Tubewell Irrigation Cost Calculator
Work out what your tubewell really costs to run. Pick diesel, electric or solar, enter your pump size and daily schedule, and get the cost per hour, per day and per month — plus the cost per acre inch of water and a side by side comparison of all three power types. Everything runs in your browser.
Your tubewell
Typical diesel tubewell engines are 12 to 25 HP.
1 HP is about 0.746 kW, so 15 HP is about 11 kW.
1 cusec gives about 0.99 acre inch of water per hour.
Diesel rates Estimates
Typical diesel engines burn 0.14 to 0.18 litres per HP per hour.
Electricity rate Estimate
Use your actual tariff, including taxes and surcharges.
Solar system cost Estimates
Panels, inverter, structure and installation.
Enter your details above and the result will appear here.
How to use
- Select your power type: diesel engine, electric motor or solar.
- Enter the pump size, hours per day, days per month and water discharge.
- Adjust the rates — diesel price, fuel use, electricity unit rate or solar system cost.
- See your cost per hour, per day, per month and per acre inch, plus a comparison of all three power types for the same schedule.
Good to know
Running cost depends on real load, engine condition, pump efficiency and water level, so treat these figures as estimates. Diesel engines burn more fuel under heavy load, solar output drops on cloudy days and in winter, and electricity tariffs change often. The solar comparison spreads the one time system cost over its expected life and adds no maintenance.
Frequently asked questions
For a diesel engine, multiply fuel use per hour by the diesel price. For an electric motor, multiply the motor kW by the electricity unit rate. For solar, divide the system cost by its life in hours of running.
One cusec of discharge gives about 0.9917 acre inches of water per hour. Divide your cost per hour by the acre inches per hour for your discharge to get the cost of one acre inch.
It depends on your running hours. Solar usually has the lowest running cost but a high one time cost. Electric is often cheaper than diesel when unit rates are low. The comparison table shows all three for your schedule.
Yes. Diesel price, fuel use per hour, electricity unit rate, solar system cost and discharge are all editable, so the result matches your actual setup.