The Verdict is in!  It works!   Our Solar Pumping System design we were installing and putting together in this blog, is now working and here is a video to show you what our upper 1000 Gallon Cistern looks like after about 3 overcast days since the Solar Panels and 12v Pump were directly connected at the lower cistern.  We hooked this up on a Friday afternoon about 3 1/2 days ago.  The sky today is overcast, and only yesterday evening the sun came out for the sunset and stayed partly cloudy.   Take a look at our video below.    Success!    For a detailed blog on how we came to this solution you can read about it here.

Here is a picture of the panels at the lower cistern area:

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Here is a look at the lower cistern, where the pump is being connected to the solar panels for the first time:

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Here is a picture of the pump, and piping that siphons out the water from the cistern, and then pushes it up the hill to the upper cistern 400 feet away up a hill at a slope of about 15º, and a head height of about 30′ vertical increase (based on Google Earth Pro).

500 Gallon Cistern with Piping Showing

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Here is a view of the trench (prior to laying the pex) and showing it was ~ two feet deep.

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Here is a view of the hole that was dug for the 1000 gallon cistern.

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Here is a picture of the cistern installed with the trench coming up to it:

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Kelly & John.