Should You Get A Solar Powered Pond Fountain?

If you are interested in getting a fountain but do not have electrical service ran to your pond, then a solar powered fountain seems like the easiest workaround.

No need to hire an electrician, no trenching, no electrical panels or outlets near the pond, etc.

But there is an important consideration that many people do not realize:

A comparable solar fountain often costs roughly three to four times as much as an electric fountain.

So when does solar actually make sense?

Don't Choose Solar Just to Avoid Hiring an Electrician

If your thinking is, “I don't want to pay or deal with having an electrician run power to my pond,” it's important to look at the total project cost.

Solar fountains cost much more because they often include multiple large panels, and will frequently need additional mounting equipment, controllers, batteries or other energy-storage equipment.

For example, you might spend a couple thousand dollars running electrical service to your pond and then purchase a relatively affordable electric fountain. Choosing solar would eliminate the electrical installation, but the much higher price tag of a solar fountain will often easily exceed the cost of both running power and purchasing an electric fountain.

So Why Choose Solar?

Solar has some very real advantages. The point isn't that solar is a bad choice, it's that saving money on installation is almost never the reason people choose to use it.

Solar can be an excellent solution when:

• Your pond is very far from existing electrical service.

• Running power to the pond would be extremely difficult or disruptive.

• The pond is in a remote location and it's not possible to run power.

• You want the fountain to operate independently of the electrical grid.

• You want to eliminate the ongoing electricity cost.

• The convenience and independence of solar justify the higher upfront investment.

For these applications, solar solves a problem that an electric fountain cannot.

The Long-Term Savings of Solar

There is an important financial benefit to solar: you aren't continuously paying for electricity to operate the fountain.

An electric fountain has an ongoing operating cost every time it runs. A solar system can eliminate much or all of that electricity expense.

Over many years, those savings can add up.

However, it's important to distinguish between saving money upfront and saving money over the long term.

If you're considering solar because you want to save money upfront, the cost of the equipment is almost always going to make that unfeasible. 

If you're willing to make a larger initial investment in exchange for eliminating the ongoing electricity expense, solar makes considerably more sense.