are designed for continuous use in hot salty water so should cope with a pond perfectly well. The nice feature (groan) is that when the sun goes down the water stops running hence saving you from being kept awake at night by a burning desire to run to the lavvy.

Check out eBay for cheap panels.

thanks for all the tips ...and 'lavvie' advise.....that would be me !!!!! :D

lotaresco-I need to heat a pool and provide power for music etc 50 metres from house will solar be enough. pool will be 10x 6 metres

[QUOTE=apples]lotaresco-I need to heat a pool and provide power for music etc 50 metres from house will solar be enough. pool will be 10x 6 metres[/QUOTE]

To do what you require will be VERY expensive using solar panels, Lotaresco quoted around 150e for 40 watt panel, you would need a minimum of 2000 watts for your plans, you could maybe utilise direct solar water heating and save a little on the electricity front, but for a pool that size, however you plan to heat it, the exchangers would be enormous and pretty unsightly... give some thought to a diesel generator???