Not sure I understand your question. My assumptions: You use well water now with a pump that pushes water through a soaker hose system in your garden. You would like to replace the soaker hoses with drip-line. You would like to automate something using solar power. My questions: Do you want to use solar power to run a timer? If so, why? Batteries or 110v would be cheaper. You surely are not talking about solar to run a pump? I would guess you would have to cover the back 40 acres with solar collectors to be able to pump water. My off-the-cuff response without benefit of knowing exactly what you want: The system you have now pushes water through a soaker hose. That system should also be able to supply water to drip-lines. If you want more than one zone, I would think you would need a control for each zone, consisting of a filter and pressure regulator. To really "automate", you just need a timer to switch the zones on and off. If I am answering questions you did not ask, you might clarify your questions for me. Tom

Yes, I was excited to see new leaf growth. Thought it would mellow out and not do anything for the rest of the season. I noticed the difference in the leaf "reds" between our plants too, Karen. On mine, the small newer leaves seem to be forming with more red than the older leaves have. Here is a pic taken today with afternoon shade. For the pic I moved some of the "older" leaves back to expose a few newer ones: All the Heuchera in my garden are new for me this year. I'm trying them again after not having much luck a few years ago. So glad I found gardenweb and happy to become a member. Now I can read posts and ask friendly folks questions. It will help me (I hope) to have success this time with heuchera. I have been enjoying the pics for inspiration. I guess time will tell if Solar Power changes because of sun, soil, maturity or all of the above. :-) Deb

Winter storage is something that I hadn't thought of jemdandy, but it makes sense. Especially since our camp is snowed in, in the winter. We usually snowshoe in once or twice, to remove the snow from the top of a couple of campers and check to see that everything is ok, but other than that it's shut down from November to April (roughly). So, if we did have a unit like this, storing it in our basement over the winter would probably be a good idea. Economical, no I don't think it's going to be economical. We'd be ok with 'not ridiculously expensive' for what we get out of it. And 'what we get out of it' would be as much convenience and enjoyment as it would battery power. The chance to have a little 'silent' power out in the woods would be really nice. It's interesting that you, Jemdandy and OJ, brought up the gas powered refrigerators. They do still make them. They are pretty expensive (about the same as the solar generator we are looking at). They are something we have actually considered. The down side (besides expense) is that they are a one trick pony! You get refrigeration, nothing else. You can't use one to run a pump (on the well) occasionally, or to recharge a phone battery, or to make toast! That's why we pretty much ruled that option out. OJ, that tiny sink in the camper actually never gets used for actually washing anything. We don't even have water hooked up to it. Actually, I usually just set my dirty dishes and spoons in it while I am cooking at the stove. When it's time to wash dishes, I gather everything up, and move it to a table outside (in nice weather) where I wash my dishes using a couple of plastic dishpans (one for wash water and one for rinse, which has been heated in a big soup pan over the propane burner) and spread the clean dishes out on a towel to dry in the sun! In rainy weather, I will make do with doing the same thing on the kitchen counter. That little sink is just too small to fit much of anything in anyway! Kathi_mdgd, I'd love to be able to have a home run fully on solar like that! Dances, the trickle charger sounds pretty much like what we're looking at. I will actually post a link here to the website for the item we're interested in. It's locally made, right here in the Michigan U.P. by a couple of former students from our local (and pretty well known) Michigan Technological University. A lot of good engineers come out of that school and it's good to see some of them using their talents so close to home! Here's also a link to an independent review of the product: http://www.suburbsolar.com/independent-review-of-the-easysun-1500-solar-generator/ There is some other really good information from the manufacturer at the bottom of that review, in response to some questions from the reviewer. Jemdandy, I'd be interested in your feedback after reading all of that. Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Sun Solar Generator

Mine are on a very large Japanese maple and they do seem to get enough light for a few hours of illumination in the evening, but if we are entertaining at night I put them in full sun for the day and place them under the tree in the evening for longer light.