Apologies if this doesn't fit the community
I've been helping my neighbor replace his lawn with a garden - last summer our project was building a terraced raised bed thing with secondhand soil and secondhand cinder blocks, and some new pavers in the front. I'd very much like to set up a water feature on that raised bed. He spends most days sitting on his porch, reading scifi novels and talking to folks walking by, so he could hear it while he's out there. I know it's kind of a silly luxury so I'm trying to use used components and I'd really like to set it up using a solar panel to power the pump.
I can handle the wiring and electronics with some guidance, but I know very little about pumps and solar panels for finding something that'll fit our use case. I think ideally it'd be a secondhand panel a few feet in size and a pump that can handle a varying amount of power based on the time of day. I'd like to move more than a trickle of water, and I'll make sure there's some shade plants so we don't lose much water to evaporation, though we don't get many droughts where we are.
This is really good info, thank you so much! I know I know very little about both the panels and the and pump so I should double check - is a centrifugal pump tolerant of low power/is there a type of motor I should be looking for that will handle the panel varying the power output with sun exposure?
Thank you again - this is great because it's very much the level of simplicity I was looking for.
Good question on the low power of motors. Most of the low cost pumps have often DC brushed motors which do not need a controller to steer but uses a brush. Once there is not enough power (in the morning and evening) I think there will be a point where the power will be too low to overcome the torque and the motor stops. The centrifugal pump can still rotate easily compared to other types so I would expect the startup current will be low as well. Panels will deliver a constant voltage while the current will drop when light conditions are dropping. I think the simplest is to search for these aQuarium pumps (24/7 performance) on 12v but I doubt many cars/trucks have built in fishtanks ^^)