Pretty ingenious cold weather waterer

[sstterry]

 

[Mark Reynolds]

That is slick. Gives new meaning (to me) for frost free waterer.

 

[Brute 23]

Very neat

 

[TCRanch]

I'm assuming it would work with well water? Since he has rural. Pretty slick.

 

[Allenw]

I believe one of our Canadian members built one for himself last winter.

 

[Silver]

I have had one for several years. Solar and wind powered, the 'well' is gravity fed from a dugout. This year I added a small insulated shack to store the batteries in and I heat it with a small Cata-Dyne heater. Makes a huge difference in battery capacity with weather like we are having now.

 

[sstterry]

I have had one for several years. Solar and wind powered, the 'well' is gravity fed from a dugout. This year I added a small insulated shack to store the batteries in and I heat it with a small Cata-Dyne heater. Makes a huge difference in battery capacity with weather like we are having now.

I was wondering when I saw it if you had made one.

 

[Silver]

I was wondering when I saw it if you had made one.

They are a good deal. -45 (-49F) this morning and cows were drinking happily.

 

[gcreekrch]

I have had one for several years. Solar and wind powered, the 'well' is gravity fed from a dugout. This year I added a small insulated shack to store the batteries in and I heat it with a small Cata-Dyne heater. Makes a huge difference in battery capacity with weather like we are having now.

How much storage and how much charging capacity? You can pm me for what maximum number of cows you've had on one waterer if you like. I have the pumps now, need to gather up the rest. I take it the heater is powered by the batteries also?

 

[wbvs58]

You would have to be well prepared. I couldn't imagine trying to sort something out in weather like you are having now.

Ken

 

[Silver]

How much storage and how much charging capacity? You can pm me for what maximum number of cows you've had on one waterer if you like. I have the pumps now, need to gather up the rest. I take it the heater is powered by the batteries also?

I run 8 100 a/hr 12v batteries, about 1200w of solar panel plus a wind generator of dubious worth. The bilge pump in the well draws about 8 amps. (200w)
The original system was from Sundog Solar down by Sundre, it came with 500w of solar panels and set up for 4 batteries It was supposed to be able to handle 250 head. I don't think it would reliably during the short winter days. I've always had more cows on it and hate packing generators around so feel like more capacity is better. Even then a couple of days without sun and wind will have me recharging the batteries with the generator.
This winter I put the batteries in the shack and re-wired everything with better battery cables etc and put the heater in. It is a small Cata-Dyne heater which is a catalytic heater running on propane. I have it turned down low (yesterday morning it was plus 2 in the shack, so over 40 degrees warmer than outside) and the 30lb bottle has been running it for 15 days as of today. I'm interested to see how long it lasts.
I like the idea of putting the motion sensor in a tube like in Ssterry's video to ensure it doesn't pump water until their head is over the trough. I have my sensor range down to about 10' and sometimes I think the cows just like to stand there and listen to it run.

Work in progress pic. Heater is on wall on right.

 

[Mrcopier]

Crazy

 

[devonian]

I run 8 100 a/hr 12v batteries, about 1200w of solar panel plus a wind generator of dubious worth. The bilge pump in the well draws about 8 amps. (200w)
The original system was from Sundog Solar down by Sundre, it came with 500w of solar panels and set up for 4 batteries It was supposed to be able to handle 250 head. I don't think it would reliably during the short winter days. I've always had more cows on it and hate packing generators around so feel like more capacity is better. Even then a couple of days without sun and wind will have me recharging the batteries with the generator.
This winter I put the batteries in the shack and re-wired everything with better battery cables etc and put the heater in. It is a small Cata-Dyne heater which is a catalytic heater running on propane. I have it turned down low (yesterday morning it was plus 2 in the shack, so over 40 degrees warmer than outside) and the 30lb bottle has been running it for 15 days as of today. I'm interested to see how long it lasts.
I like the idea of putting the motion sensor in a tube like in Ssterry's video to ensure it doesn't pump water until their head is over the trough. I have my sensor range down to about 10' and sometimes I think the cows just like to stand there and listen to it run.

Work in progress pic. Heater is on wall on right.
View attachment 39519

What sort of batteries are you using? Agm and lithium ion will outperform standard lead acid.

 

[Silver]

What sort of batteries are you using? Agm and lithium ion will outperform standard lead acid.

I am using flooded lead acid batteries now. I had AGM but they reached end of life and my old oilfield connections dried up so I went with the 'cheap' version. Flooded batteries are fine, especially in climate controlled situation but you have to pay more attention to them.

 

[Chuckie]

Talk about cattle water envy!!!!! I want one of those or two. WOW!! So cool. Now to go post what I came to ask......

 

[Farm Family]

We run a system just like these two. I like the idea of the culvert protecting the motion sensor.

 

[uplandnut]

When I saw that video on youtube, I thought Silver had done something similar. Very neat idea for extreme cold areas. Pretty sure all of you using solar would be impressed with his portable solar panel setup on an old truck as well.