A/C Water pump project - Summer 2020 update

I built this system to capture the condensation that comes off my air conditioners. During the humid summers I am able to store up to 55 gallons of water every few days. I then pump this water out to two 55 gallon storage barrels which gives me a total of 110 gallons of water to use for my plants or as graywater.

I keep all the controls for this system in an outdoor plastic enclosure, it consists of a solar charge controller, circuit breakers for my solar panel, battery and pump. All of this wiring is done through terminal blocks. I need to redo it eventually as I will want a more advanced charge controller eventually. Though right now my single panel and small car battery pump is working fine. In just under 10 minutes I can pump all 55 gallons out of the barrel and pump it into my storage barrels.

My battery has always had enough charge to do this, even in the morning before the panel gets any sunlight. My full sized panel is probably more than enough to recharge what the 12V DC transfer pump uses in the 10 minutes every few days. I could scale this up but just do not have a need right now. I did wire in a connector for an 120v inverter if I ever needed it but so far I have just used the house power. I tested it out once and it can run my blender and a couple other small things, probably would be good for charging my devices and running a small light.

I think my battery has done so well because its trickle charged and always kept nearly fully charged. During the winter I do not use the pump as we do not use the air conditioners much. And the battery still stays charged by the panel in the winter.

Starting off I just had a single barrel for the AC unit to drip into. Then I added a reserve barrel for when its hot and humid but raining alot. As there is many times I did not need its water since the rains were frequent. Recently I added a second reserve barrel and tied them both together so I now have 110 gallons plus the 55 gallons that the water from A/C unit drops into.

I wired in a fuse into the battery so if there is too much draw from the pump like if it runs dry maybe it will stop it from burning out. I may need to do some design that has a bobber in the tank and switches off when it drops to a certain point. I have already lost two pumps by letting them run dry by accident. So one day I should build a timer or safety switch for them.

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