12 Volt DC air compressor and solar panel for my pond

Congratulations for asking before buying anything.

Assuming a 12V 100 ah battery. It has 50 useable amps - you reserve the other 50 amps to not run it flat, like running a flat tyre will damage it.

Air pump 8 amps per hour, 12 hours consumes 96 amp hours, 24 hours consumes 192 ah. You would need 400 ah of batteries, which can be done with 4, 6v-200ah golf cart batteries wired series parallel.

Now to recharge the battery, in 24 hours, you use roughly 200ah @ 12.5V = 2,500 watt hours Because of losses and such, you need to have a "nameplate" system that can harvest 2x that much in a 4 hour solar day. That comes out to 1250watts of PV and about 100 amps of charge current which will boil your batteries faster than a tea kettle !

So the simple design does not work well.

Can you run a power cord out to it ? Or compressor at house and air line to pond ?

Are you saying this 12V DC compressor is too powerful to be used with any battery and solar panel?

That's what it looks like.
The original spec
DC 12 Volt 80 Watt DC Air Compressor Between 5 and 8 Amps.
8 amps @ 12V is 96w 5A is 60 watts. Any time a spec is given in a range, it is prudent to use the most severe value.

These tires are good for 40 - 90 miles per hour Sometimes they blow out at 43 mph. How fun would that be ?

So, to make a quick guess at the feasibility for this pump in your situation, it looks like it will be a tough sell, 4 batteries, 8 panels, PV panel rack mounting gear, charge controller, wires and connectors and fuse box. 900 feet of extension cord looks pretty cheap.

If you tweak the system for 8 hours running a day, 4 of those, the sun is useable, and that improves things a lot.

I cant! And honestly, I didnt think a 12V compressor would be such an energy-guzzler!

Ok let's say I want the compressor to run 12 hours or 8 hours a day instead of 24, is it more doable? What would I be looking for in terms of battery and solar panels then?

These 2 solutions are made for ponds that are 10 times bigger than my pond, but they run with solar panels
Without batteries : https://canadianpond.ca/product/sola...-aermaster-dd/
With batteries : https://canadianpond.ca/product/sola...ation-systems/

I'm too poor to buy any of these 2 (first one is 4000$ (and the seller told me he wasnt sure it would work during winter), the second one is 18,000$), but since my pond requires 10 times less air, I thought I could find something smaller that would require less energy. That 12V DC compressor is the only thing I found.
But I am open to any modification that would allow me to run air into my pond!

One thing that you need to recognize is that a compressor is generally rated to produce somewhere up to 100psi for tire inflation. More for air tools or other specialty uses.
But the bubbler for a pond generally will work with only a few pse, but a higher volume of air.

The compressor designed for high pressure output will waste more energy producing higher pressure air which you do not need. At low psi it will draw less current, but will still not be the most efficient possible.

A simple centrifugal blower that produces only, say, 10 inches of water column pressure, on the other hand, will not work with bubbler jets located under three feet of water.

You need to know what the actual requirements in terms of pressure and flow the bubbler needs and then look for a pump which matches that need.

The first pump that you list states that it is an aeration pump/compressor, with near full output at 8psi, which sounds good. You need to look for similar specs (although maybe smaller?) for comparison.

The one she linked to shows a nice graph for amps vs. PSI.

So assuming pumping the air down ~4' (somewhat shallow, but I don't know the size of this pond)
4' should be ~2PSI.
~2PSI is 6 Amps on the graph.


If limiting it to run just when the sun is shining, then probably can get away with a much smaller amount of battery (maybe none)

Searching for "DC pond aeration compressor" brought up a number of links that are probably useful.

FWIW, I think in this case, wind is probably better option, assuming there is some wind.
It'll run when it's nighttime, and it's transfering the energy from the spinning blades to moving a bellows (or whatever) to pump air - not changing light to electricity to mechanical power.
(And running a long extension cord or air tube is probably even better if it were possible)

We were in the same situation as you, and got a 20' windmill from


It doesn't run without wind, but lots less fuss than other options we looked at.
Our pics:


They also carry solar air pumps too.

A matched component system with no batteries will be far less maintenance and obviously less
cost, if you can live with air only with the sun. The one shown looks OK, except perhaps a bit
over priced. Remember, it will only run a few hours of the day, and not every day, maybe its
not so oversized on average. Perhaps there is a smaller version out there; wind would depend
on a stiff breeze at least some of the time. Bruce Roe

Most diffusers I'm looking at have a pretty decent working range, so even though it is important to make sure it will work with the chosen compressor, it's not necessarily the most important criteria.
These 3 for instance...



The size of the pond was in my first post : "Our pond is about 100 X 32 feet, 4 1/2 feet deep. It is located in Orford, Quebec, Canada, where we do have plenty of sun, but super cold winters!"
All the results I get with this research are pointing at small compressors made for small aquariums, or the one i found!
Wind was my first idea! But unfortunately it is prohibited in the town we live in. Solar is the only solution since our house (which is not built yet) is gonna be far from this pond.

Guys all I'm trying to do here, is buy/build the necessary components to get a replica of one of the links I shared :
Without batteries : https://canadianpond.ca/product/sola...-aermaster-dd/
With batteries : https://canadianpond.ca/product/sola...ation-systems/
or even better... this one that works with a 80Watt solar panel and a simple battery :
http://shop.solardirect.com/product_...roducts_id=734

If these companies managed to build an efficient system working with only solar panels, then why cant I do it myself?

Their systems most likely use a carefully matched compressor and solar panel set, with a linear current
booster to get things started. There are a lot of lessor nut & bolt items to build a system that survives
outdoors. Getting everything engineered to work properly together over a wide range of conditions isn't
trivial, do it wrong and you are out a lot of $.

The panels they use appear to me, NOT TO BE the common, most economical ($.75/watt USD) types
often used in grid tie systems. In getting the proper voltage & current combination for the motor, they
may have selected panels with several times the cost per watt. If you can engineer a system for the
cheapest panels, you stand some chance of beating their prices.

I have been known to obtain the service manual for equipment I'm interested in, and think about
what key components I could use for DIY.

Are you planning to remove snow from the panels in the winter? good luck, Bruce Roe