SMALL PUMPS, WHERE TO FIND THEM

It can be difficult to find small pumps for home projects such as fountains or small water falls. Usually, if you do an internet search you will wind up on aquarium supply sites. These are not usually adequate for the job, often under-powered and no flow and head information.

There is one area that uses small pumps extensively, the residential thermal hot water panel supply sector. The pumps are used to move a glycol solution to the solar thermal panels and often through a radiant floor heating systems (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Solar hot water thermal system.

In the close loop system shown in figure 1, glycol has to be pumped up to the collector which could be 30-40 ft up. But since the energy is recovered on the down side there is no static head and the pump is only required to overcome friction head. This results in a very small pump with low power requirements. The pumps are directly mounted to the motor in a nice compact package with DC or AC motors. The DC motors can be powered by a PV solar panel for applications that are remotely located. If you are worried about corrosion many of these pumps are available in different materials such as stainless steel, bronze or iron.

Pumps	Volts	Watts	Shut off head (ft)	gpm at head
Taco 009F	120	168	34	5 at 20 ft
Grundfos 26-96F	120	205	30	15 at 14 ft
Taco 011F	120	211	30	15 at 18 ft
Grundfos 15-42F	120	85	16	10 at 9 ft
Taco 008F	120	95	16	10 at 8 ft
Taco 006B	120	62	8	5 at 5 ft
Grundfos 15-18SU	120	85	7	5 at 5 ft
March 809-BR-HS 12VDC	12	50	15	4 at 8 ft
March 809-BR 12VDC	12	20	7	3 at 3 ft
El-Sid 20PV direct	12	20	4	3 at 42 in.
El-Sid 10PV direct	12	10	3.3	2 at 35 in.

Table 1. List of small pumps for home projects.

Small pump web sites:
www.bellgossett.com

Bell & Gossett small pump brochure,
also this is an intersting manual on the parts required to making a hydronic (heated floor) system work.

Armstrong pumps

Grundfos pumps

Taco pumps