Automatic Solar Submersible Pump Control for

Irrigation
Tarun Agarwal

In recent days, agriculture field farmers are facing many problems in watering their plants to
keep their crops green in summer season. Its because they dont have correct idea about the
availability of the power. Even if the power is available, they have to wait until the pitch is
properly watered. Thus this process restricts them to stop doing other deeds. But, there is a
solution, i.e., automatic solar submersible pump control panel for irrigation. In the trial of solar
based plant irrigation using submersible pumps, PV cells are used to generate electricity, which
is stored in rechargeable batteries. These batteries produce power for the system operation. A
submersible pump controller is used to pump a water from a boor well to a storage water tank.
Then, the water is drawn by a submersible pump at the slopes toe, where the installed sprinklers
water the crops or plants.

Solar Submersible Pump Control for Irrigation

Automatic Solar Submersible Pump Control for Irrigation

These systems work in the sunlight. When sun shines the water pumping process is a sensible
way of solar electric power utilization throughout the summer, as the water necessity is the
highest. These pumps provide a reliable water source for plantation. For any solar based
pumping system, the capacity to drive water is a function of three variable such as power, flow
and pressure. The following main components are used in this automatic solar submersible pump
control panel for irrigation

Block Diagram of Automatic Solar Submersible Pump Control for Irrigation

Solar Panel

These panels are designed with solar cells composed of semiconductor materials. The main
function of Solar panels is to convert solar energy into DC electrical energy generally of 12V,
which is further used for the rest of the circuit. The number of cells required and their size
depends on the rating of the load. The collection of solar cells can produce maximum
electricity.But, the solar panel must place exactly at right angles to the sun rays.
The Source

Water sources are available in the form of springs, drilled wells, rivers, ponds, etc.
The Submersible Pump

This solar system contains a submersible pump, a water tank, an irrigation pump, associated
water pumps. In the site trial, the submersible pump is kept in a stainless steel case, which is
placed in a well pit at the junction of the open channel and the natural stream course. The pump
controller pumps water to the water tank at a particular time period as set in the control unit.
This system is designed with 450W of power, which is capable of pumping 2000 liters of water
within 60 minutes. This power capacity takes into account the height difference between the
water tank and the solar submersible pump.
The PV Panels

The photo voltaic cells depend on the size of the pump. A panel is esteemed in watts of power it
can produce. This solar submersible pumping system should be operated with a PV array of
capacity in the range of 200 to 500 watts peak, and measured under some standard test
conditions. A plenty of modules in series & parallel could be used to get the necessary PV power
array power o/p. The o/p power of the PV modules which are used in the PV array under
standard test conditions should be a min of 74 watts peak.
Charge Controller

A solar charge controller is very important device in any solar-power system. It is used to
maintain proper charging voltages of the batteries. The charge controller controls current and
voltage from the solar panel and charges the battery, and also stops the charging of the battery
from over and undercharging conditions.

Battery

The Battery is an electric device, that is used to store current which is produced from the solar
panel and supplied to the corresponding loads. The number of batteries required depend on the
load requirement.
Inverter

The main function of the inverter is that it converts the batterys voltage to AC voltage in order
to activate then loads. Therefore, it helps us to run many electronic devices, home appliances and
computers. There are numeroustypes of inverters available in the market today.The
characteristics of typical inverters include high switching frequency, high conversion frequency
and less harmonic content, and so on.

Automatic Solar Submersible Pump Control for Irrigation

An example project for the above automatic water pump controller plant irrigation system with is
Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System. The description of this project is described below.
Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System

The main goal of this project is to develop an irrigation system in the field of agriculture by
using Solar Energy and it has many advantages
The required components are 8051 series Microcontroller, 12V DC mini submersible pump, OpAmp, LCD, Solar Panel, MOSFET, Relay, Motor, Voltage Regulator, Diodes, Capacitors,
Resistors, LED, Crystal and Transistors

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System Block diagram by Edgefxkits.com

The power supply comprises of a step-down transformer, bridge rectifier, voltage
regulator. Wherein the step-down transformer steps down the voltage to 12 volts AC, and a
bridge rectifier converts AC to DC, then a voltage regulator regulates the voltage to 5V which is
used for the microcontroller operation.
In this Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System project, we use solar energy to activate the
irrigation pump. The above block diagram is comprised of sensor parts, which are assembled
using op-amp IC(operational amplifier IC). Op-amps are designed here as a comparator. Two
copper wires are injected into the soil to sense the condition of the soil, whether it is wet or dry.
A microcontroller in this project is used to control the whole system by observing the sensors.
When the sensors sense the soil condition as dry, then the comparator sends the command to the
microcontroller, and also it sends instruction to the relay-driver IC then, it reminds the motor to
pump water to the crops. Here comparator acts as an interface between the sensing arrangement
and the microcontroller The status of the soil and the water pump is displayed on the LCD
which is interfaced to the microcontroller. In the same way,when the sensor senses the soil
condition as wet, then the microcontroller sends instruction to the relay to switch off the motor.

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System Project Kit by Edgefxkits.com

Furthermore, this project can be enhanced by interfacing it with a GSM modem to gain control
over the motor switching operation.
This is all about solar powered irrigation system using a submersible pump, this pump gives a
reliable water source for crops when water necessities are highest.We believe that you have got a
better idea about this article.Furthermore any queries regarding this concept or electronics
projects, you can approach us by commenting in the comment section below.