PumpM8 BDM field tool · diesel pump to solar + battery

Solar Selection Tool

Work through the questions with the farmer. You get an early indication of solar, battery and PumpM8 class to guide the conversation and brief the technical team, who confirm the final size. The figures loaded now are an example.

The job

"What runs the pump now?"

The site

"Which months do you pump?"

Size the system for

The water they need

"What is the water for, and how much do you need on the biggest day?"

Where it comes from and goes to

"Where is the water coming from?"

"How far does it have to go, how much uphill, and what is at the end?"

The pump

"What do you know about the pump: the motor size, how much diesel it burns, or just the size of the generator?"

"How does the pump start?"

"Is it single-phase or three-phase?"

Where did the pump figure come from?

How it runs

"On a pumping day, how many hours does it run, and how much of that is at night or before sun-up?"

"Where does the water go: straight onto the crop, or into a tank or dam first?"

"What happens if the pump stops for a day?"

What diesel costs them

"What are you paying for diesel delivered, and who looks after the generator?"

Pricing and design assumptions

Fixed in the maths: system losses 22%, battery usable depth 90%, cloud buffer of 0.5 to 1.5 hours of pump load depending on how cloudy the sizing month is, array at least 1.3× pump load, genset output 3 kWh per litre when estimating.