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Anonymous
I'm interested in hearing how other people keep stock tanks open. I'm too cheap to just run electric heaters. Thanks.
I have been running (for two years now) just a 12v pump with a 30w solar panel and maybe 100ah 12v battery. The pump is strong enough to keep 15-40 gallons of water moving at the surface so that there is a way for the livestock to get their noses in and get water. (think water fountain). It has gotten down to very low negatives and worst case when it was very low negatives it froze over with a thin layer of ice in a dome shape which was super easy to break into. I have goats so have to be careful they don't chew through the wires though. I am now working on a bigger battery bank and a secondary livestock tank with an additional DC water heater to go along with the pump to see how that works. I have a low wattage DC water heater element. If it works well, will combine with a wind turbine and hook the turbine up to a secondary DC water heater as a dump circuit when the battery is full. On VERY windy and cold days, that should keep the water very warm and ice free.I'm interested in hearing how other people keep stock tanks open. I'm too cheap to just run electric heaters. Thanks.
LOL... That doesn't mean people can't have better ideas to share. And tis the season.I bet sometime since this thread was made 20 years ago, they figured something out.
Travlr - please send pictures of your setup if you would. Sounds like a great simple solution. ThanksLOL... That doesn't mean people can't have better ideas to share. And tis the season.
In Arkansas we would occasionally have below zero weather. I set up a tank close to a block building and using scrap wood, left over insulation, and some old fiberglass roofing, I built a little greenhouse around most of the tank and enclosed the cement block wall behind it. I painted the wall inside the greenhouse black and only had about a foot of the tank exposed for the cows to drink. It worked well enough that I never had to break ice. And no electricity required so no maintenance.
That was along time ago and a lifetime in the past. If I have pics they are from film and printed on paper... and in the many boxes I have stuffed with old photographs.Travlr - please send pictures of your setup if you would. Sounds like a great simple solution. Thanks