Newbie 12V Question

Submitted: Monday, Sep 11, 2017 at 20:52
ThreadID: 135583 Views:3922 Replies:3 FollowUps:4
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Hi! I'm sure this has been answered more or less in other threads, but I couldn't find exactly the answer. I apologise for that in advance.

I'm looking for a really basic solar setup to power a 12V pump to run the sink tap on the tailgate kitchen of my camper trailer. The tank is mounted under the trailer, and is currently tee'd to two hand-pump taps (one mounted on the outside of the trailer, and the other at the kitchen sink). I am replacing the kitchen sink one because it has never worked (plumbing had an air leak), and thought an electric pump would be a nicer option.

I don't really have any idea how practical this is, but googling suggests it can be done.

In my naivety, I thought about fitting one of those 12V / 4LPM diaphram pumps in the cavity beneath the sink (the pump would therefore be higher than the tank), to a tap of some sort, connecting the pump to a battery of some type, and connecting a basic 5W solar panel to the battery.

Can it be done that simply, or does it require switches, fuses, multiple-batteries, chargers etc? If a self-priming pump has 1.2m of prime, will it draw the water from the tank up to it? Does the length of the run from tank to pump have any impact?

As I mentioned, I'm trying for as basic a solution as possible.

Any advice / experience / or even specific products that would do the job would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Miko
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