Alrighty, here's another wierd repurposing I will want to do once I'm at my house again. From what I know of motors like these and the bit of googling I did already, it probably won't work, but....
I have some Aqueon Submersible Pump units, 2x the 2500 model and 1x 3000 model (really cheap on clearance at work). Not the greatest units in the world, but they work ok for moving water.
Two of them, probably the 2500 units, are likely to go into my large double-octagon aquarium tank that used to be the plant tank at work till the remodel was going to have it tossed out; long story short I ended up with the tank and sump tanks but not any of the pumps/etc. So they'll probably go into the sump tanks in it's cabinet-stand to pump water up into the tank itself. May only need one, then other cna be a spare. The aquarium itself will be outside, under the mulberry tree near the back door, to give it some shade when it's summer. Have to put a "roof" over it to keep leaves and mulberries out of it for parts of the year, though. But that's another project/thread, someday, when I get that far.
But...they're only 54W, (0.9A at 120VAC 60hz), per the nameplate, so I was thinking I might be able to power them from battery (or solar) at some point, as a backup if power fails, or just to reduce or eliminate draw from the grid.
Given they're most likely a simple induction motor (with removable rotor that is the pump impeller), does anyone think there's a chance of using htem with a brushed motor controller, if I can run one on sufficiently high voltage, if I set up the PWM switching frequency to 60hz, and duty cycle to 50%?
Or is it likely that any starting cap/etc they have in there is going to keep that from working?
I could always have an inverter on the battery or solar source to run the motor, but leaving out such a stage would be enough more efficient that I'd rather do that if I can.
I'm going to use the 3000 unit to move greywater (bath and sink wastewater) out to the yard to water things with, because it is supposed to be powerful enough to move the water up and over the ~5' high windowsill in the bathroom out to the yard.
(since the house was being completely replumbed anyway I wanted to have greywater drainage to the yard installed then, but apparently that's not allowed in the city plumbing code, which given that this is a desert is pretty stupid. All that greywater then just goes down the drain and is processed for sewage treatment, then dumped into the canals to flow out away from the city, and instead requires us to use freshwater we could be drinking to water our yards or wash our cars, etc).
Anyway, if it was possible to run it off something other than the grid's AC power, I'd like to do that. If it's not, no big deal. I will eventually run across DC-powered pumps for cheap, if I keep an eye out.
For powering them, I am already considering the crappy Harbor Freight solar panel kit, cuz I have a coupon for it for about half regular price, which brings it down to $140+tax (about $155). It's "45w", 3 panels, with charge controller for 12V lead-acid. Item number 68751 or 90599
http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-panel-kit-45-watt-68751.html
I think each panel is close to 1'x3', IIRC. Coupon is good for 3 kits, not sure if I should get more than one; dunno if even one is worth it. I figure if I'm charging up old SLA then using them to run the pumps intermittently it'd work fine, but only one kit wouldn't be enough even at best output to run a pump all the time for the aquarium.
(I'm pretty sure I'll never have time to build my own panels from cells, not any time soon, but dunno if there are better deals).
I have some Aqueon Submersible Pump units, 2x the 2500 model and 1x 3000 model (really cheap on clearance at work). Not the greatest units in the world, but they work ok for moving water.
Two of them, probably the 2500 units, are likely to go into my large double-octagon aquarium tank that used to be the plant tank at work till the remodel was going to have it tossed out; long story short I ended up with the tank and sump tanks but not any of the pumps/etc. So they'll probably go into the sump tanks in it's cabinet-stand to pump water up into the tank itself. May only need one, then other cna be a spare. The aquarium itself will be outside, under the mulberry tree near the back door, to give it some shade when it's summer. Have to put a "roof" over it to keep leaves and mulberries out of it for parts of the year, though. But that's another project/thread, someday, when I get that far.
But...they're only 54W, (0.9A at 120VAC 60hz), per the nameplate, so I was thinking I might be able to power them from battery (or solar) at some point, as a backup if power fails, or just to reduce or eliminate draw from the grid.
Given they're most likely a simple induction motor (with removable rotor that is the pump impeller), does anyone think there's a chance of using htem with a brushed motor controller, if I can run one on sufficiently high voltage, if I set up the PWM switching frequency to 60hz, and duty cycle to 50%?
Or is it likely that any starting cap/etc they have in there is going to keep that from working?
I could always have an inverter on the battery or solar source to run the motor, but leaving out such a stage would be enough more efficient that I'd rather do that if I can.
I'm going to use the 3000 unit to move greywater (bath and sink wastewater) out to the yard to water things with, because it is supposed to be powerful enough to move the water up and over the ~5' high windowsill in the bathroom out to the yard.
(since the house was being completely replumbed anyway I wanted to have greywater drainage to the yard installed then, but apparently that's not allowed in the city plumbing code, which given that this is a desert is pretty stupid. All that greywater then just goes down the drain and is processed for sewage treatment, then dumped into the canals to flow out away from the city, and instead requires us to use freshwater we could be drinking to water our yards or wash our cars, etc).
Anyway, if it was possible to run it off something other than the grid's AC power, I'd like to do that. If it's not, no big deal. I will eventually run across DC-powered pumps for cheap, if I keep an eye out.
For powering them, I am already considering the crappy Harbor Freight solar panel kit, cuz I have a coupon for it for about half regular price, which brings it down to $140+tax (about $155). It's "45w", 3 panels, with charge controller for 12V lead-acid. Item number 68751 or 90599
http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-panel-kit-45-watt-68751.html
I think each panel is close to 1'x3', IIRC. Coupon is good for 3 kits, not sure if I should get more than one; dunno if even one is worth it. I figure if I'm charging up old SLA then using them to run the pumps intermittently it'd work fine, but only one kit wouldn't be enough even at best output to run a pump all the time for the aquarium.
(I'm pretty sure I'll never have time to build my own panels from cells, not any time soon, but dunno if there are better deals).
